Y11 2023-24 thread 4

[Techno56]

New thread for GCSE survival 🙂

In my experience the closer to Results Day, the worse DCs think they've done. It's the inevitable passage of time, watching TikTok etc which makes them doubt themselves. I found remembering their initial reaction when they came out of the exam as a better guide to how they'd actually done.

@Tiredalwaystired We all love to eat, so we always go out for a meal at the end of term.

This year, DH is away, so ds and I are having fancy burgers from a local restaurant pop-up on Sunday (he's going out with his mates on the Friday).

We'll do a father's day/end of exams at his restaurant of choice when his dad is back.

Other than that we are going on holiday, it's his birthday at the end of July and he has a day ticket for Leeds festival and I imagine the best reward is sleeping and seeing his friends. I don't expect to see a lot of him over the summer.

DS has come down with a rotten cold. Chemistry revision is an uphill struggle as a result.

DS and friends will go out on Friday evening which is the final exam day for most of them. They will go to a nice town by the beach. They have apparently booked a table in a restaurant / pub, and agreed which train to take there.

We're having a dinner of her choice and watching last night's Doctor Who. DD2 will be back from a school trip and it's her birthday that weekend as well and Father's Day so a big celebration weekend.

Edited to add: we've got some trips away with her planned over the summer, DH is taking her to London, I'm probably taking her to my old University town for culture, bookshops and cake (as DD1 told her History teacher who is from there).

My dd has developed a thing for jigsaw puzzles to unwind 🙂

Mine is having a BBQ with some of her friends in the back garden. We have some days out planned but they will wait till my eldest has finished hers.

the weirdest thing about this thread for me isn’t the revision that is or isn’t being done, it’s how many kids are spending time with friends & how social their plans are. Makes me feel sad about DD who doesn’t have any plans like that.

Anyway, I’m taking DD for a helix piercing after her last exam. She wanted it for her birthday last week but I was worried about pain/interrupted sleep etc so said she had to wait!

Same for my DD. Just one good friend, but they rarely go out outside of school.

@WarningOfGails my DS has only just started having social plans since Easter I was the same feeling sad hearing about kids friends out a lot. Is she staying on at same school or going elsewhere ?
We are taking DD out of school for 3 days to go on hol with her brother she a good pupil lowest grade is an A so not worried about her missing a few days.
Lego and jigsaws should like a lovely way to relax and destress after exams especially when so much revision is done online.

@tizalinatuna and @WarningOfGails I'm feeling the same. DD is quite introverted. She has a nice friendship group at school but they rarely seem to meet up out of school. I'm hoping she's not going to spend the whole of the long summer ahead alone in her room!

Feel so much better at hearing my daughter isn’t the only one without an active social life.
She has a lovely friendship group and they are all going to prom together but they don’t often meet up and I’m worried she’s going to be lonely over the summer.
She is very good at entertaining herself and there will be lots of family things planned but really hoping a new start for a levels will transform her social life!

Also a bit worried that DD will feel a bit adrift after exams as they have been focus for so long. Think she is also feeling a bit disconnected from her friendship group so hoping sixth form may bring a bit of a shift and people more on her wavelength.

Ah nice to hear from the other parents of less social teens!

There’s no 6th form at our school so everyone is moving on - really hoping DD develops a social life in college. She has friends at school but she says she doesn’t like them enough to want to spend more time with them outside of school… just sees the one friend (query - boyfriend?!) a lot but generally just hanging out at our house. I had a lot of fun with friends at this age & it makes me sad seeing her miss out. also worried the summer will just be her scrolling in her room - hoping to get her on lifeguard training though if the dates align…

Not much revision been done today popped up to see DD earlier and she was fast asleep!

No revision done yesterday. He hasn't left the house since Friday but I think that's because all of his friends are revising, whereas he's sitting in his room doing God knows what. One Maths past paper done today which he got 62%, so in his head that's OK and he'll be fine - I pointed out he'll be fine as long as all of the questions tomorrow are basically the same! He refuses to have more than a cursory glance at the questions he got wrong or didn't answer - infuriating as I'm very much the sort of person who would say 'well, where did I go wrong? I'd better look it up and practice those', but he is not like me at all and keeps telling me I'm more stressed that anyone he knows and I need to chill out.

Chemistry on Tuesday - this is the one O'Level I failed (I did get 10 others), so I couldn't help at all even if he wanted me to.

I'm trying to remain calm, but he has always put in the bare minimum effort and then goes "oh well I'm just not very bright, what do you want me to do about that?" Grrrr....

DD is starting Uni in September, and she worked SO hard for her A'Levels, exceeding her predicted grades in everything, but DS is a different beast altogether.

Sorry - bit of a rant there, but I'm tearing my hair out at his laissez-faire attitude.

DS paints his war hammer models, that’s one part of his distressing along with rowing.

I sympathise! Same situation here. DD thriving at a top uni, DS struggling to engage with learning and no idea what he wants to do.

He did little yesterday and hit a wall trying to start physics. Today better with some chemistry done at least. He and I are going to Venice for 3 days later this month as a treat - never been away with just him and he is lovely company so I cant wait.

In less than 48 hours we'll be down to ONE exam.

I don't fancy DD's chances in Chemistry. I think she's done a couple of hour revision across both papers. History (USA) is one of her favourite topics though so she's happy with prep for Tuesday afternoon if nothing else!

She's also very excited that in 15 hours she'll never have to do a maths exam ever again.

I've just ordered a paint by numbers - thanks PP.

Here's to the light at the end of the tunnel. My poor daughter is completely finished, she's done some revision but I think her brain is too tired to take everything in. Good luck to everyone taking maths and imedia tomorrow. I cannot wait to say bye to maths

DD still has a hard week ahead with a lot of content to cover, maths 3, Spanish writing, chemistry 2, history 2 and geography 2. I'm worried as I think she's tired and done or wil do very little revising and it's half her grade in most cases.

DS also doesn't have much of a social life outside of school, but that's starting to change very slowly. His friends are all geeks and they do various geeky gaming things now. But DS is quite happy in his own company and is probably never going to be one of the 'hanging out in the park with a big crowd' lot. He also paints table-top gaming figures, like JustHereWithMyPopcorn's son, and that's definitely a big de-stressor for him. I've been buying him little painting accessory gifts for exam days, to remind him that there's life out there, beyond the exams.

He's still feeling seedy with this bug, hoping to pep him up with paracetamol tomorrow. But I sense that he's had enough. He couldn't get interested in maths today - he's been concentrating on Chemistry for Tues (possible A Level choice). We're also going away for a few days at the end of the month, which I hope will work out a nice break and not an exhausting hot trek, and on Friday evening next week, after his last exam, there's a talk by a scientist he's really keen on (told you he was a geek!)... 😃

DD is officially SOOOO OVER all of this now. She’s managed a little maths and even less chemistry this weekend.

She’s another one with a quiet social life. She has nice friends but they are all girls (single-sex school) and all quite serious/studious. She is very ready for a mixed sixth form and allll the boys!

My DD doesn't have a huge friend group so I understand where you are coming from. She never has been in a popular group though so has learned to do her own thing mostly, and is very good in her own company.

Saying that though, our end of exams celebration is going to see her idol Taylor Swift at Anfield on Saturday, it literally could not have been a better date to go! She is obsessed and Taylor has kept her going throughout these past weeks better than I could ever have done!

She is also going away with friend and her parents the following weekend to Centerparks, then we are abroad for a week shortly after. So she has a lot of exciting things to cover the early part of the summer holidays, including prom in between all that.

I also encouraged her to get a job (as I knew it would be a long slog this summer with results looming) so she has her first shift in a couple of weeks at a pub behind our house. She is very keen to do this as it pays very well for a 16 yo and I think it will do her confidence the world of good.

@JessyCarr same as your DD mine is going from all girls to a mixed sixth form, transition day soon too, so another exciting stage to look forward to.

Meanwhile, all the time I will be feeling apprehensive about results day in secret 😂.

Good luck for Maths and Imedia today!

Revision has also dropped off a cliff here. We've managed about one hour a day ever since DS broke up for half term, regardless of how much free time he has. He says he knows it all (except for Latin, where he doesn't seem to care) but I'm worried this lack of effort will come back to bite him. We had a huge falling out on Friday where he refused to do more than an hour's work in the empty morning before his Biology exam, even though there was more of the syllabus he hadn't run through. I've decided to step back.

My only consolation is that he is going into each exam in a great head space, entirely anxiety-free, having had a really good night's sleep (lights out, no phone by 10 pm) and a filling breakfast! He's naturally competitive so I know he works really hard and does his best in the actual exam. I hope that's enough!