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

[QueenMabby]

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

I'm afraid I can't cope with the 220+ daily posts, since I posted this morning.
I hate the TikTok paper. What new evil is this. I did look at it though for 3 minutes and discussed it with ds2.
Ds2 says he got 46+ which he thinks is a 7. I still can't grasp how you get that high with such a low mark. He's got eng lang and geography, Friday. He says he doesnt even know if he's got revision classes! Finishes with Spanish 17th.

I'm as tired and fed up with it all as he is!

In 1989 when I finished my GCSEs we went to a friend's family caravan up the coast for a week.

I'm old. After we finished our O levels a few friends had a few days on the beach in Norfolk. My main memory is dancing to Yazz- The Only Way Is Up on the beach drinking cider. Happy days.

@Oblomov25 the paper is on tictoc? Really?

@rosemarble i did O levels too! I bizarrely did both an O level & GCSE in Maths as they were trialling the GCSEs or something. I got an A in the O level and a B in GCSE!! But whenever I was asked I used to just hand over my O level certs (the gcse one disappeared 🤫)

Well, wanted to say a massive GOOD LUCK to the Historians! 🍀🙏🙀 🍀!!! Sending you ALL the positive vibes!!

Also! Loving reading about all your fab holiday/end of exam plans!! For once I can add mine- First family holiday since Covid hit!! Going 30 June with DS, DS18 and DH to Montenegro for a week…. DS has just done few months in South America working on his Spanish accent, so granted us a week off his summer job before he disappears to Scotland for Uni. SO looking forward to us all being together…. you start thinking “was X (2019 for us) our last ever family holiday?! 🤷‍♀️”…….

Very impressed with DC who are doing their own trip!! Go for it, I say!! They will have a fab time…. ( I’m loving the girlie seaside resort one…… 🏖️ !).

I don’t remember doing anything with friends after GCSEs. Think we did the usual family holiday to Spain. But i did go to Butlins after A-levels with the girls! And then to Spain with other friends. DS refused to go on the organised lads holiday after A-levels. Apparently the hotel had inbetweener vibes. Think I’ve spoilt him.

Thank you. Thats good to know. He is so fed up. The rest of his exams will be 4’s and 5’s at the most so he was really putting a lot into the 7. Hopefully he’ll be happy with a 6!

I didn’t do anything after O levels either. In fact it was such an anti climax. I remember being a bit at a loss with nothing much to do other than my Saturday bakery job. DD is going away with 3 friends (albeit one set of parents nearby).

Yes @NotDonnathe Edexcel one is anyway.

@Pinkflower100 everything crossed for that 7!! And obviously his others. We just don’t want them to be disappointed after working so hard!

DS has done a bit of English and a few Geography questions this afternoon /evening but apart from that been just relaxing. I didn't have the energy to nag him to do anymore and it would have been counterproductive anyway.
Starting afresh tomorrow as seeing how it pans out.
Any tips for English? The mark schemes are so vague and DS is too lazy to do complete answers to the questions so it's difficult to know his level.

@Oblomov25 aahh DD IGCSE edexcel for this one - I don’t think that’s on social media (yet).

Ds2 has done practically no English language revision for ages. And speaking (texting) to all his friends male mums , they haven't done either. Why are males (not all, some) so dismissive of Eng lang?. 😡

@rosemarble
happy days. None of this TikTok shit of paper being there within hours. Instead a weeks camping, Yazz.

happy days.....

@Oblomov25 i think it’s tricky to revise for Eng Lang. Lit there’s quotes to learn but Lang? DD1 was telling DD3 (very unhelpfully) that she did zero revision for Eng Lang (and got an A* as was weirdly still letters in 2019). DD1 is NOT a writer so I guess it reassured DD3 but…

poor dd2 has to stay at school after exams. She can leave when she has no musical commitments. So that’s apparently Friday afternoon. Sometimes. I mean, it’s her own fault and she totally wanted this, but sometimes it seems quite intense.

she eventually finishes on July 4- and we’re leaving immediately for a family trip to berlin, Prague and Poland. Super excited- much cheaper because it isn’t the state school hols and we’ve never been able to take advantage of that before

Oh and DD1 revised massively for EVERYTHING else - just not English lang.

@achangeofnameisasgoodasarest oooh what a fab trip!!

AQA paper 2?

Don't waste time reading the texts first.
Q2 doesn't care about methods but needs comparisons
Q3 is all about methods
Q4 requires methods and comparisons, and focus on the writer not the reader
Q5 less is more. We don't need 5 pages. We need crafted writing.

DD has spent so long revising the history of medicine she’s now needing to cram the Elizabethan facts (barely started). Fingers crossed for tomorrow as this is one of her favourite subjects and predicted to do well.

Well, BEST of luck tomorrow!! Yay to Dominos 🍕 and three weeks in the US!!! 🇺🇸 Absolutely everything crossed for DS16th Birthday!! I hope it is 🥳🥳🥳!!!

( ..it’s a great day, the 21st! DS18 Birthday, too! mine is the 20th ( so my birthday ceased being celebrated 19 years ago 😈😹!) ..

Less is more @MrsHamlet that's very true.

I have seen numerous Eng papers by students in my form "but Miss I wrote LOADS" yes but it was not relevant nor did it answer the question.

It is possible to revise for Eng lang but not in the same way perhaps as some subjects. More in the way you can revise for MFL – by practising questions and techniques.

For the children going on trips with their friends - where are they staying? I can't imagine many places would want to be rented out by a bunch of 15/16year olds much like they won't allow hen and stag groups?
As a parent I also wouldn't want to be responsible for booking the place and being liable for potential damages.
And I certainly wouldn't want the addition of 4 or 5 extra teenagers on our family holiday😂

Yazz!!! I remember listening to that lying on a sofa in a crappy club near the beach at home on the night I got A Levels Round One results…. put it one way….. the words resonated!!! 😈😈😈!!!

I think I did first year of GCSE’s… certainly, that was the excuse the school gave for not bringing equipped with enough text books!! ( and I had to share with my twin! WTH?!). So, this TikTok seventh layer of hell, is that this mornings AQA Maths?!? No words……..😶!!

Mine have been revising structures for each question to hit the criteria... do they know what the really grumpy examiner (aka me) is looking for?

Can they call to mind a lot of methods to write about in section A and to use in B?

Have they got a grip on SPAG?

Do they understand the vocab that they've been encouraged to shoehorn in? Because using "malevolent" incorrectly is not helpful.

Do they know their timings for each question?