Year 11 - 2024/2025: It’s all downhill from here!

[QueenMabby]

New thread to help us get through the next week or so!

Still after 10.30am he has a lovely rest of day of geography case studies ahead!

DD in fairly good spirits this morning. Has been in for the pre-exam "breakfast" session and sent a sneaky text to say she'd had the most delicious cereal bar, so a good start to the day I guess?!

As we got in the car I asked if he definitely had all the equipment needed for maths. His response 'I dunno. Didn't we get an equipment list or something.' Good to know he's on top of it! Especially as he was complaining only the other day that he was woken up by the cat playing with his compass on his bedroom floor, which suggests that at some point it was not in his pencil case. Off to work for me, just for a few hours, before picking him up and delving into an afternoon of History.

Good luck to everyone with Maths today 🍀, and very sorry to hear about your DS's troubles @Sisublondie .

DD woke up at 3am 😞, so God knows how the Maths exam will go today. She could barely drag herself to the bus stop. At least she didn't start revising at 3 and just sat quietly with DCat, who just knows when DD is feeling particularly vulnerable and tries to 'help'.

Then it's the stupidly content-heavy History exam tomorrow. But the worst part is that it's followed by French for DD. So that's her top subject fucked too 🙄. It'll be a miracle if she manages to stay awake through the mammoth 2 History papers, let alone recall any verbs in the afternoon.

Good luck to everyone's DC for Maths this morning.

We're AQA and DD did not like Paper 1, so praying that today's is a happier experience. She really needs to get this one solidly over the line and if today's is miserable I worry about confidence going into Paper 3 next week.

She appears to have done some decent revision yesterday and tutor session went well so am crossing everything for next few hours.

@Sisublondie so sorry to hear about the awful bullies your son is dealing with. I hope school respond properly to you.

I think I may have reached a level of zen wrt the exams.
Dd has had all the support we could give, every revision guide, a tutor for English language, we made revision timetables for her...its up to her now.
Good luck for maths 🍀

Good luck to all! My DS stayed up all night last night cramming for maths AQA. I hope it was worth it .

DD did some decent revision and is doing Edexcel maths now.

I'm savouring a Costa Coffee, and I guess I'll get the reviews later.......!!

Morning - half term has better in terms of a slow ramp up after the bank holiday monday so much so I wish he'd put the same effort in at Easter - ah well . DS school doing a weird hybrid of study leave and we'd like you in today - theres no leavers day until after the last exam . So Monday was a study leave day off work looking at the brutal endless history content so deciding just to concentrate on cramming and reading through some essays 16 markers - we've found the key is to put a model answer written by the teacher or out a revision textbook into Chatgpt and get it to condense it back into bullet points or ask it to write a very similar one with the same structure for a different past paper question and then tell us why its a strong answer against the exam board marking scheme and then condense back into bullet points. Its not fool proof but it does seems help DS a bit . Paper 1 this am . yesterday he was not so keen going back for a full day of revision sessions but seemed ok but tired this am . School are laying on "a well being" session after which they can choose an option for - chill and chatter , play sports or go off site with a member of staff and visit a chain coffee place . Its a small school so thye have lot of flexibilty. The its a school revision for history tonight- just keep swimming is our new mantra! Good luck maths for today

Me!

I didn't even get to give DS any last minute reminders for maths, like double checking answers etc as he gets really nervous in the mornings and doesn't want to talk at all. Although I did make him double check his maths equipment and insisted he take a spare calculator.

@Sisublondie sorry to hear about your DS's troubles. Hope it gets easier for him. Sounds so tough.

I'm feeling ridiculously stressed about it - and a bit tearful for some ridiculous reason that I can only put down to peri-menopause. DS was not helped by the week off over half term and is finding it massively hard to stay motivated and is just hating everything at the moment. The only revision that happened yesterday was us walking for an hour and him giving me the low down for Elizabethan England and American West (containing such epic phrases as "and then they went in and Swiss-cheesed the lot of them" - which I took to mean that the American troops masacred the native Americans). I'm consoling myself that at this point in time, that's about as useful as anything. He is also in school from 8-4.15 every day with guided revision so I don't want to push too much in the evenings.

We're back to the tried and tested pre-exam breakfast that holds his blood glucose steady but am constantly worried that he will hypo and then have to leave the exam which will throw him into all sorts of turmoil. Ooof, it's just one more thing to think about.

Supposed to be working this morning, but I can't concentrate. I'm then off to London for work this afternoon and overnight, so leaving DH to deal with double whammy of history p2 and French written tomorrow. Roll on a week today when he will only have 2 left - and none that he really cares about so the whole house will be more relaxed.

@Libre2 A whole day at school doing revision sounds like more than enough, so I'm sure he'll be fine!
I can't concentrate much this morning at work either. Can't wait till all this is over. still 2 more weeks to go for us as his final paper, FM 2 is on the 18th.

Going home at lunchtime today as need to get DS to tackle English this afternoon and evening. Really worried about this as it's his weakest, so he always putting off studying for it and we can't help much and he gets no help from school. Has been off on study leave since before all the exams started. He did do a practise paper last week which I sent to his teacher but haven't got a reply yet which is frustrating.

My daughter seemed ok going in for her Maths exam today, having chosen to stay home and revise so far this week instead of going into school. Just waiting to hear how it went. Hope it goes well for everyone today. 🤞

DD in tears this morning as maths is her weakest subject.

She has just sent a text saying the thinks she has done enough to pass.

Excellent. I won’t get feedback until this evening but happily ticked it off. 11 done, 11 to go. Officially half way. Home stretch ❤️

Oh so pleased for your DD! Is that IGCSE or will she have paper 3 next week? Hopefully this will give her confidence if so.

My DD has also just messaged to say there were a couple of bad questions but most of it was really good (AQA Higher) so I'm really relieved.

I’m glad it’s gone well for her @TravellingSpoon

@CocoPlum how did your DD find Paper 1?

DD has extra time so I won't hear for ages about Paper 2 (she's hoping for a 6 in Maths, but I don't feel 5 is 100% safe yet).

Horrible. That's how I found these threads, when trying to find out if other children found them as unexpectedly awful as she did! (Change of format, nothing like predictions etc)

Morning everyone - I think we are at the zen point now, DS wasn't too worried about Maths Higher Edexcel but that's because he only needs a 4 and will be happy with that. I think the grade boundaries are currently 20% for a 4 so fingers crossed - I decided not to remind him that the calculator exams will be harder. Let him stay zen!

It's bloody awful History AQA tomorrow though - sorry to hear of those who also have French that day - DS is doing Spanish so that's next week and week after. The History is so content heavy I am not sure how much last minute cramming we can get in today - he is going to a History masterclass soon so hopefully they can give them some motivation. I have juggled some meetings this week as am WFH so that I can be there for him when he is home from his exams.

@Sisublondie so sorry to hear about your DS. As many PP have said - College will be the making of him and a brilliant fresh start - as you say - if 'D' is there then his army will be weakened.

Thank you!

It's hard - especially with maths, as some kids are just amazing at it and will find every paper either easy or a bit tricky if they're 9/8 target.

So I am always trying to work out if it's hard for a 5/6 target.

And yes - nothing like predictions!

Ratty is home.

AQA Higher Maths, first time a bit deflated to be honest.
Didn't answer last question (tangents which I thought and he didn't mention he knew) rest he said ok for working out, but might have missed the final wanted answer.

Not like him at all.

He still reckons he got 80% of the paper covered but feels it's in low 7 possibly not 8/9.

Like some questions. So yeah just a bit deflated.

I am getting the impression we are at the "it's done let's talk no more and move on" vibe at the moment.

We are in the same boat @CocoPlum , found thread for same reason after DC had exact same experience with Paper 1. The change of format threw them particularly as there was no warning. They are neurodivergent and they find unexpected changes like that in a stressful situation hard to cope with. Of course you don’t know what topics come up but that’s a ‘known unknown’ that they expect and can cope with. Change of format with no warning from the board, much harder for them to navigate.

Not heard yet how today went, they get extra time so possibly not out of school yet. Hoping no news is good news!

Dd back from aqa higher maths, felt it was a difficult paper and that this opinion was shared by her cohort.

Predicted 6 here, needs a 6 to do A level biology. Practice papers has been bouncing around at 5/6 boundary. Fingers crossed!

Any feedback on the iGCSE maths paper 2?

DD back from edexcel and same hard paper she needed all the time to go through and answer (and she is predicted a 9) and everyone agreed.

She checked the two 5 pointer with a friend and they agreed the answers so she is happy on that front