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

[QueenMabby]

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

Dd also happy with bio. She thought objectively it was not the easiest paper she’d done - lots of application questions - but she felt well prepared and was happy with how it went.

Hi
My DS doesn't get study leave but after half term they only have to go to lessons where they haven't sat exams. His school is doing revision sessions from 7.45 but he said theirs a lot of girls crying, so he's not going. He said bio was easier than he thought.

Very happy with aqa higher biology here, he has a bit of a history of not writing enough /misreading question so I hope he checked

Spoke to DS and said biology could not have gone better and RE fine too. If only he could manage to get home with lots of troubles with tube today!

My DS thought edexcel Biology was middling - mix of easy and challenging questions - comparable to previous mocks - not his forte . I’m clinging to the fact that if he realised something was challenging at least he didn’t miss the point 🤞Geography tomorrow

DS said Biology was really good-this is positive of course as he has struggled previously with this one.
A break for a few hours of mindless scrolling before history and maths this evening-that is the aim!

Also depends exam board. DS AQA separate, higher. Edexcel could have been harder. Boundaries vary quite a bit depending on how everyone found if. Hopefully your DC all good!

Dd did AQA biology combined science today.
She said it was "really good".

AQA biology - said it went well. Thinks he answered most questions well. Friends felt the same. Glad he seems more confident about this one.

Completely agree 💯

I think one of the worst things was getting rid of the "intermediate" papers, too.
I think it should be

1. Functional skills
2. Intermediate
3. Higher

For all exams...it would mean that those pupils who struggled (for whatever reason) could still leave Y11 with a set of exam passes that are relevant to them/their post 16 pathway

DC is very angry about Biology.
Quoting:
It was all plants!
There was nothing about respiration, or digestion, or the neural system, which we spent months learning and I spent days revising and that was all wasted.

Not sure if that's a different board from PP whose DC were happy, or if those DC are just more interested in plants (which my DC considers boring)

Which board?
Dd liked the questions on chicken pox vaccination

Another day down! My DD said Edexcel Biology triple paper was ‘ok’ which means she must have managed to answer most of it but it’s not one of her stronger subjects. Nothing tomorrow but build up to Maths (they are trying OCR for first time this year instead of AQA which could be good or bad?) and history on Friday. Roll on the weekend.

Completely agree, it must be daunting being a student on the 3/4 boundary and having to sit the same English paper as all the 7/8/9 students. Who does it help?

DS was also annoyed that so much biology revision was in vain, but felt it went well overall. He was happy with the RE paper, although it sounded very hard to me. No exams tomorrow, then Maths/German on Thursday and History/Latin Lit on Friday.

He thinks he’s 1/4 of the way through the exams today which is good progress! Glad to hear other DC are doing well.

Its Edexcel iGCSE - the International bit might mean there wasn't a chicken pox vaccination question, or it could be that my DC is exaggerating the lack of non-plant content.

I think AQA has the highest grade boundaries in maths..

Does she do edexcel iGCSE? There were lots of plant based questions apparently

Edexcel iGCSE? Yes all about plants! Surely there should be a variety of questions on different topics.
Nothing on the heart, respiratory system, reflexes…
some genes and genetic engineering.
DD had revised plants but this was more like botany!!

@queenofthesuburbs - my dd does AQA bio. She didn’t comment on plants.

@VioletIndigoBlueGreen - are our children identical? Dd also has the same exams on Thurs and Fri with a day off tomorrow!

I had no idea there was no foundation English - that seems absolutely bonkers

But you may need to know the “other stuff” for A level / future. The course is obscenely large I’m not sure they can cover it in two papers. Of course in the middle of exams kids are only focused on what came up in that exam not the bigger picture

English language is the dodgy essential subject in our house . I feel they really should have foundation for it given that it seems to be the key to further study

For the school changing to OCR Maths It was to do with the school thinking you needed less marks potentially to get a 9 but we aren’t in that category!