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

[QueenMabby]

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

Dd did, too

Dd busy revising media.
Not sure much geography is getting done!

Joining in here too!
DD found AQA English Lit OK - Macbeth question was about Ambition but she found it harder than mock questions on the same topic with how to tie it very specifically to the text. It’s probably her least favourite subject though (along with English Language!)
iGCSE Biology she said the same about some tricky plant questions (that were actually 2 mark questions but confused her…)

Anybody else has a kid who was thrown by the question on Macbeth and symbols in the Edexcel iGCSEs? DD very upset and I’m worried this is going to impact the rest of her exams.

Thanks @NotDonna that’s more info than I got from him and something to ask him about!

Did she not cover Macbeth in the coursework for edexcel igcse? I thought they did both plays (Shakespeare & modern) as coursework? So was just the poetry questions and of Mice & Men (in her case -.I know the other class at her school read To Kill a Mockingbird instead of mice & men). But they all did the plays as coursework for edexcel igcse

Hello! The chicken pox question was at least on AQA combined biology. Think they weren’t expected to know about chicken pox pre exam but the fact it was a virus so use what you knew about viruses?
To the person whose daughter uses blue paper. I’m an invigilator and good exam practice is to also have a white paper out as the coloured copies aren’t the best for diagrams etc. if this happens again get your daughter to ask for an original (but make sure she does the answer/marked bit) in the blue one. Day off here tomorrow! Then 3 including a clash on Thursday…..

She does know it very, very well. Was thrown by the question on symbols and instead wrote about what the characters symbolise rather than symbols like blood, daggers…. 😬

Apologies. Misunderstood the question. There was no coursework. Maybe it was the edexcel GCSE and not iGCSE.

i do find all these various boards really ridiculous. How can it be a national examination when there are so many exams?

I think my patience with the UK education system has truly come to an end today

Anyone else’s child upset after aqa combined foundation? Mine said all the past papers they’ve done and the mocks for paper 1 have been much easier than today’s exam and was expecting it to be easier. Tried to reassure that there are another 5 to go but it didn’t help.

And my DD does a different eng lit board where Macbeth is next week so she gets to benefit from hearing all the other questions (last year their question very similar to another board). Even if it’s not the same must get the brain thinking of all these ideas.

In France for example all students sit for the same exams (depending on what speciality they’ve chosen) on the same day at the same time. Results are a couple of weeks later (and not two fucking months). Love the UK which has been my home for 30 years but I’ve got to say we really, really overcomplicate things on GCSEs.

Dd said it was ok, but biology is her favourite science

She is not looking forward to physics and chemistry! :(

I’ve just put an empty plastic crate in DD’s room for her to symbolically trash all her notes from
subjects as she finishes them. German will be the first to go on Thursday afternoon.

I think that macbeth symbols question has confused a lot of kids if SM is anything to go by.
They study symbolism to the nth degree, but actual drawn symbols?
Bit mean of AQA imo

I’m going to nick this idea. Thank you. Yes, no more German after Thursday.

It may help to explain that if the paper was hard, that's the case for everyone, so the grade boundaries will be adjusted.

DD had Edexcel Lit yesterday - Macbeth and Inspector Calls - and was ecstatically happy. I got a complete rundown from her on every question... which is highly unusual. She was hoping for Superstition but said Symbols was almost as good. She's severely dyslexic but targeting high grades, so I hope she's actually answered as well as she seems to think she has.

She's not taking sciences but said everyone was very happy with Bio today (AQA Combined Higher).

The dreaded Geography tomorrow - tutor seemed happy tonight so fingers crossed but we will be over the moon if she gets a pass in that.

Trouble is friends and those evaluating on tik tok have all said it went well so I think that’s the problem.

B

Get them off TikTok for a start, that's not going to help at all!

Thanks @labradorservant, it was me who asked about the blue paper - she does have a white copy to look at, but was a bit difficult as asked to plot points on a graph on her (blue) answer paper and the smallest squares on the scale had not come out clearly so was hard to do.

@Mafaldaweasleythat’s good but not much help when the reprint loses the graph points. I would be writing a ps on the graph- Blue paper and copying is not great, and mention to the invigilator so they can make a note and to the exam officer too. They’ll be the one who has sent you notes about timetable and procedure.

@groovylady the symbols question was Edexcel GCSE not AQA. @Wafflesandcrepes sounds as tho your DD took Edexcel GCSE not IGCSE (IGCSEs. are usually done by students abroad, hence I, or by students in private schools or out of school, sitting as private candidates).

On the topic of foundation for English – the exam boards’ argument is that th eexam is self-levelling – as in, “write an essay on this topic” can be approached and tackled by a 9 candidate just as it can by a 2 candidate (obvs with different outcomes). I think that may be reasonable for Eng lang but for sure Eng lit as it stands just defeats those DC who are most likely to achieve a 2/3 grade. I do think there could be a version of it that was more approachable.

Those concerned about “easy” exams meaning much higher GBs – really don’t. One person’s easy is another’s challenging, and there is such a range of texts that I cannot imagine it will make that much difference. AS per my PP, the variation has been only a few marks over the years.

Re texts btw – my DD did Animal Farm and Frankenstein – it was the first year of this spec tho and I think perhaps before schools settled into “we better do Macbeth and ACC”. She enjoyed Frankenstein but also studied it for her degree – it’s a tough text for GCSE I think.