Y 11 2023-2024 thread 3

[Techno56]

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

Oh no @Panarycatty. Poor thing. I hope your child feels better soon. At DS's school, I kept asking for his mock paper back so I could try and identify areas he needed to work on but they apparently lock them away in case the pupil can't sit the exam, then they send that off for an estimated grade.

We had J&H and poetry (Edexcel I think). Apparently the J&H character wasn't one DC entirely recalls .... but the poetry was OK.

Anyone know what the AQA Animal Farm question was like?
I won't find out how DS did but we concentrated on Kamikaze, Remains, Ozymandias, war photographer, charge of the light brigade. He knows my last duchess, which I didnt read and Bayonet Charge. @Zubomama both of them are about during and aftermaths of War, and other peoples impressions so would be a good comparison ( not an English teacher, but read them over the weekend!)

Got to try and get ds’ motivation going for German writing tomorrow..

I guess you can consider the options once the exams are over. It's good that you have the alternatives in place (and that there are good alternatives available!) @Zubomama.

As others have said, War Photographer is a good choice to compare Kamikaze with.

It was about Squealer represents ideas about control or how does the end of novella reflect ideas about revolution, or something like that. All fairly standard according to DS.

There were so many predictions that Poetry was going to be about nature, but no...

English was DD’s best exam yet she says, even the unseen poem question was ‘perfect’ . Phew. English done.

She has nearly finished the prep she wants to do for French and says she will finish by dinner and have an evening off. She is pooped.

physics on Weds is unlikely to be such a happy tale !

Sorry I do mean German!

Anyone’s DC doing AQA media studies today? I feel like DD could have done more revision but she was adamant she wanted to focus on Eng Lit cos she finds MS easier - hoping it wasn’t too bad a paper 😅

Oh I didn't realis there was another thread already and posted on the old one. Ds found this morning OK but wasn't ecstatic about the AIC question (AQA board). He's now revising Physics with a friend. I would 100% encourage this as they have been discussing physics since they got here as opposed to DS sitting on his own pretending to do it.

DC very glad to have Eng Lit over with - and glad both papers went well. The memorising quotes has been quite stressful for DC and I think is a bit unnecessary at this stage personally (as a Philisophy/Literature grad myself) so they're glad to be rid of that. This was the paper they were more worried about of the two so I'm relieved they were happy.

First Eng Lang this week, which is the biggest worry for them, it's such a bizarre way of assessing meaningful English skills to me and DC has found it hard to get consistently good marks when practising - also it sounds like it's hard to tell if you've done well or not.

@Panarycatty - hope a resit can be sorted out, pretty sure they have times set aside for kids who are ill to do things later.

If you miss one exam through illness they can give you a grade based on the other exam (or 2) that you do sit. Which is reasonable, but a shame if you miss your 'better' paper.
(I think they basically see what marks/grade people end up with who scored similarly on the papers you did sit get, and go from there)

I don't think they use mock grades, and if you miss all the exams then it's tough.

You can resit maths/englush lang in November. Probably not worth trying to get a grade in anything else as it won't be until summer 25 and will just distract from 6th for courses.

DS went with Mrs Birling for AIC and compared Kamikaze with Remains. He seems pretty upbeat about it so I’m taking it! Now it’s full steam ahead revision for Physics. Apparently he doesn’t need to do anything for English Lang as they’re doing lots in class and it’s just “creative writing and you can’t really revise.” 😬

Great that your son is doing NCS. I was interested for my son but I don't think any of his friends are doing it-how do you find out where the trip away is? Do many teens go in their own or is it mainly groups? He's done a few school trips and enjoyed them but he's not the most outgoing so I wonder if doing NCS alone would be a bit much?

DD has come home and said she found English (AQA) okay. LOTF theme question was good and she was happy enough with the poem (kamikaze) she was even happy with the unseen poetry.

She said MS was easier than last weeks and feels like she did well. She didn’t really revise newspapers which was stressing me out last night 😅but she said it didn’t come up so she lucked out on that!

English lit was ‘meh’ apparently. Dc can’t wait to get English lang out of the way and done too. He’s a science and maths person.

The problem I thought DS would have on his Macbeth question he didn't, but he did on Animal Farm. He had revised revolution, and as someone who does like a bit of political theory anyway, he went over time by 15 minutes. He didn't like the unseen poetry and said he ran out of time to do the 8 marker but still wrote some things. Time to go all out on physics for 2 days now.

Dtd said it was a “beautiful” paper, dts was less effusive but said it was good (Aqa). No more English Lit. Glad to get one subject out of the way.

Another one here who was annoyed there were two character questions for AIC rather than a theme question. But she loves that play so should do well. Happy with Kamikaze and like 99 % of students compared it to Remains. Said the unseen one was shit but that they always are.

Plans for the summer are mainly enjoying herself. She's got a transition week at 6th form then she's getting 2 city breaks, one with me and one with DH. And we have a family holiday in Scotland at the end of July. Plus her and her friends have various day trips planned. And I'm now suggesting NCS and University Outreach activities!

She had been hoping to get her lifeguard qualification but the next training course is over half term which is not suitable. Hopefully they will do another session early in the summer otherwise she might have to wait till the autumn.

DS was annoyed at the 2 character questions. He seemed happy with Kamikaze and said the unseen was OK, but he thought his answers weren't great.
One subject down. No exams here tomorrow, just Physics and English Lang, and we are done for half term 🎉

Mine won't know anyone but I am a little worried most will go with friends. I did speak to them about it and they said there are always some.goijg by themselves. We found out the exact location after signing up to a description of activities but not fully details. My son goes away with people he doesn't know every summer so he is used to it. Fingers crossed it will be ok!

DD found Eng Lit (AQA) pretty good. Said that she didn’t really understand the unseen poetry but I’m hoping if they write something and back it up then that should be ok. It’s her worst subject so she’s happy to get this one out of the way!
3 more exams to go this week.

What’s NCS by the way?

Was this AQA?

@Panic71 Edexcel

DD said lit was ok! She also compared Kamikaze to remains. Day off tomorrow then physics.