Year 11 - 2024/2025: Heading down the home straight towards that finish line!

[QueenMabby]

Next thread. 10 days of exams to go. Looks like we’re all heading into a busy week this week - good luck!

Sorry to hear a few weren’t happy with it today. Mine felt AQA higher went well. He said there was no circle theorem on it.

Not at all sure how geography paper 3 is going to go tomorrow, he doesn’t really seem very clear on what’s needed for it.

Absolutely! It’s a shame the grades can’t be like in school reports……. He’d get a solid 8 on effort in maths… dinidhing a little after the dreadful half term hiatus! But, still, a pass for sure!! Shame it’s based on exam performance! Well, as DS18 rightly just saw, I’m in that trying to be bright and breezy, but voice teetering a little and if I didn’t have my sunglasses on ( I’m at home, but sorting a 🪴 out!) about to cry mood, he said that of course there are harder questions towards the end ( or wherever placed), as they have to determine between the 8/9s and the 5:6s., it doesn’t necessarily mean DS16 hasn’t scraped a 4. He may not have done, wouldn’t be surprised, but there is absolutely zero we can do now. DS16 doesn’t t know I’m stressed about it and I’m going to make sure he doesn’t! So, strapping a pair on and seeing what food he wants before Geography revision 😈😻!

i 🤞🙏🤞 your DC get at least the 5/5 science and 5 Math grades wished for, for Psychology A Level! ( my Masters is Forensic Psychology and I wish I’d had chance to do it- I think it is a really good A Level to have, as is readily used in many degrees and professions).

Keeping everything crossed for your DC! Oh!! A Reddit alert just popped up! Someone has apparently put the Edexcel Answers up! ( mine is once AQA H anyway, but wouldn’t look in any event!) 🤩

@Eccle80 thank you for that info. Dd bumped into dh at the local shop and he forgot to ask how the exam went! 🙄 Now she’s gone to the park with her friend to scoff post-exam snacks and I have to go out shortly, so I won’t get to hear how it went for her for hours.

She will have been very happy there was no Circle Theorem though, as that was kne of her biggest fears.

Thanjs, and happy yours went well 🤩…( I remember the term circle theorem….. 🤔😹!)..

I’ve no idea either, Edexcel here Geo wise…. about to see what he has planned! Good luck with yours!

It’s funny how they are all so different. My child hated paper 1 and was so upset. Paper 2 was better but not great but paper 3 was the best and really happy today. Not sure it will be enough to be over a 6 but we will see in August!

Ahhhhhhh. Gotcha. Nope, he seems like a decent chap, and you’re probably right 😻! 🙏!

@SuperTrooper14 I'm the same I can't help worry. I was originally envious of the parents being so involved and their DCs complying (to varying degrees) but my DS won't entertain me being involved and having followed these various threads I've come to conclusion well he's taking ownership and therefore he also has to take ownership of the results too (will support whatever happens).

But absolutely still anxious and worried.

what's clear from most posts is no matter how much parental input there is parents will still worry!

And all DC are different.

yes a minefield - which I hope won't blow up in my face come results day!!!!!

this morning OCR Maths exam (last maths paper thankfully). After exam DS said paper was "good". DS only lets me ask one question after each exam, I attempt to ask more but he says you've had your one question, but today he answered 4 without protesting. 😍

Study day tomorrow, Chemistry Friday. This time next week - all done!

I have a horrible feeling its going to be a very very long summer till results day.

Last year for AQA Maths you needed about 25% for a 4 in higher and 65% in Foundation showing what a large proportion of the questions in the higher are aimed at the upper grades. So they could feel they haven't answered many questions and still pass. My DH used to be a Maths teacher and found he got more passes with C/D borderline pupils taking the higher paper where they needed less marks. 🤞 after all their hard work.

@ThisPerkySloth2 This is our thinking too, with DD who rejects any offer of hands-on helping – come results day, we'll be there no matter what. It'll all work out fine in the end.

Interesting long read in today's Guardian about whether GCSEs should be scrapped...

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/jun/11/they-are-making-young-people-ill-is-it-time-to-scrap-gcses

Daughter thought AQA Maths higher went pretty well, answered everything but not sure on last question. She’s not feeling great so just glad of another one being out the way. 2 to go for her but it’s really dragging now.

Thank you @SuperTrooper14. It is a very interesting read. Sadly too late for our kids, but sometimes
I think they should be scrapped

AQA math higher was BAD apparently. She was hoping for a 5 to do Psychology and now doesn't think she'll manage that.

They did come but something happened in school yesterday - assume it was friends who'd had them - and she came back very calm about them - and she can get them in with just fingers. Though she has hooks if needed.

She's come back said maths was okay - two questions not sure about but wrote something - that's it for her till last two exams next week and revision well in hand for them.

So very nearly there now.

Exact same scenario here. Message was “hardest paper of all the GCSEs yet; pray for a 4, can’t face a resit” when she went in feeling quietly optimistic for a 5.

My DS said the same thing- in his group of friends only one boy could do the last question - they are all bright STEM kids aiming at 8/9 - your son is not alone . Hope he can park it and move on to the next one 🤞

My hope is that if all of them aiming at the "5/6 and aspirational 7 if the stars align" are feeling the same way about the exams then perhaps that will be reflected in the grade boundaries.

DD doesn't seem to get my 'how did your classmates do, not your friends' - but I am less anxious if those in same bracket are finding the papers super hard than if it's just DD.

"Better than paper 1, worse than paper 2, so mid" says DD (AQA Higher).

I've instructed her to relax a bit this afternoon.

We have had a bit of a disaster this morning, DD went in with crippling stomach pains. Struggled to sit up straight and focus. Missed last 3 questions of OCR higher maths. Didn’t use extra time as wanted to go home. Came home to be sick and upset stomach. I’ve emailed exams officer so hoping a special consideration can be applied to this paper. Nothing now til Friday so hopefully she will be better by then. Really wish this hadn’t hit on a maths day. 😢

@BellaI - poor love. Surely special consideration for that!? (dd was bemused to get it applied for an in-exam nosebleed for one of hers). Hope she's all better soon.

I think it's so complicated and I've no idea how you would design a system that caters for all abilities, all levels of academic interest/suitability, SEN and still offer what is basically a sieving service for A levels.

DD isn't suited to GCSEs - too much focus on memorisation - but would have hated doing some kind of IB to 18 when she'd much rather go and specialise early (and even more if she had to keep doing maths to 18)

Thanks @DataColour , @mojobrojo , @achangeofnameisasgoodasarest & @OhCrumbsWhereNow for answering my Music question 😊

DD wants to do A level because it's the only subject she's sure about wanting to do. She has enjoyed the composition and performance, although she's found the appraisal really hard (like most DCs, it seems).

She is not a natural performer or showy in any way, bu she has loved playing in an orchestra. She does like classical and is dabbling in jazz now. Her ASD means social communication difficulties. Being a part of an orchestra is almost her way of relating.

Trouble is, unlike ohcrumbs' DD she's not sure what to do at all after A levels, and is trying to keep options open while still doing music.

It would have been great for her to go to a specialist music school like achangeofname's DD but without a scholarship it was moot. Plus she was in no state to change schools for the last 5 years (nor I!).

We looked into the possibility of joining the local city's junior conservatiore on Saturdays, but she felt a bit intimidated during our visit and hates the idea of having all Saturdays taken over as she's often exhausted. Still a possibility (she sent audition videos and waiting to hear).

She has to move schools to do Music (another complication as change is naturally difficult and we live far from other schools). She has picked a college, has had interviews and has taster days coming up. But having second thoughts because of location (small town with bad transport) and reconsidering the current school + conservatoire option.

It's so hard to know what's best!

I think it sounds like she's probably a good fit for the A level.

Mine is too fixed on exactly what and how she wants things and raged against things like the examiners rules for composition.

If she's orchestral type instruments, enjoys comp and performance and has an interest in jazz and classical it should work better.

I know what you mean on the Saturday commitments. We spent most of DD's childhood schlepping up and down to London and it is a massive faff. She doesn't do them anymore, but she doesn't do any instruments that are orchestral so it's easier to make that choice.

Lots of people do love the Music A level, so I wouldn't necessarily be put off if it's a fit with her interests and personality.

@stickygotstuck completely get it with the orchestra thing. DD2 is NT as far as we know but she's not the most standard of children and orchestra is where she finds her tribe, and the way she best fits in. Specialist music school was definitely only possible for her with the MDS funding - a standard scholarship wouldn't have made it possible - even with this it's a squeeze and the other sacrifices feel... immense.

The fact I've just had to email a houseparent to tell her DD2 is stressed about missing an accompanist session today, and that her woodwind assessment clashes with her chemistry gcse makes me feel quite powerless. Boarding school is so far from how I'd imagined bringing up a child, and specialist school feels insane to non-musicians like me. So it's not a perfect choice by any means.

Thank god she's only done it from Year 10!

However, Junior Depts are fabulous things, I believe. DD2 never went to one - she was at CYM London which is shabbier round the edges, which is probably why we all felt more comfortable there. Even that took all Saturday though, but she did make fabulous friends and had great teaching. So do consider it carefully if she gets through.

You can do A-Level music remotely, with Trinity Laban (https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/courses/a-level-music-distance-learning/) - but it looks like quite hard work and prob pricey! Sounds like the performance would be no problem for her.

Great she's enjoyed the composition and a good sign though. I think DD2 has found that difficult.

Good luck with the decision. I think if she loves music she should do it... but maybe there are other ways that don't involve a school change if that feels too much.