Year 11 - 2024/2025: Half way, half baked, half term!

[QueenMabby]

Continuation of the year 11 support thread. Go!

@kary42 your DD's choices are very similar to mine. Except for her Music is non negotiable. She's not even sure she wants to do it professionally at all, but I guess that's her red line.

She's also had to do interviews and auditions for the new potential colleges, which she was very nervous and stressed about, so she feels she's invested too much now.

Maths A level with Arts/Humanities A levels may not widen degree choices, but could well be useful for job applications/career choices later on.

Arrrgh yes I meant wouldn’t take it just to keep doors open, sorry!

@stickygotstuck I was a sixth form form tutor for many years and teach a lot of sixth form.

It is one of the things I often talk to them about - it's absolutely normal not to know what you want to do with your life when you're 16 or even 18. I absolutely knew when I was about 14 but my sister did not... and she is very very happy in her work, even though she didn't find her "thing" until much later.

Going into Sixth form at her current school so no auditions or formal interview. They just have a meeting with Sixth form staff to check if choices fit with what they want to do in future. DD is lucky in that she already wants to do English lit and German at uni so for her Maths is just the 3rd A level for uni entrance and Music btec for enjoyment.
Many degrees do accept any 3 A levels so if she is unsure picking her best and favourite subjects seems like a good plan. Option blocks in school were quite prescriptive so it was a choice between Maths, Physics or History and Maths won.

hi @clary - 10/6 and 17/6 Spanish exams to come - thanks for tips will pass on to DS / use to check what he has been doing as revision. Regretfully I've never studied a language so I'm no help to DS but its on my bucket list to learn another language. Cheers

Thanks, that's my thinking currently. Especially as it would be a 4th she could drop if needed.

Thank you for the reassurance @MrsHamlet .

Thanks for clarifying @clary .

@kary42 I wish DD could have stayed in her school, life would have been much easier, especially in the run up to the GCSEs. Having said that, she hasn't been happy at her school so a change should be good.

Ahhhhh, yep, I’m with you- sadly!! What time was DS to start his revision today? I wasn’t sure what time to be going for, thought 10am would be a happy medium? How are his Q 5’s going? Some of the part papers are SO weird!! Ow I see what they meant about their extract being weird! I like the Insomnia one from Nov 22. It’s good that he is at least trying them, albeit faffing!!

Very 🙀here!… DS refused doing the past paper English Lang printed out for him, or ANY English, stating he was doing maths instead …. on Savemyexams.. fine, but very hard for me to police that…. anyway, he seemed to be in his room for 30 mins maybe, came out for a play with the dogs for about 20 mins, good mood, all was well I thought, ( but wished he hadn’t stopped revising for a break after so short a time), disappeared off back to it, it was quiet so I was hopeful.

I just popped in to see him and he snapped that he has ….”done a solid TWO hours already ….. I’m not having my lunch during break time as that doesn’t make it a break!!………and ever since I screwed up Eng Lang Paper 1, you and Dad won’t stop banging on about revision, saying I should let you do a timetable, rather than let me revise when I WANT to revise…..”………

So, I don’t know what to do! It HASN’T been a “ solid two hours” of revision, DH and I happily let him have the weekend off, aren’t dragging him out of bed first thing, we are just steadily increasing in unease about his revision- or lack of it. Then DH and I disagree- because of DS ASD and ADHD he seems to say we can’t expect more than a couple of hours of revision…. which I think is surely far too little as he should have been doing more than that before Easter! With only a week to go before Round 2, I think far more structure in terms of everything is needed- timings of revision periods, which bloody subjects to be revised, when, more periods of revision… DH doesnt back me up, so DS senses weak point and revision timetables don’t get done and I get internally panicked about the lack of momentum ( ANY at the moment) and quietly cross at DH for essentially being “ calm down, calm down” at me! So, very 🙀🙀🙀today!

I hope other DC are ticking along ok! I’ve been enjoying learning about your DC 🎵 Music! Very interesting! Sadly, I know little about it, or the A Levels, so I’ve not been able to offer any advice on those posts. My DS18 GF is musical and it must be so lovely for you guys to listen to them practising….

Good luck for the afternoon 🍀

DS went to the gym, made his lunch and is doing a few hours of revision before going to a party with his girlfriend and 3 other couples.
I feel uneasy about the party, but his GF's parents are collecting DS and GF and he'll stay there (sofa!) overnight so I've allowed it. I had not allowed him to go to a larger party the w/e before the first exam. There will be some drinking, but he is a gym rat and doesn't want to feel ill.

Eugh...I hate this age - young enough to need our guidance, supervision and rules, but old enough that they'll just do it anyway.......

@stickygotstuck my DD3 has no clue either. She’s just choosing subjects that she thinks she’ll like - all new! There’s nothing she currently does that appeals 😳 So so many university degrees want any 3 A levels. With her choices it looks like she’s not looking at engineering, vet or medicine or any sciences - which all tend to be the degrees where you need specific A levels. Maths (with 2 of her choices) would open up economics, finance and some engineering (like the architectural one). They’re 15/16 so it’s totally understandable they’ve no clue! We were also told that careers that our children may do, may not even exist as yet! So doing what you enjoy is the definite take away there.

I can’t claim it’s been opened yet but I bought these in a throw money at the problem type way..

clever Lili- the Vietnam conflict
Alex Kerr the Vietnam conflict full of maps…

I feed NoRevision before I hit him with a stack of books

He seems fine writing in actual exams so he refers to talk the answers through and he prefers to study with someone (me essentially)

He put up resistance this late morning because he had only done dribs and drabs since Eng Lang paper 1 and said yesterday he is thinking back and now panicking about answers!

So have explained it’s better to put energy into exams still to come and he can panic if he likes about answers come June 17th!

We are all just taking a break
Brother is off out in half an hour and NoRevision has agreed to read through geography case studies once he’s gone.

Then he will do a Spanish listening paper

I inform him calmly it’s 3 more weeks of study then 2 1/2 months of what he wants to do.

Yes he gets ratty with me but he doesn’t explode
He does understand this has to be done and it’s the most effective way to do it

Thanks @Soundofshuna she’s found a couple of videos to watch to help understanding and clarify the timeline. I’m trying to persuade to rub off Germany now- so that she has space for Vietnam & Medicine but she’s reluctant to demolish her handiwork - see photo!

So he did one Q5 over about 2 hours 🙄 but I told him (once I realised that he wouldn't get much out of a second one) that he should completely focus on fleshing out the content of that one question and try and get that nailed. He is happy with what he has done, he wouldn't let me read it but I can see he has done 6 meaty paragraphs. I suspect there were several 'breaks' in between.

I have told him if he does an hour of Sparx maths this afternoon he can bake us a cake. Which is always a good motivator for him!

He is then going to do an hour of Chemistry flashcards with DH tonight. I think that's enough for a day.

@clary thank you for the Spanish tips - I have made a note of them all.

Oh wow that is impressive! I love that so much.

DH would absolutely employ her - he loves a well marked up whiteboard 😂

We’ve done some history and some biology. I think he’s feeling motivated as knew a lot of what we went over so that’s good. I don’t think I’ll get any more out of him today as he is getting so fed up now but I have pointed out that the final week for him is really full on (8 exams I think) so he needs to use this week to his advantage. Not sure he’ll take that on but I tried!

like a previous poster he is liking me reading out from his revision guide and him listening while I ask the odd question or get him to tell me all he knows about a topic. It’s not how I would revise but I think he’s a bit done with writing more notes at the moment and it’s something.

I’m a big believer in ‘talking it through’ as a means of getting it to stick in your head for humanities.

I’m sure I read somewhere that by teaching it to someone else, even at a lower level, it activates other parts of your brain that aren’t used when writing your own notes and helps solidify it in your memory?

When I did my history masters dissertation I talked the arse of poor DH! But I really found it helped solidify the ‘story’ of it and the ‘so what?’ moments.

Actually, come to think of it, DC’s history teacher mentioned it at parents evening. She said she’d asked one of the girls who got a 9 in her mock what she did and she said she’d talked it through/taught the topics to her parents as a way of helping her make all the links, especially causes/consequences, stick in an orderly way in her head.

However, I’ve tried this with DC and he’s not very receptive! 😂

just reading last few posts, when people say "we" - are you actually physically sitting with your DCs and revising together? and they are ok at 15 -16 with that or is it what they have always been used to?

DS won't let me in the room!!!! I can only hope and pray he is actually doing something. Not since 11+ have I sat / been allowed to sit with DS regards work / practice.

the only positive I anticipate is DS will take to independent learning for A Levels and University much more easily.

Still a little envious though 😞

@ThisPerkySloth2 for history, yes I spend time sitting with DD in the kitchen verbally going through old exam q’s and she will write a paragraph and I’ll read it against a mark scheme. The other 9 subjects I’m not physically there. I do mark past science papers against the mark scheme as I’m a tough marker 😆

@ThisPerkySloth2 i should add that dd has a processing delay and gets extra time and is having some MH issues so needs lots of support. I doubt I will do / be allowed to do anything with her younger brother who is very organised and self motivated.

Yes I do. Not all the time but more this half term as he’s ’done’. He’s also only likely to scrape 4’s in some/ most subjects so I’m hoping a little boost will mean more 4’s than 3’s.

We have just finished a heap of talking through urban development and sustainability!

If we didn’t have to tangent onto the strangeness of Japan (his tangent) almost every topic it wouldn’t take so long, but then he wouldn’t be as pliable to the rest……

Same here for DS1. I can’t get involved. I just feed him and check he’s ok from time to time. Would love to be able to help him but he won’t let me.

Bit of both here…

He now works downstairs at the kitchen table. Whilst it’s quite disruptive to everyone else it means he’s less distracted than squirrelled away in his bedroom- even he agreed with that! So therefore it’s easier to keep a vague eye on him, even if not directly involved.

We discuss in the morning what he’s going to cover that day, ensuring he isn’t missing anything/just doing the subjects he likes/finds easy.

For maths/sciences he works his way through the revision work books I bought, looking difficult areas up as he goes. I then mark them (with the answers in the back of the book!) and highlight any areas where he’s got it wrong/needs to go over his notes again. I don’t supervise him as such, just mark when asked.

History is probably the only one he (begrudgingly) accepts as more of a team effort because of my background. I worry that he knows the content, but left to his own devices may not tackle the questions in a way that maximises marks.

He let me look at/read through the advanced material for paper 3 geography. We had a quick chat about it. He’s done the rest of his revision for the other papers for geography on ‘save my exams’, reading the notes and then answering questions online as (for some bizarre reason!) he doesn’t seem to have any notes/text books?!

English lit he bombed the revision planning, and hadn’t touched any of the poetry till the afternoon before the exam. That one I did get involved, eg finding videos on youtube analysing each poem for him as time was of the essence! He’d watch one video/make notes whilst I was searching for the next one! And English lang he’s convinced he doesn’t need to revise for as such, but will just go through advice on how to tackle the exam/mark scheme on SME again.

@ThisPerkySloth2 yes physically both around the kitchen table

otherwise he will go off on tangents (he still talking about Japan) nope he’s analysing the 100 men v 1 gorilla debate now!

it’s not his ability or knowledge that needs the most work it’s exam technique and checking over which bits he needs to go over

he was an utter flake in year 10 he has caught up this year but time and time again he goes off on google map wormholes

his chosen a’level subjects - fine he’s fine with all them
just the other two thirds!

(Most of the time he is great company and I am cherishing the time together because it’s limited as they get older so I know he needs to be more self sufficient as he moves through a’levels and beyond) but for now he needs stapling to the kitchen table and accommodation made for tangents!