Y11 2023-24 thread 4

[Techno56]

New thread for GCSE survival 🙂

To balance the grade panic we saw my niece (Y12) over half term and were discussing the GCSEs and she had a report card from last year and her predicted grades were spot on. My DD has been told they've been marked using the highest historic grade boundaries all year so hopefully there will be no nasty surprises.

But to reiterate that if the grade is shockingly low in English Lit, its really worth getting it remarked. I know of two kids who went drastically up! Having said that I'm worried too. DS has enjoyed English Lit to a surprising extent and although he messed up in Paper 1 timings, he believes he smashed paper 2 and expects an 8, which is his predicted grade. But I'm worried he'll be disappointed. He got 8s all year but I feel the teacher was very generous. Last year in English Language he got 6s and 7s all year and got a high 8 in the actual exam (taken a year early) with no revision/practice. So karma may go swinging the other way. Possible A level choice too but with an 8 in English Lang he has already met the entry requirement so thats one thing we dont need to worry about.

He was fairly happy with Chem yesterday and despite agreeing to get up early to beat physics on the head he is still in bed. He cant wait to be rid of sciences.

He's taking maths at A level because he enjoys it and there's very little he actually enjoys, but worried about the step up...

I’m not worrying about GCSE results! I’m saving that for A-level results! DC needs AAB for both insurance and firm Uni offers! He is predicted A*AA but he did the awful AQA physics paper. So I will be crapping my pants then!

Day off today, Physics is probably his strongest subject so I ‘think’ he’s pretty well prepared already so not pushing revision today. We’ve had a nice dog walk and might go out for lunch

Thanks. A little Schrodinger I meant the discussions over grading in last year's English GCSEs, not this years.

Examiners don't work in grades and I don't think in grades!

From some of the A Level threads it seems that with maths in particular there is a strong correlation between GCSE grade and eventual A Level grade.

So with a 7 or 8 at GCSE, an A/A* at A Level might be possible but the trends suggest that a B/C might be more likely.

It'll depend on the course that DD wants to study at university. If she's considering Economics then yes, maths will be very helpful, and some universities specify maths as one of the A Levels so she will limit her options if she doesn't have maths. However if they are also looking for 3x As that might be a big ask if she only gets a 7 at GCSE.

Apologies if already posted. Any tips for revising for the WJEC Geography paper A this week? My son says It’s just skills. Not many past papers to look at

Just being nosey but the people who said theie kids sat Maths English(didn't even kniw you could) early how does that happen ? DD has been 9 student in both subjects since year 7. School don't seem to encourage her !

Ooo yes I'd like to know too! My son says barely any revision needed 🙄 🤔

Some schools put a set in for maths early and then do FM.
Some schools do on of Lang/Lit in y10 and the other in y11 rather than doing the two in parallel.

I remember the posts about English grades being wide of the student's predicted grades last year. There seemed to be quite a number of students affected. My friend's son was predicated a 5 and got a 7, so the strange grading went both ways.

I know someone who got a 3 in mocks, was predicted a 4 and then got a 7 in English literature. He just didn't want to resit so got his head down.

Thank you really wish our school split the English could have really helped DS. Never heard of it like that before. Not sure there school is that great did not shout enough about getting DS help with writing so was just ignored. Will see what happens about Maths as they only have 2 sets at school and the top half is still mixed ability DD normall gets minimum of 95% in any tests but is in class with kids who get 4s. She gets bored some times.

Taking early is controversial.
Eng lit and lang do support each other, and the other year of maturity can be helpful too.

Unless they are shoe-ins for 8s or 9s taking maths early means they may well get a lower grade than waiting.

You school seems very small??

For those that sat iGCSE excel maths we have been told that both exam papers were very similar to a previous year and that it may have to be redone on the contingency day unfortunately

😖
nooooo!!!!
can you remind me when contingency day is. Who said this?

Although then DD could not miss her four marks from the back page I guess. Every cloud and all that.

Really? According to??

This seems very odd

We’ve had an email from school warning us, saying that the issue has been raised to Pearson and they are awaiting a response and will give us more information in due course. I’m not sure of any more than that I’d advise you contact your school to find out. My DC has looked at the last paper (2022) and confirms that they are very similar although obviously hasn’t got the 2024 paper to compare directly

Answering my own question - it’s 26th June (or tomorrow). Let’s hope it’s just a rumour.

26th June. We’ve had a message directly from our school.

should add it’s only the higher paper as far as I know

Definitely not a rumour as we’ve had formal communication from school that it’s being looked in to by the board but no information about the outcome confirmed just that it could possibly mean a repeat of one or both on contingency day

Sorry if I’m being thick but what is iGCSE?

International GCSE

Ok, so not what would be taken in a typical state school? Like, would I know if my kid had sat that?!