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

[QueenMabby]

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

Checking in here. DD is glad RS is over (she is made to do it as a half gcse) and refused to do any revision. Her OCR biology went well and its Geography then History

Just checking in to see how everyone’s DC are doing. DD also replying with one word sentences, apparently literature was easy and biology was fine. One of her friends did the wrong paper though - they are doing combined science but did the triple science paper! -, so there’s some panic in air… only one day with 2 exams here, Thursday this week with maths and German. DD only has 4 exams after half term 😅

You'd be surprised how often this happens...
I think they just go blank

It feels like deja vu for me this evening...
Going through the geography revision cards for hazardous earth
Just like I did for older dd 😊

Hi, hope it is ok to join. My dd also did English lit (Macbeth and Frankenstein- I swear, no other schools do Frankenstein!) which is one of her worst subjects but went well, and AQA separate higher biology today, which she loves but was totally underwhelming. Also annoyed a lot of what she revised did not come up, too many plant questions and all a bit 'meh'. Hoping she has done ok, as she really wants a good grade for biology!

One issue she mentioned is, as she is dyslexic and has everything printed on blue paper, the graphs had not printed out properly so the small squares were hard to see. Am worried this could be an issue if it has led to inaccuracies in her answers - and a bit annoyed this should even happen to be honest. She spoke to a teacher after who told her to let her biology teacher know and they could contact exams officer but wondering if we should just do this anyway (not actually sure who is exams officer or how to contact...?!) Just wondered if anyone has had similar? May not be big deal but it would be a shame if it costs her even the odd mark or two.

4 after half term??DS has 6 core subjects alone? What subjects do they do??

I thought (not being British and never having been through the educational system before) that they were in separate rooms but DD said no, they’re just told to check the code on the exam but there was very little difference between the codes and easily missed.

So did mine - Macbeth/ Jekyll and Hyde. Apparently they 'cooked' (I had twins sitting the paper) but unfortunately if everyone cooked then the grade boundaries are going to be very high.

They are coded, yes, but it does also clearly state higher tier or foundation tier on the paper.
As I say, I think it must be nerves.

@Mafaldaweasley
My dds school do AF and MofV and very few schools do those.
I did manage to find a theatre production of AF we went to.

For peace of mind, I'd contact the school's exams officer. You should be able to find out their name/email address by googling exams+officer+school name but sending an email FAO exams officer to the Head of year, Head of subject and school office should get it passed on.

She does all the normal ones, Welsh, RE, triple science rather than combined, German and Art (that has finished already). Not sure if it’s a Wales thing or something her school does but she sat half her science, English lit and RE papers last year. Only Welsh, RE, English and maths after half term for her.

Yes, all the science paper 2s after half term. Both maths calc papers too, think Eng lang is there too, hist and Geog papers. Tons after half term.

Oh definitely nerves, but if I understood it correctly, friend was supposed to be doing the higher tier combined science biology but did the higher tier triple science biology, which according to DD covers a lot more content.

@delatron DD also had edexcel IGCSE eng lit yesterday, which was Of Mice & Men. The choice was between a theme of ‘loneliness’ OR ‘the relevance of Slim’ DD chose Slim but ALL her friends chose loneliness. I can’t recall the poetry sections. Hope your DS found one of the options ok!

@QueenMabby @queenofthesuburbs
My DD concurs that the Biology edexcel IGCSE @RareGoalsVerge DD did was 99% plants - she was not a happy bunny! No digestion, circulation, respiratory- nada. Defo no chicken pox either. Maybe it’ll be mostly human on paper 2? She said EVERYONE found it hideous. Even the girls who are on for 8/9’s. They were talking about it afterwards and think there were a few things never covered and not in the cpg books 🤷‍♀️ which does seem a bit odd.

@justasoul
Yes, definitely.
It's a "pure" science qualification as opposed to combined (which is confusingly called trilogy!) Which gives 2 gcse qualifications.

Thanks @SE13Mummy, really helpful, I will do that.

@groovylady my dd and ds (year 9) both did Animal Farm in year 8 or 9, so we also took them to see it recently in Manchester - it was amazing, maybe same production you saw.
My dd hated Frankenstein with a passion, I don't understand why school have chosen it when there are shorter and much more accessible texts like A Christmas Carol....!
I also did MofV at school, remember v little about it except quality of mercy speech.

I can still recite that speech @Mafaldaweasley 😊 can't remember why I opened the fridge but hey ho
It was an amazing production...quite gory and bloody. Really fantastic lighting and sound, too.
Dd hated both AF and MofV so is glad it's done.
She much prefers J&H and poetry which is next.
Media tomorrow is worrying her. She didn't do that well in the mock 😬

DC2 says biology today was 'decent'. They went on to say they'd written most of it using their non-dominant hand but thinks 'it's mostly legible'. Ongoing issues with nerve damage following a broken wrist mean DC2 has typed everything at school for the past couple of years, including in exams. Due to the fingers and wrist of the writing hand being extra painful today, even when typing, DC2 decided to save typing for the longer answers.

I'm both impressed by their resourcefulness and concerned any examiner may struggle to read the hieroglyphics, especially when DC2 described how for some questions they guided the nib of the pen using a finger from their writing hand...🤯
I'll be asking the exams officer at the school to ensure DC2 is aware of the process for a transcription to be done at the end of any other exams where this technique is employed!

Glad most of the dc’s on here seem happy. Long may it continue! My dd said English lit was really good, she did Macbeth and Jekyll and Hyde. Biology today she thought was good too. She has geography tomorrow, maths Thursday and history Friday.

DD said Aqa single higher Biology went fine.

Seeing a lot online describing it as easy. Wondering whether 2024 was too hard but it's not available yet...I thought in our day last summer's exams were available and often used for mocks.

@groovylady am impressed, I can't get beyond the first few lines - frequently can't remember why I opened the fridge though 😂

Thanks Op.

Ds2 said RE was ok but hard.

He said biology was ok, but he made a mistake on the 5 marker on conversions, and made the cell count massive so missed out on marks there. Lots of his friends got it right, some got it wrong. Oh well.

onto geography tomorrow.

My ds2 liked the chicken pox question because likes vaccines.