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

[QueenMabby]

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

DD also very worried about History. She's hated it and really regrets having dropped a different subject for it 😔

She is easily overwhelmed with MH issues, so we did say to her after the November mocks that she could relax with History. So she has pretty much given up on it in her head, although she has kept working hard.

I know she will feel really down if it goes terribly today, so I'm very glad it's the weekend at least.

Yeah it’s a brilliant topic. I was trying to get him to have a hot drink, sweets but he declined everything. He looked a bit pale but was in good spirits.

He doesn’t seem to have done much in school on the 16 mark Western Front bit (with the source) but hoping he can do well. He got an excellent mock mark for Medicine so hoping he can do it again (way better than other paper).

Good luck everyone

At DC school the early morning session is mainly to check everyone is in, to go through the format of the paper, and I guess advise on "make sure you write something for everything" check your timings, have you got a pen, etc.

I don't think they try to do any content, more just to get everyone in the right frame of mind.
It seems to work well for most.

We've got history of medicine and Business Studies after today. She seems tired and for the first time has gone in early so not sure if that's a good thing or not. Second time of 2 exams in one day and think she has one more double day.

DC gave an unexpectedly detailed review of the maths higher paper (iGCSE, Edexcel) when they got home yesterday evening. About 25 questions. One of the later questions, on vectors, was an absolute stinker which took them ages - DD1 worked out the answer but DD2 didn't and is upset, although she did finish everything else. No calculus in this paper so presumably will be in paper 2. Rest of the paper was "fine" (they're both fairly good at maths) but they said they could see some others in the exam hall with head in hands and not many pages done.

Good luck to all doing exams today!

Late to the party on this thread but wishing all the best to DCs who are in the thick of GCSEs and to all parents and carers supporting them. Bless them it seems much harder and more drawn out than when I was doing them (admittedly over 30 years ago!).

Chiming in as another parent with DC who did the Higher Edexcel Maths yesterday. DC thought it was awful. They have severe ADHD and unexpected changes, like the change in format with no warning, will throw them for a loop. This has a knock on effect on performance as they struggle to get their head around the change whilst trying to answer questions. Sure the topics in the exam will vary but that’s expected and they can cope with that. I have no idea why Edexcel would do this-surely they want to get the best out of students? Throwing in a new format with no notice isn’t the best way to do that!

DC is working at 5/6 level and liked the usual format with short questions to start with to pick up marks and build confidence before tackling the 5 markers later. They had worked so hard and spent a lot of time bringing up their weaker topics but none of those topics came up. They came back home so down and worried that they have failed that paper and won’t get the 5 they need to stay on at their school and do the A levels they want. That said non-calculator is their worst paper and so we are hoping they will pick up marks in calculator. They were doing past papers yesterday and will do questions every day. No exams until combined Chemistry on Mon.

View generally across the year group seemed to be that those on for 8/9 found it easy but those on 5/6 found it awful. All thrown by the change in format with no warning.

GCSE maths teacher I know at another local school that does Edexcel said a lot of students came out of Higher in tears. Interestingly she said her higher ability students found the paper hard and it was the lower ability ones who said they found it easy. Likewise none prepared for change in format and came as a shock.

Hopefully grade boundaries will be adjusted at the lower level…….

Dd was tired going in this morning. Slept ok but the hard work and relentlessness of it is starting to show a bit. I’m very glad she only has 3 exams next week.

She has three days of orchestra and a concert at the start of half term so that will be a nice break for her.

History source questions for DD2 today - all on the League of Nations (CIE IGCSE). Then she's done with history. Wishes she'd had History of Medicine which was her sister's fave paper. Then a weekend to cram all of Chemistry, pausing only to play Beethoven's Eroica symphony tonight. Obviously this is a completely normal way to spend a friday evening... apparently they all only go cos they get pizza.

Good luck to all sitting today

Those of you enjoying those Lowkey Gen Z slang vibes, have a look at Richard Franks on Instagram doing all of the Shakespeares as well as A Christmas Carol in Gen Z speak as a spoof secondary teacher. Slay. As they say.

Can I join in? My DS is performing at a lower level than many on here but is targeting 5s across the board. He needs 4s to get on his level 3 BTEC next year so should be ok, although Eng Lang is the big worry and could go either way.

He did the Edexcel foundation maths yesterday and found it relatively easy and similar to past papers. He is right at the top end of foundation though and is often scoring 80%+ on the past papers. School were a bit undecided about whether he should do the higher paper until recently but having read the comments on the higher paper, I’m glad he didn’t as it would have knocked his confidence and he cannot risk a 3 in the vague hope of a 6.

Today is history which is one of his favourites. He got a strong 5 on the mock and could get a 6 on a good day. Will be very much dependent on what questions come up.

Good luck to all those doing history today. There is just so much content to remember!

I’m apprehensive to hear how they do in history today as it’s the only subject my DC has not enjoyed.

The AQA paper also had a change of format. Apparently it usually starts with several multiple choice 1-mark questions and there were none? Even the teacher was surprised. It's shocking that they can just change it up with no warning, knowing that past papers is a huge aspect of revision.

@GCSEnerves
My dd is similar wrt maths. She's capable of a 6 but just gets too anxious with the higher paper questions.
Luckily, her maths teacher agreed with us that her mh was more important than a 6 and she needs a 5 for 6th form.

I think it’s a real shame that there isn’t an intermediate paper going up to a 6/7. My DS just found the higher paper so demoralising. He only needs a 4 so it wasn’t worth the risk to do the higher paper.

I think it is more than just that, the 1-3 point questions ease those who are nervous into it - it’s the warm up so to speak before the main exercise.
yesterdays paper was just straight into the main exercise and doing that without a warm up can cause injury and I suspect that could happen.

the problem of course is that those who were due to get 8/9 weren’t phased by the lack of a warm up so got the marks they would have done anyway

@GCSEnerves
Yes, dds maths teacher said that.

No exams here today for dd.
Hoping there will be some English literature and English Language revision going on this weekend!

DD in year 10 is doing History and looking forward to the History of Medicine topic (so far only America covered I think). I have taken her to the Old Operating Theatre museum a couple of times and it's fascinating.

No exams here for DS. He did a chemistry paper yesterday and it was a disaster, so he is doing another one today after getting feedback from DH (chemistry teacher).

I've always been a last minute reviser too. Stayed up all night before some of my Uni exams - not recommended!

My DC is increasingly thinking revision was mostly a waste of time. For example, she is very strong at Maths and had a massive headache and hardly slept all night, but still found the Higher paper easy and luckily the headache cleared during the exam. Same story with English that she is just good at and hardly revised for. Biology and History, on the other hand, which she has spent all her time revising pretty much, she still found really hard and was really deflated.

We are taking the weekend off as she is also just good at Chemistry and Physics. Will do some minor revision only. Roll on half term!

This DC reports back every detail of her life, so I am getting much more insight into the whole thing than with the older two when the reports were simply, “it was fine”. DS1 in particular just won’t allow much involvement in his life, emotionally speaking.

And really the whole of the GCSE process should really be about self discovery and them figuring out what subjects they are actually interested in and good at, how to organise your life around pressures and performance and what may or may not work, and potentially build some resilience and learn from your mistakes. The grades themselves, beyond what is required for Sixth Form entry or anything after that, should be less relevant. At least that is how I see it.

Lucky you! Got to try to slog out massive amounts of revision here to try to clear required grades.

Exactly this.

DD in tears last night over it all. She really struggles with exams but is fine in class and it was a toss up in early Spring if she should take Higher or Foundation. She was working at a 6 in tests by the time the decision was made and now she feels she made the wrong choice.

No 1 markers at all or even easy questions and she felt there weren't a big range of topics covered and too many multi part questions.

Then said... for Foundation they had to draw a circle. Literally a circle.

Terrified she has failed this paper in trying for a 6 and should have just gone for the 5 at Foundation.

Yep, we are also trying to get sufficient grades to get to 6th form. DS boderline at the moment with English which is a worry, and his chosen subjects at 6th form also need a fair amount of work as 7s are needed, so no room for dropping grades as he's just about clearing that at the moment.

@OhCrumbsWhereNow that is so sad. I feel for all these children who think they've failed. They have two more papers to pull it back, but it seems so unfair to knock their confidence like this. My niece was also really sad about yesterday- and she is strong in maths. Will it affect your dd's ability to go to her school sixth form - I know you said they have very high entry grades but perhaps she has other plans?

I honestly feel the system is wrong and there must be a better way.

I say that as someone who was academic and loved exams, but my technique was to do pretty much nothing until the last minute, cram it all in a few days and do really well in the exam but probably wouldn't have had much idea a month later.

DD has taken a BTEC as one of her options and it's been much less stress, has allowed much more freedom in how and what to do within the subject and is much more like real life. She also works hard consistently at school - and then falls apart in exams.

Her results won't look anything like mine, but she's definitely the better student in many ways.

There has to be a way of working out who goes where and to do what at this age that isn't so stressful and demoralising.

My DC hasn’t covered medicine in history. I think she would have found that more interesting than the topics they focused on.