Are GCSEs always this close together?

[Loiolo]

DD is in Y11, I've just been having a look over her exam timetable and it seems so intense.
Her first exam was Biology on Friday, then she has an exam everyday this week (she had 2 today) covering English Lit, Classics, French, History, Maths and Chemistry. Then next week it's the same with English lit, Classics, Physics, English Language and French. Following week Maths, Spanish, then finally a week day off on June 5th for the first time since may 10th!
Is this normal? Obviously after that she still has more to go!

I didn't do my exams in the UK so this seems so foreign to me. Is it normal to be this intense and have an exam literally everyday?
How can I help make sure she doesn't burn out in this time?

Yes, I think the timetable seems extremely full too. It’s a long time since I did my GCSEs but I think we had fewer exams per subject plus a period of study leave before they began. I really feel for teenagers, they certainly seem to have it harder than we did anyway.

Yes this is normal

Yes this is the same for my daughter. They are over a long period too, started 9th May and she will finish on the 18th June.
I'm fairly sure we had fewer exams per subject when I did GCSEs (in the 90s) but multiple exams per day in a shorter time period. I may well not remember correctly though as it was so long ago.

I'm really old so I did O Levels. I think GCSEs are closer together because there are more papers and the exams themselves are shorter.

So for most O Levels I did one paper that took 2 hours 30 mins but now there seem to be 2-4 papers for each subject.

I think that it is probably better to do more shorter papers so if you have an off day and for girls periods might be a problem.

Make sure she gets enough sleep, some down time and tell her how fabulous she is.

I did my GCSEs in 1999 so a long time ago and yes, I remember it being like that for me. Very full on.

It really depends on the subject combination too. My son had art a couple of weeks ago, then two weeks of 5 exams, then has 4 weeks of 2-3 exams which is much more relaxed.

It's very full on.

When I did gcses we often had coursework (although that's another issue and it blatantly wasn't fair) but this meant that a proportion of the subject was already done so it was less high stakes. I think this was in every subject...

Also subject like drama then didn't have an exam so we're completely "put the way" by the exams so minimised the load.

Some schools do a mix of gcses and vtecs which does at least spread the load a bit but ours doesn't.

It is genuinely a lot and a lot at once.

My degree was worse though. (for me personally. Obviously far less exams than gcses even but high stakes in a few days) It worked out due to my options (didn't know it at the time) I had 8 exams in 5 consecutive days to determine my degree. I dropped at least one classification due to this as for me this was too much after 3 years work!

Yes, except I wouldn't expect any in w/c 27 May (week after next) as it is half term?

Yes it’s normal. In fact this year they have started earlier than some years and I think finish a bit later.
DS2 (2019) started on about 15 May and finished on about 15 June. One week he had nine exams.

Since Covid they have been a bit more spread out tbh.

Empty week for half term tho @Loiolo

It also depends a bit what you take. Art for example was a lot of coursework but it is done now. Practical subjects will have some coursework element so perhaps fewer exams.

More subjects used to have a coursework element so the summer exam load was not so heavy - tho then a lot of people took more subjects.

Yes , I remember when ds3 took his in 2018 I worked out that he had 27 exams in 6weeks and one of those weeks was half term . It’s a ridiculous thing to put young people through and absolutely does not reflect their total achievements after 12 years of compulsory schooling .

My DD is also doing her GCSES right now and I think it's all crazy. I grew up in Scotland and did O Grades in the 80's and don't remember having anything like this.

DD has already had 5 exams with another today. Madness.

Yes, it's normal. 2 years ago DC had, I think, 26 exams. I think there were slightly fewer years ago, but the exams were longer (3 hours) rather than the shorter exams now.

The more GCSEs you take, the fewer the gaps in the exam timetable. Last year, only 15% took 10 or more (highest frequency is 8 or 9).

There are more, but shorter, exams per subject these days (partly to allow for extra time for selected students). I still have my O level exam timetable and can see the average exam length was 3 hours, whereas it is typically 2-2.5 hours today. I had more gaps and fewer 'two exams a day' which helped with recharging.

In terms of how to get through it: sensible bedtimes, strategic timetabling of revision (eg using weekends for reviewing content heavy stuff, shorter higher frequency practice for maths) and just trying to stay healthy throughout!

Best wishes to all DC sitting GCSEs at the moment.

Yes I also meant to suggest some strategies to deal with it:

• Keep doing some extra curriculuar, even if it's just gymnastics once a week
• Take breaks for exercise
• Ignore the exams after half term - use the week off to focus on those

Most of all, please encourage your DC to remember - this is testing their learning over the last two years (more in many cases) so last-minute cramming of facts is not what it's about. By all means do some quick revision the night before, but better by far to go in calmly than be panicking about all the things you didn't cover last night. They can do this! Best of luck to all.

Oh and don't invite her cousin over so she can sheek with your brother in the kitchen directly below her bed in the early hours.

OK that's me, still not forgiving.

Very normal.
I did mine in the late 00’s and I sometimes had 2-3 exams in a day, depending on the subjects. It wasn’t very often that I had a day where I didn’t have any exams. Think I had around 18-20 in total, over a few weeks.

DD took her GCSEs in 2016 and I remember that she sat 23 exams, and that was for 7 subjects. She had taken 2 GCSEs at the end of year 10 and one in the January of year 11.

I was surprised at how short the exams were as I pre-date GCSEs and sat O levels. O level exams were longer and we sat fewer papers for each subject. I'm pretty sure that A level papers are shorter now as well. All my A level exams were 3 hours long in 1977.

Yes, my daughter did hers last year and she had at least one exam pretty much every day. It surprised me because when I took GCSEs back in the 90s I remember having a lot of time off. It could be that my memory is wrong but actually I think they just do more exams now, with many subjects having more than one exam.

Depends on the subjects. DS had already done design tech coursework and a ten hour exam prior to other subjects starting last week. He's also already done two performances and a composition for his music, with just a listening exam to go. He's got 3-4 exams a week and then the last one on 17th June

My DD has 9 papers this week. Yesterday she had 3 and the same today. It's brutal. She has had loads of clashes and so has to sit supervised between exams. After this week it becomes a little more manageable.

Yep. Normal. GCSEs are the worst. They are worse for intensity that a-levels and uni exams imo as a) there are so many. Up to mid 20 exams and b) they are so young and the pressure is huge.
I don't think you could create a more mentally unhealthy program if you tried

You see parents of primary school aged DC and younger posting on here asking whether they should have a 4th/5th/6th child.

Why on earth do they want to put themselves through this stressfest several times?

I remember doing two French and and a maths exam on my 16th birthday in the 90s!

I can also remember a couple of friends having to stay overnight with a teacher as they had too many exams on one day... I presume they don't do that anymore!