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

[QueenMabby]

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

Had to bring DS home from school this morning missing business and history exams. Haven’t heard from school yet but they told him not to worry. Already completed one business paper last week and will have second history one to do. They’ve told him that they will estimate his grades. He’s asleep now (migraine I think as had headache and vomited a few times). Anyone with any experience of this? He was sick a couple of times at school so they’ve seen he’s ill and I rang exam officer this morning just as he turned up at her office, emailed/called welfare etc. Ferling upset about it but what can you do? That’s life. Do we need to get a sickness certificate from doctor?

We had the same decision for DS over whether to take foundation or higher maths (ADHD/dyslexia). He had managed to get himself up to a 5 on the foundation papers and was given a higher paper by accident a while ago and scored better! The way his brain works is that he finds some of the harder questions ok but can also make some stupid mistakes on easy questions …

I also wanted to enter him for both! But I’m not sure you can? Anyway we decided foundation and I guess that was the right call

I am so sad for those that were blindsided by the change in paper format. Friend’s DD at local grammar was in pieces as were a lot of her friends. All the ones around a 6 average. Those shooting for 8/9s were fine with it. So unfair.

You can't enter for both Foundation and Higher simultaneously.

I’m so sorry for those who had a tough time with maths yesterday, and it’s hard so early on in the exams to have one that knocks your confidence.

@Twillywoowooo really hope your DS is ok too and feeling better soon. I don’t know the process, but I’m sure they can work something out for his grades.

DS had history this morning - AQA on Germany and Asia. I won’t hear until later, but he wasn’t looking forward to it this morning, and I think getting on top of all the content was hard when he’s had an exam every day this week. He was tired last night.

@Twillywoowooo does he have a diagnoses? Any medical evidence you can provide the better

@QueenMabby that is pretty much what DD said. Was her least favourite history paper

Exactly this (also ADHD/Dyslexia). Often finds harder ones fine and prone to overthinking the question on the easy ones, or reading 'Three men walked for x miles' as 'The men walked' on the word ones and then not having the right information for the maths part... why, why, why can't they add any numbers in brackets or something. So unfair on the dyslexics to make it even harder.

And yes - all DD's 9/8 friends were happy with it. All the 5/6/7 at a push ones were really miserable. Especially those wanting to stay for 6th form.

She's now tormenting herself watching TikTok and adding up her marks. Thank god it's Eurovision tomorrow for a nice distraction!

I've messaged her tutor as a heads up and at least there are a couple of weeks till the next one.

My understanding is that they will take his grades from his other papers and look at what candidates scoring similar figures on those papers scored on this one and then allocated an assumed grade based on that algorithm.

Sorry to hear that @Twillywoowooo I hope he’s better soon and it’s good that he can get an estimated grade. That’s takes the stress off. Illness can’t be helped.

Thanks for clarifying- I didn’t think you could enter both so good to know for sure.

@Twillywoowooo - I would see the GP anyway for migraine medication. You have to take it within an hour of the migraine starting in the future. Dehydration can trigger it, stress, certain foods. Look up migraine with aura. It is quite common in teens, especially around exam times, hayfever, bright lights etc - different teens have different triggers.

This is what happened before the maths exam for DD. Woke up at midnight with a migraine and did not sleep, almost vomited but still sat the Maths exam after visiting the school office. They told her it was up to her. She said she still had the migraine during the first few questions but then the Maths cleared it. It is a strange one. They have her down as being a bit out of it. She said she did it in a trance like state but thinks it was easy. Not sure what to make of that. She is good at Maths though and they have her down as top set and doing some AdMaths (which is even harder than the FM GCSE).

The medicine topic is normally DD’s favourite part of history (she loves biology and medicine related things) but yes, said the whole thing was a bit weird. She’s in school all day today but no doubt I’ll get more details later.

DD loved her history one, said all the questions were on her favourite topics, so that's a relief.

I find it quite irritating when people say how easy the foundation maths paper is. There are some questions which are on both the foundation and higher paper and to attain a 4 you have got to get some of these correct. To attain a 5 you need even more of them. Yes, there are more simple ones which are aimed at the grade 1, 2 or 3 level but you need to get these all correct really plus the harder ones to attain the magic grade 4.

Agreed. They have to get quite a high percentage of the questions right to get a 4 on the foundation. Whereas on the higher paper it’s obviously a much lower percentage it can be as low as 15% some years. That’s why it’s quite a tricky decision for some.

I’ve had a quick chat with DD AQA history normal GCSE. Said the questions were a bit ‘weird’ one was ‘How did the Russian withdrawal impact the end of WW1’ or something. She is good at history and said she wrote a lot but seems a bit surprised compared to mock papers.

Do you know which topics she was doing? There’s so many different options in it!

Compared to the higher maths paper, the first few questions on the foundation paper must appear very simple.
However, you need to get a much higher % of correct answers to get a pass.
Don't take it personally :)
I'm hoping dd gets her 5 and that we made the right decision for her to do the F paper. It was more about her mh, really, not capability.
If she gets a 4 she'll have to retake.

DD2, (CIE IGCSE) liked the source questions for the League in History - all on Abyssinia and apparently 'could actually see what they were getting at' which isn't always a given.

Wrote a lot on 'provenance', and remembered to check how to spell Abyssinia by checking it on the paper which is very much not a given with her.

Seems chirpy. 'Might' do some music practice. 'Ought' I think is the word we're looking for here...

World war 1 and Nazi Germany I think

@groovylady If she needs a 5 for 6th form, will retaking help as that will be in November so she'd have already started? Would a better plan B to go elsewhere?

It's very normal here for kids to do retakes in first year of 6th form.
Some do it multiple times!

The reason we decided on the F paper for maths was that she got 4s in the mocks on the H paper.
Whereas historically she has got 5s on the F papers
🤞

I’m still waiting to hear how my DC history exam went.

Remember all are welcome here on this thread. It's always been really nice.
There are loads of posters with children
of very high capability. Many children not so much. Remember that my ds2 got a grade 2 in RE last year in the year 10 mock. 🤣

Plus we all have problems. Many SN children and those struggling with MH, and some with medical conditions. None of us have the ideal perfect family, do we!

Oh poor thing so sorry to hear this. Sounds like the school are on it

I won't hear how history of medicine went. It will either be "fine. Can we move on" or not fine in which case "we're not talking about it".

At least with feedback from your kids I can ask slightly better targeted questions!