Y 11 2023-2024 thread 3

[Techno56]

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

Ds said everyone was so exhausted today after the English exam they could barely speak in class. I feel drained too. DS is watching a physics livestream on YouTube. I'm leaving him to the physics in case it brings back traumatic memories of my physics gcse! DS2 wants to do computer science gcse. Is it really difficult?

Yippee another subject done no more computer studies for DS. He thought paper went better than mocks but considering he got a 3 on paper 2 it's not saying much.

Sympathy to all the kids and parents pressing on in the marathon. Mercifully, DS now has a gap until after the half term. He didn't get out of bed until 2pm today - a record even by his night owl standards! And he's given himself a day off. He definitely needed it.

Does he not have English lang on Thursday?

We're off til after half term too as the school does Cambridge for English Language and Physics so they've done them (though one more Physics in June). No idea why Cambridge can't fit in with the other boards - very unhelpful!

Very envious! Hope the very long break gives them a well earned rest and recharge.

Still here helping with physics revision, a subject I failed abysmally at school and have had a hatred for ever since (weirdly I work in a profession underpinned by physics now!).

I am getting flashbacks discussing fusion and fission 😂.

Not sure how it will go for DD tomorrow, could be either way... she is very capable, but a few bad questions and that will be it.

Eng lang tomorrow and French writing Friday, then a whole week off!

Still Physics, Eng Lang, Psych 2 and French writing to get through before half term. Plus DS doing year-end exams in every subject for the first time (Y7). I shall be on the gin by Friday.

Gin sounds like a good idea @JessyCarr . Physics and Eng Lang left for DD this week. We are at a wedding at the weekend so looking forward to that as it is also the start of half term.

Thank you @Tiredalwaystired. Yes same as @GU24Mum we have Cambridge for Eng Lang and Physics so all English is now done (though more physics 'joy' to come after the half term). Good luck to yours this week.

Remind them about simple exam technique: read the paper through first, and allow roughly equal time for each answer. Do the questions in order of confidence - strongest first, questions they don't fancy last.

ds has got 4 more exams this week.

He’s done ok for trips in comprehensive school. They did a week long residential to West Wales in the first term of year 7 which was great at gelling their form groups.

Ski trip should have been in year 8 but they finally went in year 10 - best trip ever apparently and most of the kids who went have said it was their favourite memory in the year book.

Week long residential to North Wales in year 9.

New York / Washington in Easter of year 11.

other trips that he didn’t go on were to Iceland, Paris and Berlin. It’s a big school and each department likes to run a trip if they can!

What are everyone's DCs' plans for half term? Full on revision? Or taking it easy?

@ohdearohdearoh I foresee a very chilled/social long weekend, but DD has vowed to crack on with revision from Tuesday as she wants to make up ground (especially in Maths and Chemistry) where she thinks the Paper 1s didn’t go as well as hoped.

I think DD is hitting the wall now. 10 exams down with not much break in between. She was drained after her Classics today (lots of content) then physics and Eng Lang like most others this week.
But she didn’t sleep well last night so didn’t really have the energy to revise much physics (which I know she has neglected for other subjects but she’s usually quite strong in).
if only they had a chance for a little refresh in between!

Yep full on. Ds needs to revise all the sciences, maths and history. It's a lot.

I'm so tired too, ive spent all evening helping both children revise, one physics GCSE and one. Alevel psychology. Am worried about physics, it's not my daughter's strongest and we had a bit of a breakdown about circuits, so in the end I've told her to leave them and accept she won't get the marks if they ask a question about them. However she seems to have a general understanding of the other areas. Physics was my weakest subject, and I stupidly decided to do an a level in it, that didn't end well 🤣 At least then all she has is English language and then it's half term.

DS is about halfway through (it depends on how you count papers - I tend to lump the shorter papers in together if they're in the same exam session, like Mandarin and history, DS counts every single bloody one! ). Anyway, neither of us have had time or remember to make a chart where he can cross them all off and I'm not sure it would have the same impact now. But after tomorrow he'll be over the halfway mark.

Physics tomorrow - he says they spent literally ALL DAY revising Physics at school but he's done a fair bit of consolidating after school. He said he feels ok about it. Has done a bit for MFL writing as well, but I suspect that if he can't already write a few passages in Mandarin then no amount of last minute cramming will address that! (and he can, it's probably his strongest suit in Mandarin. Still boggles me that he can get along in a Chinese language!) He's also done a bit of Psychology for Thursday and I'd like to watch some Youtube videos for English Language with him tomorrow (are there any other good tutors apart from Miss Adams for Eng Lang Edexcel??).

Friday is a day off! Exams, anyway - they aren't on study leave until after half term. He's looking forward to going back to the after-school club he really misses on Friday afternoon.

Comp sci not great yesterday. He's not a fan and paper 2 is the weakest. Today is physics, Spanish and PE. First two are clash so has to stay put after physics then straight into Spanish. At least he has an exam free day tomorrow before more Spanish on Friday. Good luck everyone today. Can't wait for half term.

I'm worried about Physics today. DD seems to have some big gaps in her knowledge and she's done very little revision for this one. She's also totally exhausted. I'm really hoping it's not a bad one today because I know it will knock her confidence. So far they've been going OK but I'm worried that's about to change.

It’s DSs first A-level exam today. Further Maths! Am pretty stressed hence being awake at bloody 5am. Both he and DD have had colds this week. DD is completely shattered but still got physics today and English tomorrow.

DD found Comp Sci “fine” and says she thinks she got the last question right. Her school finished the syllabus early and been revising for a while in school. She was completely bored of it by the end.

Neighbour is having work done to their house and the scaffolders have used our chimney to support it without asking so I guess I need to sort that. Not helping the stress. Am worried about the work disturbing the revision! Kids seemed fine with noise yesterday though.

@WhereAreWeNow I'm feeling the same as you about my DD today. Not feeling confident but I'm up, about to do some flashcards with her.

DD will be full on revision most of next week to try and pull up her maths performance in papers 2 and 3 after an awful paper 1. Glad of the week off, but still think she will be exhausted after it. She is so up and down in her moods I am walking on eggshells. Can't wait til it is all over on 14 June!

Good luck to everyone, especially for physics xxx

Hi all - DS hit a wall yesterday: had all day to revise physics but didn't very much. No motivation or energy, even though there are topics that needed attention. He seems to have grown a last minute aversion to electricity in particular! It is what it is, I did my best to motivate him. Currently trying to get him out of bed for the actual exam! He is shattered.

Holiday after today but needs to motivate himself for all the Science papers 2. Maths as well but he is much more enthusiastic about maths practice than science.

Good luck to everyone and really feel for those who still have multiple exams this week. Feels like far too much in one go!

Yeah ds is pretty shattered. English language tomorrow so no revision tonight thank goodness.
Ds is nervous about physics as he's considering it for a level.
Good luck everyone

DS didn't have a great night's sleep. He's been fine until now but I think there us too much going on in his head, but he'srevising until he goes to bed otherwise he says he feels he hasn't done enough. Only physics and English fir us then Il tell him to take a complete break on Friday and we'll put a half term revision timetable together. D S also needs to do really well in maths as he wasn't confident on paper 1. He's AQA which everyone else found OK I think, so I don't think the grade boundaries will be that low.