Y 11 2023-2024 thread 3

[Techno56]

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

Hello, I have a question about querying raw scores for fine art. I don't think we need to - but how would we know whether or not to challenge it? Going by last year's grade boundaries it looks like DD will get a 5 (which she'd be happy with, she's not planning on studying it further) but it just got me wondering - how would a parent know to challenge it, other than the grade being lower than what students have been predicted?

And
https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-day-in-autumn/

I think the students will have been shown the assessment objectives and the descriptions of what they need to do to achieve what mark. You can also Google this as the exam boards publish it. So when I saw my son's marks I went and found it and it seems perfectly fair as to which band she has put him in and the mark this translates to.

She's just messaged, very happy with the exam

The Lord of the Flies question choice was between leadership, or the little'uns.

Hurrah for a new thread!
Nothing from ds yet, no surprise there. Next exams are Wednesday - physics 1 and PE 1.

Are any of yours doing work experience over the Summer?

Ds has to find 2 weeks somewhere and write a diary about it… As he’s staying on 🤞🏻 he can’t get out of it. So far he’s got a week shadowing a garden landscape designer, not sure what week 2 will be.

DS thinks Edexcel English lit went all right. Unseen poetry question very hard (use of photographs) but loved the J&H part and was fine with the other poetry part (though had initially misread the question and had to edit and change course 🤦‍♀️).

WJEC English all good. And breathe. One completely down and happy with both papers. We await results day.

Now to focus on Physics and English Language this week, two very contrasting subjects!

This thread has kept me sane the last few days. DS was diagnosed with ADHD in November and is struggling so much with stamina and motivation yet trying his best to step up. I have been getting really involved with planning and supporting revisions just to keep him going - which both feels necessary and wrong for a 16 year old...the dilemna is really stressing me out! Anyway, He was massively disappointed with Paper 1 English Lit (AQA) having totally mismanaged his time and not had time to finish his second essay, but he just called saying this one went much better, phew! English has been the silver lining this year after finding he struggled so much with other topics - he has found an unexpected interest in it and having ADHD, interest is everything!! Anyone else out there feeling the load of getting their ADHD teen through this? I genuinely don't know how he will find the energy to switch to Physics now, he is knackered and so am I! Thanks for the thread, it is so helpful to share experiences!

computing tomorrow.
dd needs to do well as she did really badly on paper 1 and wants to continue with it.

I am worried she is going too start panic about Eng Lang and that is going to dominate the week and mess up computing and physics.

I think DD will have been happy with the LOTF leadership question. She will def have done that over the question about the Littluns.

Think she will also have been happy with the poem as she liked this one but struggled to remember the quotes. Hopefully she will have been able to link nicely to a poem she was more confident with.

anyone’s guess how she will have done with unseen but the link to nature is something she is more confident with having done this with LOTF and poetry so hoping she will have drawn on that

DS has Edexcel too - use of photographs?? Literally, photos - or poems about taking photos? Blimey. Hope it all went ok. I felt that we could have spent more time talking through the poems (we did a fair bit!) as he didn't seem very charmed by them... he decided he preferred one of the other anthologies in his book but I'm praying he didn't actually forget which anthology he was meant to be talking about!!

After exam plans - I'm taking him off for a 5 night city break somewhere he's always wanted to go, then we'll try and book something as a family to see my parents. I'm encouraging him to look for a job but it's a competitive market for that age range round here. And he just wants loads of free time to paint his miniatures and read what HE wants to read, for a change!

They do go into a full WEEK of 6th form induction directly after the exams, though.

Mine was pleased. Inspector calls question was good. Unseen poetry was a bit ‘weird’ but stuff to talk about.

My son is the same will have to wait till 4ish as got revision class straight after exam then Electronics exam.

DS is mostly positive about his English Lit - happy enough with Inspector Calls and J&H, but less happy about unseen poetry. Nice to have his least favourite subject done and dusted! Computer Science, Physics and English Lang still to go this week.

@GlomOfNit DS said the unseen poem was about finding parents' old photos and the question was about how the photos were used in the text. All of his friends found this tough, apparently, as there wasn't much to hook into in terms of the usual things they need to do as part of analysis. He managed to identify some themes like change, time/past and 'waffled a lot' but isn't sure if his analysis was meaty enough in terms of all the requirements.

Thank you. It looks like she's in the 'consistent ability to...' band which seems fair. I'll ask her if she thinks she should be in the highly developed one, but I think this seems correct. (I am not arty at all, I would have no idea)

Ds texted that it was ok. Hopefully it was.

He’s back and happy - used Exposure for the comparison, said NLMG was about two specific characters and wrote loads for the unseen - said there was heaps to talk about

Aqa Eng lit here. Not an exam we were expecting much from! However, DS said he got very lucky with Kamikazi as the seen poem as it is the main one he knows, said he compared it with Remains and was pleased with that. Didn't say much about Inspector Calls. Said the unseen poetry was really hard but everyone found it hard. Anyway, he was OK after it and more interested in writing his cv for a summer job which he says he's going to do this afternoon!

@Zubomama - I'm glad your son found paper 2 much better than paper 1. Sounds like it's been a difficult time for you all in the past months. What are your son's plans for sixth form?

DS was AQA and he also compared Kamikaze to Remains. He was happy with that - two poems he knew well. He wasn't overly happy with the unseen poem and said he started to struggle with time towards the end. He said AIC could have been better as he'd usually do the theme question but today's exam was two characters. He hasn't enjoyed AIC because - in his words - all the characters are horrible and it's so preachy. I do have sympathy with this.

DS has nothing tomorrow then Physics P1 and Mandarin writing on Wednesday. English Language and Psychology on Thursday. By half term English Lit, psychology and mandarin will be completely over with.

Thanks Waspie! He is hoping to stay at his current sixth form to do 3 A levels - he needs mostly 7s which is why the pressure is on. He is super smart but just finds anything with repetition (ie revision!) a massive struggle. His school has put some arrangements in place but mostly caters for academic kids aiming for good unis. I'm not sure unis will be for him, he has offers from two other sixth forms that offer other paths so there will be important decisions to make come 22 August.

DS compared Kamikaze with War Photographer - dont know the peotry bit so no idea whether that was a good thing or not, helped him mostly with Animal Farm quotes.

Onto physics! Thank god for Cognito and FreeScienceLessons! videos are a godsend for him!

I think the poetry question was about the effects of conflict on others - war photographer would be a really good one to compare to.

Checking in. DD said eng lit was good, and seeing the questions on here I'm not surprised. She will have been happy with those.