Y 11 2023-2024 thread 3

[Techno56]

For when the other thread fills up tomorrow as we all discuss English lit 2 😁

@pplanestrainsautomobiles @wehaditsogood
My DS did Edexcel physics IGCSE today too. He thought it was good although the last question threw him a bit but he thinks he got it without using the formula. I've no idea about physics so can't comment on that. He didn't think it wasn't like many of the past papers particularly.

PE paper was ok and thinks he did better than mocks which is promising.
Spanish he doesn't care about (sadly) and he is just trying to pass if he can.
Day off tomorrow and the last two Spanish on Friday

Morning 😄

Physics was hard yesterday according to DD, however she kept it together and answered all questions so that is good. Some of her friends found it very difficult with lots of maths apparently.

Eng lang this moring and DD has just come down saying she's been awake since 4.30am with period pain 😢. Oh dear, I just reassured her she can get it over with and rest when she gets back. Even though she has French writing tomorrow she is more confident about that. DD definitely needs a week off!

Good luck to all again today (including parents, we are tired and stressed too!) xx

Good luck everyone. DS wrote out some sentence starters yesterday because I know he's at risk of just sitting there wondering how to start. He said he did revision for the first bit about metaphor etc for lit so just brushed up on that. He's good at English language but I hope he's not too complacent. I just realised physics paper 2 is his very last exam, and he has a 3 day gap after History so he has a chance of really going mad on it if all of us aren't completely fed up of it by then!

Panic71
Yes, they’ve been told to do this and to write one that can be applied to any given text. I can’t remember which number question this applies to.
She’s been working on this text for some time and I guess it’s a kind of show reel, demonstrating as many techniques as possible.

wJEC here too

If it's AQA it will be question 5 (worth 40? marks) where they get a photo or a theme and have to go creative with it.

TeenDivided
Yes, that's it.

Good luck everyone.
Shirt signing tomorrow then a welcome break.

If it was me I’d have to plan it. DD however is astounding at creative writing on the spot.

However she just came down in floods of tears and said she was too tired to do an exam, even to get dressed. I’m driving her in so that saves her some time. It’s so tough isn’t it. She’s taking Sat off and then has another day off later in the week doing something with her friends and she and I are also doing something for another day. So hopefully that will give her the energy to continue, plus she doesn’t need to get up at 6am every day!

@Countrylife2002 it's so hard to get a balance.
DS had a couple of friends round last night to watch the football. He's having a day off tomorrow. They are all going to the beach after French.
I imagine they will have at least 1 day out and probably a couple of evenings over HT.
Exams and revision can't be their whole life at 15/16.

Hoping today goes well, DD has done so well in Eng Lang mocks, is amazing at creative writing, she's had stories published and won competitions, but as it's not a subject you can "revise", it's really thrown her. Bring on the bank holiday weekend!!!

DS feels well prepared for today (Eng Lang and Psych2) and has been investing most of his time in running through Psych, as he apparently got very good marks for English in the mocks. He does creative writing in his own time and knows to avoid the pitfalls of writing about warfare or violence (examiners apparently don't like it because someone with a gun is too easy a conclusion to any narrative, plus kids tend to get tempted to just describe the fight, like a football match!). So he hasn't got any sentence starters (which I would personally be tempted to have prepared) or memorised any stories to tweak. (He is INCENSED that some fellow students have asked ChatGPT to write a generic story with lots of florid language, that they think they can memorise and then adapt. I suspect it's not a winning method anyway, as they won't remember it and it won't have come from them so they'll lose any passion or spontaneity.)

Anyway, I just hope the prompt is nice for him and he doesn't fall flat on his cocky face!

The dark art of gaming the Psychology paper is causing me more worry. Again it's a strong subject for him and he wants a 9 . He and a very clever friend are planning to simply sacrifice one 9 marker question to spend more time on the rest, as it's a notoriously time-tight paper. I've urged him to think on his feet and see what the paper looks like before doing something that risky. Certainly the bar is likely to be low in terms of grade boundaries, he said something about 63% for a 9 last year??

(I just looked it up, it WAS 63.3% for a 9!)

DD likes the security of revision so English lang is stressing her. She did really well in mocks but the lack of limitation of the content throws her and creative writing is her least favourite thing.

on the back of that she has ancient history this afternoon which is her best and favourite subject. But this is on the back of two exams yesterday and one this morning and she is fixating on having less than perfect knowledge on cleopatra. She will be fine but exhaustion tipped her over before school this morning.

will be relieved if she comes out of English lang feeling positive.

Good luck to everyone! Getting to the end of this week has been a real slog, hasn't it? They've gone up and down so much in terms of emotion, and exhaustion. And extra kudos and strength to the girls who are also coping with period pains and periods - it's really unfair, and one reason I wish there was a coursework component still.

Are there many who have an exam tomorrow? This is DS's last exam until Monday June 4th, thank god. He's planning a day of gaming with his friends and might be tempted to come into London with me on another day and meet family, but I think plans mostly to relax at home with his miniatures, when he's not revising.

@JaninaDuszejko ahh bless her. I think that friendships at school are so intense and they are together so much (not always good) that the prospect of that person just not being part of the furniture anymore is a scary one. I think mine seems to be feeling like it too. When she looks up from her phone that it.

😢 Asked DS how he was this morning got told terrified. Really hoping it goes better than expected.

Morning gang, Big One today.

All the best and sending them all vibes to WATCH THE TIME

Morning fellow anxious parents, almost half term and boy do they (and we) need it!

@GlomOfNit I swear we share a son I'm pleased your son was happy with the papers yesterday. Fingers crossed English Language and Psychology are as good today. The whole summer election is a big shock. We go on holiday on 3rd July so will have, for the first time ever, to organise a postal vote.

DS loves English Language. He has always been very strong at creative writing so hopefully this morning's paper will be a good one for him, and for all our children. He has a file full of plans and sentences, thoughts and themes to bounce off. He says he usually does the "prompt" question 5 rather than the picture but will decide based on the options.

Good luck to all students!

They must be knackered - DS fell asleep after school yesterday (he had two exams) and he is someone who has never ever slept during the day (since toddlerhood!).

Two exams today then off until after half term (where he only has 10 more exams to go, with lots of day/two day breaks between them - a dream timetable).

He's doing his part-time job on two days during half term (plus his usual Saturdays), wants to meet up with a friend one day, but other than that it will be back to gaming, and a small bit of revision each day.

I am in awe of anyone who has a conversation with their teenager in the morning. My lovely DD is not a morning person at all and an absolute nightmare if you even say hello to her, she's like a mini Hulk. And then she gets back from school and is all sweetness and light!!

Morning all! DD has been focusing hard on this afternoon’s Psych 2, on the basis that you can’t revise Eng Lang. She has French tomorrow morning, after which she will have finished FIVE subjects! Hurrah.

Hope all our students are happy with whatever this morning is throwing at them.

These exams have felt like they've been going on forever...even after today she will still have 11 more exams after half term!!

Good luck to all! So glad for brief respite after today for a week before round 2 begins!

Quick aside - for those who do GCSE Psychology, are many from the class choosing it for A-level? It isn't taught at DC's school for GCSE but is an A-level option and has proved a hugely popular choice. Just wondering if people are in for a rude awakening as have heard it is a hard subject?!

JessyCarr that must feel amazing! Five is a lot to be able to have under your belt at the halfway stage and forget about. DS will have three done and dusted by the end of today. Really hoping paper 2s aren't going to be brutal as I think he's picked up a fair bit in terms of emotional mood by this halfway point.

Still have french writing tomorrow...but it is short, at least. 😴

Weirdly, my ds doesn't seem tired at all, has been playing piano til late on a night and then going for a run! Also going in early for morning revision sessions. He doesn't do that in normal times, maybe he needs an escape... Whereas me, absolutely knackered 😫