Year 11 - 2024/2025 - In the thick of it!

[QueenMabby]

New thread. Sorry. Forgot to start it - I hope everyone finds this!

German done 👏Hard to believe they started learning languages remotely and then through facemasks!

Checking in!

Thank you

My DS2 hadn’t thought of that yet - he is a very different character to his brother though . It’s good that they are getting to see how it’s done by watching an older child revise and put in the effort . I’ve always felt DS1 is the unlucky one as my practice child !

@BellaI
Dd had OCR - was just coming on here to ask about it as no-one mentioned them. Bit of dragging it out if her, as never twlls me much, but she thinks it " wasn't the easiest but not the hardest" . Geeks it was much the same level and type of queations as they had had before. On the cusp of 6/7 but thinks most was ok, some of the harder questions at the end she tried to do some of to try and get a few marks even when not totally sure. Seems OK but then I thought that in one round of mocks when we ended up with CAMHS.

Interestingly she did say that they they all seem to be all over tic tok looking for general info for other boards too, so knew all about the issues mentioned above for AQA and Edexcell.

That's such an idiotic thing to do and your DD will suffer for it if her plan succeeds.

The mocks in November give kids a practice run at what the real things are like.

If she succeeds in her plan and knows the questions in advance for the mocks, she will get brilliant mock results and then do significantly worse in the real thing, due to not having had that practice.

I got 'good'. Which is exactly what he's said for the last five.

@Cantwaituntiltheyareover we are also hoping to be in the 6/7 category. She said if she didn’t understand she just cracked on with trying to work it out so hopefully even if got it wrong she gets some marks for sine if the answer!

Dd is back and said Edexcel higher maths was "ok". She was a nervous wreck this morning and is looking at bit more chilled- whether that's because it is done or because it genuinely did go ok, who knows!

Nothing for us tomorrow which is a relief.

If all the exams actually happen and none get cancelled (for everyone, not just one child being late/sick/forgetful) then you are 99.9% sure the contingency day won't be invoked.

If evidence emerges of a massive-scale event that invalidates all results (eg a copy of an exam paper being found circulating on the dark web with no way to know which candidates accessed it) then they could theoretically write a new exam and make everyone take that one instead, but it's very unlikely.

It seems odd to me to only have one contingency day. It seems so unlikely that anything would happen that only affects a small enough number of exams that one day covers it. If I were in charge I would have a whole week earmarked for contingency.

@groovylady do you mean compared to other exam boards, for all subjects?

Another Edexcel Higher Maths. I had been worried reading comments here at lunchtime. Child is predicted a good grade and wants to do maths at a level. Anyway, child said exam was fine - easier than mock exam papers. Tracing paper was not necessary (they used it to double check their answer).

That’s a bit strong. She won’t be the only one. I’m sure the pp daughter realises that she’ll have to revise well for her real GCSEs. This seems to be a nice, supportive thread, so let’s not have it taking a turn.

So DD home. German and psychology were good and now finished. Edexcel maths was ok. Lots of 5 markers and some obvious topics missing. Says it would have been hard for those doing higher but tracking a 5 as no quick answers. Lots of the girls in that range came out crying. And after 4.5 hours of exams she has history tomorrow to prep for.

Got son back from AQA (higher), he isn't on study leave yet so has had some time with classmates to talk through answers which might sounds like it has helped, he has taken me though two of the longer questions (probability one and find x-angle circle/triangle one lucky me!) if anyone wants to cross reference.

He is saying it wasn't too bad, harder than the mock, but he was more prepared than the mock, pushed him but nothing he couldn't have a stab at, the "prove this is true" longer question he had to "use a bit of his own logic" possibly not quite exam approved but got the proof, so he is a bit unsure about that. (first set of mocks got grade 7, second set of mocks grade 8 so he is aiming for a 9, not sure about that and of course there are two more papers to go).

But he seems ok on the whole. It doesn't sound like it was as bad as I thought it was going to be.

He could of course have got the whole lot wrong, but then so did a lot of his class.

@RareGoalsVerge
Harsh!

For maths specifically

DS said Excel higher maths was 'fine'... but he seems a bit quiet and deflated, in contrast to how positive & chatty he's been about the other exams this week 😕

I'd be really careful about doing that.

One of DD's friends did it and it has not served her well - her results were out of synch with the norm, so teachers were suspicious and her friends were deeply unimpressed with her doing it. Plus it means she had no idea where her gaps were or what her realistic levels are.

She did it because her parents get very upset if she doesn't do well - so all a bit sad really.

It's not as if high mocks count for anything - if you miss a paper then they take an average of the others.

DD was buzzing (Edexcel maths) and said it's the easiest paper they've ever done. There were only 17 questions not the usual 22 or so but had higher marks, although not really hard. She got the sane answer as her brother on the last qu so likely got it right. However, they both said the probability qu was a killer. DD thinks she got one mark, DS thinks he got 2.

Did she have 3 exams today?

Could just be tired at this point. DD's gone to sleep but has History tomorrow and needs to hand in her art folder which she has now she wants to do on.

We’ve just finished doing a ceremonial dump of all DD’s German exercise books and past papers into the recycling tub in her room. Very cathartic!

She’s currently going a history past paper ready for medicine tomorrow which is followed by Latin prose.

Both are quite essay-ish so she’s preparing for hand cramp tomorrow!

Fortunately she has a drama rehearsal tomorrow after school which will be a nice treat to end the week. DH is away this weekend so we’re having a takeaway and movie night on Saturday for a bit of downtime.

Is your daughter a wizz at maths?
Spoken to my DD more and apparently all the kids predicted 8/9 or doing further maths thought it was harder than normal but ok
App those predicted 5/6 found it really really hard as all but 2 questions were 5 markers. As a PP said, if you didn’t understand a question you were screwed for 5/6 marks on lots and the format of the exam was different to every other year so if you’ve been doing a lot of practice papers, it’s not going to be the same format.

DS now home and says AQA higher maths was good, he knows he got the last question right from having spoken to his teacher, but does also know one thing he got wrong. A couple of his friends felt similar, but says overall there were mixed reactions to it at his school from a range of abilities. He’s also heard (from TikTok I think) that Edexcel was odd and had a low number of questions

Now onto history, he’s a bit worried about getting on top of the content as he says tomorrow’s are ones they have done longer ago (Asia and Germany)

DS got back late but now went to bed with a doughnut. Can’t blame him, but he does need to do some history later

I loved the idea of a treat after each exam, but I don’t know how I can keep it up. Today’s was a jam doughnut. Maybe a bag of crisps tomor 🤪