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

[QueenMabby]

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

Maybe those are past papers when they didn’t have a formula sheet? Just speculating but they do change these things.

Dd says that the aqa combined science F was pretty good and she had 15 mins "spare"
She also got very good news on her raw art practical grade 👏

Sometimes they just seem pretty straightforward to get through. DD’s chemistry took 50 minutes including checking time this morning - hers is a two hour paper!

7 down 15 to go! Let’s go!!!!!

Eng lit tomor. Eek!!

No offence to @SuperTrooper14 DC but I too would be worried about her finishing a paper in half the time. QueenMabby’s DD has a history of doing papers in half the time and still gets 9’s. She’s a different calibre to the majority of DC here. I know it’s Foundation but unless she’s a definite 5/6 then I think your concerns are legitimate. But if she went through it x3 then 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼

congrats @groovylady on the raw art grade! Yaay!!

Yes I think it’s a very recent addition hence DD learning them in the first place. Trust me, she would not have bothered unless it was a requirement.

Ouch! @SuperTrooper14 that sounded harsh!! Really wasn’t my intention. I was trying (and failing) to legitimise your concern. Of course your DD may have found it easy apologies!!

Hi all

Good to hear that chemistry seems to have gone well for most dc. DS was pretty happy apart from a one market which he got correct and then changed!

re raw art grades, ds told me today he’d received them last week (🤦🏻‍♀️), he has no clue what they mean and any ‘appeals’ had to be in last week. He did AQA Art and Design, looking at the marking scheme am I right in thinking you x component 1 by 3 and component 2 by 2 to get the total scaled mark ? How can I then convert it to a grade ( understanding this has to be validated and is just a guide!) thanks

@NotDonna
I'm hoping that in my dds case, sitting the Foundation papers for maths and combined science that she finishes quickly is because she really should have done the Higher papers 😬
But...we felt her mh was more important and she isn't going into stem amd needs a 5 for 6th form so 🤞
There are certainly lots of very able pupils who would whizz through even the higher papers...

@NotDonna
Thank you! 😊

Btw ds2 showed me this morning that his clear pencil case 30cm had split. Did you not think to mention this before? 🙄 Boys! Gave him my old one, ordered another on Amazon.

My daughter found the two longer questions on AQA higher Chemistry hard. She wrote stuff down in the hope of scraping a few marks on each. Sciences are not a strength and I now wish she was doing combined papers but there wasn’t another option choice that she wanted to do when we were choosing! She’s def stronger on more essay based creative subjects and languages! We don’t need to get a high mark in these sciences so will hope for a 5/6!

Yes you scale like that to get a mark out of 480. Link to 2024 boundaries below. Hope that helps.

filestore.aqa.org.uk/over/stat_pdf/AQA-GCSE-GDE-BDY-JUN-2024.PDF

This is us @groovylady - although opted for Higher rather than Foundation and currently really regretting that choice. Needs 5s but teachers and tutor thought she had a solid shot at the 6 and maybe a 7 wasn't utterly impossible if everything aligned. I am praying that the next two maths papers are better as she's still miserable after Thursday.

From what DD has heard from classmates who went with Foundation, it sounds like your DD has just had a really good paper.

That’s great, thanks! Oh dear, seems his practical let him down then! Thanks

It’s really hard when you have a dc on the boundary. We had this with ds and Spanish. He hated it. School pushed for the higher paper so he sat that. Got a 4. He would have got a 5 with ease on the foundation paper as he would have felt a lot more confident that he could tackle it all.

Goodness, this almost sounds like one long advertisement.

That's the thing - they feel confident and able to tackle more.

I hate the way that those on the boundary have to pick.

Had this with my DS and French. He thinks he was the only vaguely interested one in the class so the teacher pinned her hopes on him. Even asked if was doing alevel french (I actually snorted on the online parents eve!). We thought the teacher knew best, do left it, DS struggled, saw a foundation paper 2 weeks before the exam and could actually do it but it was too late. He got 1 mark into a 4.
DD learnt from this, even though she probably could get a 6, ‘failed’ her mocks and just did foundation German. Promises me she’s aimed for a 5. Mainly to beat her brother.

Glad to hear it wasn't just mine!

I don't think it does at all! I think @HariVishnu was trying to help !

That’s poor of the school or rather the Spanish teacher tbh. If someone is looking at a 5, a 6 on their best day even, then unless they might need the 6 going forward (for sixth form admission maybe) F is the way.

Thank you for qualifying the comment, because I did read the other one and think "ouch!" 😂 Background is, DD on the cusp for Higher but decided to sit Foundation in Maths, Biology and Chemistry because she's has acute anxiety and has access arrangements in place for all her exams. She doesn't need high grades for what she's doing next, she just needs solid passes. So yes, she did find it easy but we did have a situation in her mocks where she missed an entire section out of one exam because she didn't check the paper properly. She assures me she filled in everything this morning though!

Same thing has been posted in several places..

ETA - and it’s seemingly been removed.

Just discovered DC revising English language and saw their genuine surprise when I said but it's the literature paper tomorrow!