Average amount of study out of class year 11

[Elizo]

Hi all,

DS just finishing year 10 - latest round of tests quite varied marks (was pretty focused on GCSE he did this year so not so much revision), should be coming out with 7-9s across vast majority of subjects in real thing. Doing triple science and further maths and has done one GCSE (RS) this year - got a 9 in the mock for that one so hoping for a high grade. He wants to do the best he possibly can, but is not yet as focused as he needs to be - pretty tired of all the testing and pressure, hoping summer rejuvenates him. How much work did people's DCs do in year 11? Did they work the summer hols before at all? Then roughly how many hours per week? Did they have a weekly day off? I want to support my DS as much as possible and be realistic, work hard but not burn out. I realise this is a bit 'how long is piece of string?', but interested in getting an idea..

Thanks all

Hi, I'm in Scotland so not 100% sure same school year. My DD just sat her Nat 5’s and she studied at least a few hours a day for them, she done it off her own back. Got great results in the prelims so hopefully the same for actual exams.

Just finished GCSEs. Didn’t work especially in the summer before (to be honest give them the break as it gets intense)

Mocks were before Xmas so Xmas was time off but it all ramped up after that. Another set of mocks in Feb and then it really ramped up. Easter wasn’t a break at all and then it was pretty much every night and weekends from there.

Interesting thread. Mine is finishing year 10 now and feels he did lots of revision for his mocks (but he didn’t) just scraping 4’s with one 3. Hoping in a year this will be 4’s and 5’s but only if he puts the work in. It’s going to be a long hard year. Send wine! 🤣

When my oldest did his, he didn't do any school work over the summer holiday between year 10 and 11.

Before mocks in year 10 and 11, he did an hour of revision most nights and a couple of hours on Saturdays and Sundays. Plus homework, which mainly helped with revision.

My daughter has just done her year 10 mocks and she won't be doing anything over the summer unless the school sets anything. She started revising about 2 months before them, again an hour most nights and a couple of hours on Saturdays and Sundays, plus homework.

That sounds very reasonable. Am thinking next year 1.5 hours M-Th (up to 2 but that will be hard, especially as they may have interventions) and 4 hours at the weekend. Possibly more close to the exams

I definitely need wine for this rollercoaster! Mine did very light touch revision (2-4 hours max per subject) and the grades are very varied as a result. I'll have to have a proper chat with him about how he wants to play this. Appreciate the break is needed over the summer, but on the other hand a little chipping away at the weaker areas could make a big difference because Sep onwards will be full on.

I think it does depend what grades they are aiming for and knowing that those grades are a predictor for A levels. For my children they knew that if a top university is asking AAA for their entry grade hardly any one on that grade profile gets in. Predicted grades are just that, a best guess, so the most places go to those predicted 3 A stars or more. That knowledge also means that if your predicted grades at A level were ABB how many uni courses that rules out. If you want every uni course to be open to you then you need a 3 A star prediction.

Maybe look forward now, show your son entry grades for courses, research it together.

My children in year 10 summer worked on improving their year 10 mock paper grades, they are a test of year 10 work and after summer they would be adding to that knowledge with year 11 work and revision. Considering my children were awake for around 14 hours a day that is a lot of free time. They did some revision work every day. It it not a level playing field, some children will have smaller classes and possibly tutors helping them get the best grades. Your child is competing against that for GCSEs.

My dc is in a similar boat, with 7 - 9 in all her exams this year, and aiming for all 9's in the real thing. At a v academic school, and they fully expect studying over the summer.

As DH and I have to work too, but can mostly squeeze it down to mornings, the plan is that we'll all buckle down and do our respective work in the mornings every weekday and then have great afternoons together (we live near a great beach, so lots of that kind of thing and being outside as much as humanly possible).

I expect about 2 hours of study every evening in the coming term, and Saturday mornings, with Sunday off and the school suggested no work in the October half term as it's the last down time they'll have for a while. We're going away that week anyway.

Thanks, sounds v similar. My son is in a comp but the pressure is never ending. He focused on his actual GCSE this year and some of his mocks suffered as a result. Very bright but not a huge fan of hard work. Getting there.

Your plan for September onwards is roughly what I have in mind to suggest to him. He wants the summer off though. The only thing I want to push him on is Spanish. The teaching is a car crash and I want him to start learning the vocab. I have helped him at home (I speak Spanish to A level) and I think he is going to run out of time otherwise.

I do feel for them. I ended up going to Cambridge Uni and felt virtually no pressure for GCSEs. Did ok but got cracking A levels and went off to Cambridge with no one worried about my A-C GCSEs. Different world now.

i am trying to discourage my son from getting his sights rigidly on 9s. The margin feels too small…

Best of luck!

@Elizo If you only have one subject to focus on this summer, and you're lucky enough that it's a widely spoken language, book him a weekly tutor on Preply or somewhere. There are loads of Spanish tutors there, and a young guy who makes it fun would get him chatting away and looking forward to classes, without costing an arm and a leg.

preply.com/en/online/spanish-tutors?priceRange=1-15&cf=0.93

I can see that. In terms of competition you have to draw the line somewhere. For me I’m not tutoring to secure the very highest grades because I don’t think my DS would want to and I don’t see the point personally. I want him to get a solid set of grades, enabling him to do his A Levels. I think there is a risk he could get completely fed up if I pushed it too hard. All a balance I know. In terms of using GCSE grades for A level predictions surely they look at class work? Or do you mean the Unis look at GCSEs. I understand most unis now look at school context? My son’s school is not especially high performing so that would help…if a private school pupil gets higher grades then that would be expected given extra help…it’s all in context.

Reply to your message above. Forgot the quote function.

I'm not sure it's helpful to focus on "amount of study" as it should be quality not quantity. If you have a child that will and does study without endless nagging, I'd be keen to let them take the lead and focus on their own areas of weakness rather than more prescribed revision schedules.

My own DD's experience was that simply keeping up with the revision and study as she went along (bearing in mind they do lots of this in class too) was more than enough. She did no work over the summer after Year 10, and no work at Christmas in Year 11 (she had mocks in November; I guess this would be different if she had January mocks). With 9 or 10 GCSEs its not possible to focus on all of them, so DD adopted the approach of looking (from Year 10 and mocsk) what she needed to do to improve her personal results. This meant some subjects were very light touch revision! She also spent most of the Easter holidays (traditionally a big revision time) mostly on completing coursework and doing very little actual revision. It turned out that she actually knew what she was doing because she got excellent results on her coursework subjects and also showed that she had done "enough" revision on other subjects.

Interesting that you mention Spanish - this is DD's bugbear, so she actually made the decision not to kill herself over trying to get a high grade but to settle for a pass. Again, at the time I worried over this, but I think she was right not to focus on one subject over all others.

DD did nothing over the summer after Y10 bar some reading (mainly stuff she was interested in anyway related to her favourite subject). She didn't revise at all until the Christmas holidays before the mocks in Y11. After that, she just focused on the one or two subjects where she felt that she could do better and was doing maybe an hour a week. Obviously once on study leave before the actual exams she was doing more on a daily basis, probably 2-3 hours a day.

There will be plenty of work coming from school so I think doing a significant amount on top of that is not really necessary unless there is something that sticks out as an area of concern. I think it's a stressful process so time to relax is really important.

Learning vocab is definitely a good idea for MFLs. It doesn't have to be huge amounts of time a week. DD started a spreadsheet of vocab and made herself a number of quizlets to test herself (Quizlet also useful for revision in general and even just making them helps cement anything that needs to be learnt by heart).

Also agree that a focus on MFL now might be helpful. DS has just finished y11, on course for mostly 8/9s, he crammed for end of y10 exams (solid revision for two weeks before), nothing in the summer, same cramming for mocks (& mostly got his predicted), started ‘gentle’ revision from Easter but properly got going from the start of May. The only subject in retrospect he felt this really didn’t work for was Spanish, he just couldn’t absorb the vocab / grammar that quickly.

Thanks. Yeah his maths and Spanish seem to be a bit down on other subjects so going to see if he is up for 15 mins per day on each subject over summer (except holidays). Not much, but you really need a drip, drip. He might totally refuse in which case we’ll just have to buckle in Sep onwards!

Wow my year 10 got mainly grade 8s (predicted 9s based off this) in her end of term exams. She doesn't study every night but works hard when she does.

I'm not really expecting her to study over the summer as year 11 is a sprint. Maybe reread the set texts for english

Year 11 she knows will be busy and we're not going to go away in the half terms /asirsmas/easter but that's as much about getting rest in between term times and not adding anything extra.

I don't think that hours every night after school work is a good idea.

I have one just finished Y11, another in Y10. DH and I have never pushed homework and don't push revision, it is up to them to organise themselves. We are lucky to have bright, self starting children though. I encouraged regular exercise, bedtimes, no phones overnight and provided nutritious meals and snacks. Saturday became a rest day by default because of league games were in the morning and so the afternoon was recovery time. But otherwise it was up to them to organise their revision.

That Is great you are in that position. I also think it is down to the school. If my DS was at a high performing school I suspect I would be less hands on.