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

[QueenMabby]

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

We got one word for AQA history, 'decent'. Given history is her least favourite subject it sounds ok.

I lied. It was good, apparently. (Clearly with your support I asked better questions!)

One of the sources was Vera Brittan's letters to her mother. We've been talking about testament of youth for years.

VB was buried in the grave yard near where I grew up and my mum occasionally saw Shirley Williams there!

So is it more 'the 6th form will make her retake if she only gets a 4' but will still let her do her desired course anyway?
(Still seems a bit mean of them given a 4 is a pass).

Yes. Exactly that.
Very common around here.
It is mad. If a 4 is a pass, why do they need a 5!?
🙄

Ha! I don’t hear anything until after school. DS is brief, but he doesn’t want to dwell so I am fine with that. I said I heard a rumour about tracing paper 🤪 I hope today went ok for him not feeling great 🤞🏻

Apologies if it came across that way.

With the higher paper, there are supposed to be easier questions that the beginning that those aiming 9s will find ridiculously simple, but act as confidence builders for those aiming at a 6.

In the same way, the Foundation has questions that those aiming at a 5 will find easy, but not those targeting lower grades.

It's just awful when you have a child who feels they had almost nothing they could answer on the Higher and nothing at the start to make them think they can do this, and now they are terrified they will fail the whole thing and wish they had taken Foundation where they would at least feel they had got lots of ticks on the page.

Even if grade boundaries end up really low on Higher, it's much nicer psychologically to say 'yay I got 65% in Maths' than 'oh god I got 17% in Maths' even if it ends up with the exact same grade.

I don't understand why they did away with intermediate tier, aimed at grades 3-6.

DD just text and said History of medicine was "alright" and she answered most of them.

I'm so proud if how she's handling all this. She does struggle with anxiety and we lost her Grandma 7 weeks ago very suddenly but she's being a trooper!

Just heard back about AQA History and my daughter says it ‘went well and questions were good’.

Her school does,
Germany: Democracy and Dictatorship
Conflict and tension: The inter war years.

Hope it goes well for others.

I agree wrt the intermediate tier esp for maths, tho tbh it’s a while since it existed. Not sure why it was done away with but maybe it was an admin task too far to sort the students?

And for all those whose DC are struggling with illness or too much stress.

One thing that’s clear to me – anyone looking at a 4/5 in maths would be well advised to sit foundation. But then I have thought that for a while tbh.

Another big week to come - Eng lit and lang plus lots of science. And a side order of French. If your DC are taking French, top tips for listening are to watch out for negatives (ne...jamais; ne...que etc); use the second hearing of the audio to double check your answer; listen for tone of voice and conjunctions such as cependant or mais, which can help in a P/N question; and put an answer of some kind for every question. For reading it’s more about the timing, especially allowing a decent time to do the translation at the end.

Also Eng poems – remember you don’t need to learn all of them – check which ones work for which themes and focus on those, if struggling.

@TeenToTwenties didn’t know there had ever been such a thing but this would have been ideal for DC and I suspect many others at a similar level.

Does anyone know if schools give feedback to the exam boards on papers - if a significant number of students have had problems with a new format paper like the Maths Higher would that be reported back? If so I wonder whether that is taken on board when setting grade boundaries? Or are the boundaries purely based on the bell curve of marks achieved nationwide?

One thing that’s clear to me – anyone looking at a 4/5 in maths would be well advised to sit foundation. But then I have thought that for a while tbh. @clary

Totally agree. I think the hard decision is for those targeting a 6 and maybe a 7 if the stars align.

DC said history was good. They were straight into more lessons afterwards so will get a better idea after school.

I've always thought that history of medicine sounded fascinating.

Thanks for the info. He’s actually just gone back to school to sit business. He woke up, felt better and has gone in. Frankly I’m exhausted from all the driving, 30 mins each way.

I will take him to the doctor to discuss the headaches as they are infrequent but do interfere when he gets them and needs to sleep them off.

@Twillywoowooo
Sadly, yes :(
Dd gets migraines (amongst other things) and got one during an exam. Had to pick her up, too :(
The EO applies for special consideration and I think the exam boards use the other papers to award a grade.
It's so rubbish for them. Hope he's OK x

It’s good to read he’s feeling better and was able to make it back in.

@Twillywoowooo - glad your ds is feeling better. My ds used to get migraines although he’d mostly grown out of them by gcse year - his were puberty related. The doctor gave him medication which helped with the sickness although he did still get auras. Hope you get some help for your ds from your GP.

You can get nurofen migraine amd bucastem otc for pain and nausea

Both dd and her brother get migraines, dd in particular really suffers with them, including being sick. She got put on a drug called pizotifen which has made such a difference as they were really impacting on school. She was due a trial of coming off it to see if she's outgrown them, but the consultant said he wouldn't do it as she's in such a critical year.

Does anybody have any guidance on which poems to focus on for AQA power and conflict? DD2 has a significant issue with her memory and processing, so she really only has capacity to learn 3 or 4 of the poems. (she’ll read through the rest too). I want to advise her on which they should be, as even that decision is proving too difficult. She thought she’d fail English Lit, but after the 1st paper went quite well, she wants to try and get a 4.

Revise the hell out of the one used on the paper last year.
Then 2/3 more to compare

Try watching Mr Everything on you tube. Recommends 5. DS hammering on those - will have limited knowledge of rest. Not sure if this is advised or not. He says 3 quotes for each

Exam report from the Latin exam was that it had lots of Messalina and very little Pliny. Dd seems to have been quite happy with it. Glad to have a couple of days exam free now before Chem on Monday.

If you google it there are lists online of poems that cover x or y theme. You’ll see there are some that cover multiple. Pick four that covers as many themes as possible.

It’s fine to leave lots; the one you get is there and then there’s no need to pick Tissue. For example. They will never set Tissue IMHO

chart here for example https://www.savemyexams.com/gcse/english-literature/aqa/17/revision-notes/4-the-poetry-anthology/power-and-conflict/power-and-conflict-overview/

also agree re videos recommended