Year 11 - 2024/2025 - Support Thread - the final stretch

[QueenMabby]

A new thread to take is to exams and beyond! All welcome.

I looked up all the workbooks and sample papers on Amazon, put them all in my basket but then made the mistake of consulting with DC - I just wanted to get input on which materials they might already have covered in school/provided by school. Got told that I shouldn't buy anything 🙄 because they have everything they need.

Obviously I am inclined to buy it all anyway, but I did genuinely want to ensure I wasn't duplicating resources.

I agree that there’s certainly a role for online materials (as long as that’s what’s actually being done on screens!).

There’s lots of evidence that active revision like self-quizzing and making flash cards (paper or virtual) is much more effective than just re-writing notes. YouTube is also a huge resource now for any topics DC are struggling with.

How much input are parents giving? I ask if they are ok, how it’s going etc but don’t get involved unless they ask. I have older children and over the years realise they have to be self motivated. Of course, I would support if they asked/ need it.

I have lots of barely used books - I would target worst subjects only

Same level here - I couldn’t help with most of it anyway .

I am waking DC in the morning at a reasonable time, make them tidy room and desk, chat about what they are doing that day, make sure they come down for meals and drink water and go to bed on time and talk to them about it at a high level. That’s my only input, but DC are predicted mainly 9s so no real worries.
If anything, I want them to figure out which subjects they enjoy revising most so that their A level options are the right ones. If they were unlikely to pass something, I would be much more involved. I really don’t care if they miss a few 9s or get one or two 7s. It just doesn’t matter at all in the long run. The important thing is to figure out how to revise best and tackle exams and where your real passion is, if you are a high achiever, I think if you struggle academically the aim has to be to get a good pass in Maths and English and hopefully do well in any other subject you are really passionate about.

I love your perspective @Araminta1003 !

For me, I wish my DD had some drive. She’s bright but needs to be constantly pushed. I wouldn’t mind lower grades if I didn’t have to ask her 20 times to get up in the morning for example. The energy it takes to get her to do something is making me ill. Perhaps I should leave her to it.

I don’t know how much revision Ds is doing. I know he did a physics gcse paper yesterday, he bought loads of science and maths papers home from school. He did a further maths paper this afternoon then came and asked for help with a question. He knows that is pointless, I don’t understand it at all. I sent the question to a friend, her Ds explained it. Ds said it helped. I’m useless.

I just asked Ds. He’s done 4 mock exam papers today. 2 further maths, biology and chemistry. They took 2 hours altogether. That’s all he has done. I’m not going to nag him though.

How did he get through 4 papers in 2 hours??

@Hollyhedgethat’s what I thought. He said it only took 2 hours instead of 6. He marked the science papers too.

He’s a genius and you have nothing to worry about

Crikey 4 papers in 2hrs!! Did he attempt / complete all the questions too?

A couple of you have said you mark their papers. So do you then go over it with them? I’m wondering if they’d learn more by marking themselves - against the marking scheme as wouldn’t that help to understand the mark scheme as well as where they’re going wrong? The reason I don’t mark any of DDs stuff has nothing to do with the above; I simply wouldn’t know here to start but use the excuse that she probs learns more without my ‘help’.

This is such an interesting thread re kids motivation and parental ability to help. We are all quite different yet there’s similarities. I have absolutely no clue regarding ANY of DDs subjects. She knows better than to ask either of us. BUT she seems to be pretty honest about what she wants to achieve that day and will update me on how it’s going. I know yesterday she did very little - she said she was finding it hard to focus, had a ‘meh’ day and only did history and chemistry - so less than 2hrs. However, she is doing something daily, seems pretty motivated to do well and her timetable of 6 hours a day 7 days a week isn’t sustainable so I’m thinking she absolutely will have some ‘meh’ days. She’s in good humour too - which is always a winner!

I’m with @Araminta1003 (although there’ll not be a raft of 9’s here). She’s not predicted any high grades but nor is she predicted any borderline now. I think if she was predicted 3’s & 4’s then I’d have to be more involved.

My own mother asked me how I knew about something I had mentioned about DD's work - my parents' generation were totally hands off by Y7 (but they were very hands on during primary years).

I have been saying right since year 7 that online everything is not conducive to learning. And so many online resources and websites just lead to overwhelm. Ed Tech has screwed these cohorts over. Let alone the fact that the accepted correct answers for exams are clearly designed to be marked by a machine, that's why they are so restrictive.

We got DD all the paper guides last summer because she didn't know where to turn for revision (and the constant overwhelm was causing panic attacks). And only only now that she's been using them for a while does she sound like she's actually learning something . Probably too late for exams though!

I watched this a few weeks ago and it sums my instincts up perfectly.

I'm sure Ed Tech has some positives but it certainly should not be the main source of learning.

I’ve been going on for ages about how I had a lesson book and an exercise book for each topic when growing up in France., We wrote our lessons in the lessons book to a clear structure (definitions and key concepts in green for example) This made learning easy and education accessible to all. I’m honestly sick to the back teeth of the current education system and the way my DD has been taught. I’m done with it. I actually don’t want her to go to uni. The sooner we’re finished with all this crap, the better.

This thread has been an eye opener!

I have no clue what/how/if she’s actually revising over the Easter break. She attended some school run sessions this week so that is something.

she has been warned that boyfriend time will need to reduce from now to facilitate learning but not sure how that looks in practice 🤦🏽‍♀️

Well, all DD’s revision is on the iPad, as she can’t touch her schoolbooks at home: OCD tells her they’re permanently dirty. She is girding herself to touch her Spanish conversation book before the oral. I did buy her some English literature revision guides - and some clean copies of the texts - but as far as I know she hasn’t touched them. She does past papers on the screen using her finger/electronic pen.
She’s doing about 2 hours’ revision a day, which I think is enough considering her past performance and mental health issues. She’s away at her grandparents’ for a few days, and I did say we’d discuss whether she needed to increase time spent when she gets back.

@ChannelLightVessel I presume you have tried gloves? You can get thin white stretchy ones from Boots. When DD's germ anxiety was at its worst we resorted to gloves at times. (We had them in the house already as put them on at night with cream on hands due to over washing.)

The other obvious things would be clean revision guides for home, though more use for sciences than English.

Other option would be to do revision with you talking through things and her repeating back / answering questions.

@NotDonnaapparently he did it all. He marked the 2 science papers himself. I don’t know how accurate his own marking is. 8 in one paper and 9 on the other. But with his own marking he may be wrong. He can’t mark the 2 maths papers so I don’t know happens there.

Ds says 2-4 hours is plenty of time spent on revision. He’s very much “I know better than you” so I just leave him to it.

How different we all are. I've practically nigh on fallen out with ds2 about voicing my concerns about a lack of revision, and the atmosphere is a tiny bit frosty.

Ds1 who is at uni says he wishes I'd been more on him, that many of his uni friends their parents made them sit down and study!

whereas my friend thinks I should let ds2 off the reigns. I'm not sure she knows how relaxed I actually am, and that I'm wondering if I should be stricter!!

Personally I think a bit of tough love is necessary at this stage! In an ideal world, they’d all be self-motivated, but unfortunately most 16 year olds aren’t thinking about the future.

DS knows he has to do a set amount of revision per day and he won’t get to go out or on his phone if it isn’t done.

I don’t think specifying a number of hours they should be doing is all that helpful. Not all is equal. You can spend 10 hours revising but only 3 hours is constructive. Some days 10 will be achievable, others 2.
and that’s hard to sit on the side lines and watch isn’t it!!

@icanbewhatiwant your not useless! Our maths bares no resemblance to the maths they learn now! I’m convinced of it. The way they learn now is so different to how and what we learnt. Even going back to bloody phonics and then the spelling issues that brought!

@Oblomov25 its so much easier for them when they can see an end goal to the studying, otherwise it can just feel pointless and endless.
does yours have a long term plan?

Just wondering if any of you have any tips for getting to grips with English poetry please? It’s iGCSE edexcel - she’s looked at Mrs Rumsey’s annotations online (suggested by teacher) but still doesn’t understand and is really struggling to memorise. We are both very literal so as per usual I’m zero help!