Y 11 2023-2024 thread 3

[Techno56]

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

Yes!!!! It’s been the longest slog with history

Sounds like they are all the same! What I find frustrating is that ds really worked hard early on and just seems to have given up now. So all that hard work feels wasted if he doesn’t do any revision for the paper 2s. I did try to explain to ds my concerns which obviously went down like a lead balloon.

Our house seems to be in the minority here. DS Is getting up by 8 and working well all morning, he’s not so focussed in the afternoon which is why he’s decided to get up at a decent time and get cracking.

It’s very fortunate really as DH is away with work and I couldn’t get this week off as annual leave so he’s home alone.

He’s still seeing friends and going to the gym and he’s even remembered to hang the washing out for me so it feels like a healthy balance!

5 more exams to go, and it’ll all be over on June 19th. That’s the end of GCSEs forever in this house!!

Wow, how come there’s only 5 left?!

9 more to go here 😳

DD has 5 too. Duel award science so that’s over, no history. Maths, English, Geography x 2 and one more Latin. She has just started reving up again with maths and geography.

Hard here to keep it going. On the one hand they need half term for some r&r for a couple of days but the momentum wears off. Our r&r seems to have gone on for too long.... DH and I trying to balance who's working from home to make sure he gets up before mid afternoon 🙄. He says he's doing about 4 hours a day but who knows! We have 8 left and finish on 19th with further maths. It's going to be a slog getting him up on Monday morning for maths but at least it's his is favourite subject.

I've just caught up on the last couple of pages and I could have written so many of those posts! DD is very self motivated, high achieving etc etc.... but not this holiday. I have backed off as she was stressed before the break and have not asked much of her. She now is more preoccupied with boyfriend issues this week and seems to have forgotten she has 8 exams left.

I have bitten my tongue about lack of revision, until yesterday when I got cross and gave her my opinion.... obvs didn't go down well and she stormed out to her bedroom. I am backing right off now, I've said my piece and it is up to her if she puts the effort in or not. She has such high expectations of her academic achievement so this is not like her 🙄. Volatile teenage relationships and exams do not go well together!

Solidarity with you all, I think I am better off at work where I don't know what is going on at home 😂.

My poor DD still has ELEVEN more to do! 😭

It's grim isn't it. I sat with DD and did her last revision timetable with her - we've done each one for three or four weeks at a time - and it was cheering to see the 'choice' of what to revise reducing. I'm just the scribe of the plans, she tells me what to write so could easily do them herself but I think just needs me to show (non directive) interest. 😂

Welsh, English, Geography, Music and additional maths.

We’re in Wales and it’s done slightly differently- English lit, Welsh lit, maths and 1/2 of the 3 Sciences was all done before this summer. Plus he picked good options with only 1 exam to sit for music and PE.

Yes us too!

You'll see a few pages back I was aiming for a very modest 1 hour every day for DS including weekends, which I anticipated would be achievable and done willingly. We have just about achieved it, but it has NOT been done willingly at all!

In mitigation, his post-half term timetable for 10 exams (finishing with further maths on the 19th) is nicely spaced out so there will be more time to revise before exams than he had with the 15 exams already done.

Same here.

Eleven more here too.....just hope the momentum returns!

We have 8 exams left. 15 days.

It’s so reassuring hearing that most kids are finding the same struggle!!

DD finished at 9 yesterday, she thinks she did 4 hours. Then we watched the final of Race across the world together. She gave me a lovely unexpected hug and said sorry for being horrible , so that will keep me going for a while!

Hoping she puts in a good day today as we are out tomorrow morning, although she has a maths tutor in the afternoon so at least some maths will get done!!

I’m off to clatter about upstairs to try and get her to budge out of bed!!

@Countrylife2002 It is reassuring and I'm grateful for the frankness on this thread. I've just left DD in bed, I'm out for the day seeing friends. DH will support. 🙂

more than halfway through half term, and DS is getting down to his first 'proper' day of revision at home since half term started... to be fair, yesterday he had a marathon all-day session on history at school, and before that, maths at school, and I know he definitely put the hours in there as it was in-class! He thinks it was really useful.

He has 9 left, starting with maths on Monday (and then STILL has yet another Maths paper to go - it's never-ending, isn't it?) and then History on Tuesday. Next week he has one a day and is mostly focussing on those first two, so I hope he pulls it out of the bag with whatever time he has left this half term.

My DD has 9 exams left too: Eng Lang, History 2x, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths 2x, and Add Maths. She does small chunks of revision each day totalling anywhere from 2 hours to 4 hours. Rest of the time it's running, tennis, seeing friends, and mindless social media/tv series. No revision after 5pm.

She is not stressed at all and is no longer tired. However, I'm exhausted mentally and emotionally. I don't know why this has taken such a toll on me. I've taken a couple of days off this week and I am unable to relax. 18th of June can't come fast enough! I've made an impulse purchase last week, bought a weekend city trip to Barcelona for the two of us (I'm a single parent), for the weekend after the exams. My DD doesn't know yet, it's meant to be a surprise. We went to Barcelona for half a day a few years ago and she asked me if we could return for longer.

6 left here - biology, chemistry, physics, maths x 2 and the dreaded English Language.

On a positive note, we are currently sitting in our church building revising!😆

Dd can't work at home, had planned to go and work with a friend and that fell through, so I said shall we go together to the church building (small carpeted room) and work there? She said yes and has been sitting cross legged on the floor doing biology for the last hour! I have brought a stack of work, so I am hoping I have enough to keep me going as long as she does.
we even brought a packed lunch!!

Hang in there folks! @anoukis your surprise trip to Barcelona sounds so lovely. Our students are lucky to have so much support at home, even if they don’t always realise it.

DD’s half term routine seems to be to wake up whenever and then go to the gym in the morning, then do 1-2 hours of maths and 2-3 hours of another subject in the afternoon/early evening. Then watch something mindless on TV! She seems OK on it. Last day here is the 14th.

@steppemum that is inspired! Hope you’ve got something comfortable to sit on…

10 left here (if counting all the 'Spanishes' individually!). We are also on the struggle bus in that there have been plenty of lists made of revision tasks to do but things are not getting crossed off very quickly as she has needed downtime this half term.

I am comfortable working at a table. Dd's preference is cross legged on the carpet 😂

I can't name check everyone, but I agree completely with what so many of you are saying! It really is good to know that I'm not alone.

DS and I had a frank discussion yesterday about his lack of effort. It was a rather long, circular and frustrating at times, conversation. From DS' point of view the crux of the issue appears to be that he did a vast amount (by his standards) of work for the November mocks (paper 1's) and felt he underperformed. He did very little work for his February mocks (paper 2's) and did very well. In his mind this equates to more work bad, less work good

However, we know, as the school made it clear, the November mocks were marked very hard. they didn't want any student resting on their laurels. DS had also forgotten that the November mocks (and predicted grades) earned him a conditional offer to a super selective grammar for A Levels. So not quite the disaster he remembers.

Long story short-ish we have compromised on 3 hours revision per day. He is now doing hour one of today on Chemistry 2. Later he's playing tennis then will do two more hours.

I am invested - as are you all with your children - in him getting the best results of which he is capable. Not because it matters to me, but because he will be so very pissed off if he doesn't get the grades he wants.

Anyway, Happy Thursday All!