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My dd is struggling to find the time to revise as she has so much homework (grammar) and also topic tests ongoing. So she is revising for topic tests but hasn’t had much chance to go over her ‘gaps’ from her mocks.

Anyone else finding similar? Our first time through so very new to it all! Seems to be so much content

Yes, we are in a similar situation. My DD was revising for tests on materials for paper 2 right in the middle of prerparing her mocks which only covered paper 1. It's now February, she is preparing for her second set of mocks, and apart from English Lit and Maths, they are still learning new content. It's so stressful.

My DS also still covering content while trying to find time to revise old material. He went over gaps from year 10 in the summer holidays and November mocks at Christmas but now trying to cover all of that for February mocks, plus homework

DS2 is also still covering new content in all but one subject . It’s tough .

Seems to be a real juggling act here too. DD admitted she was getting stressed and anxious between homework, revision questions set by teachers for doing better for paper 1 and trying to revise for paper 2 mocks as teachers have said they are harder.

Good luck to anyone doing Mocks this week.

Is this the second set of mocks? dd’s second set are mid March

Yes 2nd set, they do them at DDs school either side of February half term so starts next week.

Still ploughing through content here too with topics tests being after school for some subjects 🫤 Thankfully not much homework being set. She’s not got another full set of mocks but English, Sciences and Maths are doing another one after half term.

DD is a real talker and she did say for the first time ever ( she’s a very laid back, calm girl ) that she is feeling a bit stressed when she works out how many days at school there are left. I can hear her upstairs now tapping away on her keyboard.

I said to DH yesterday that I’m most worried that if she doesn’t get this full set of top grades she’s expecting/predicted she’ll be really disappointed and that worries me.

I have to say the pressure is a lot. We have about 22 exams and still coursework to do

DS's school has finished teaching the content for all the subjects except the sciences. They're in every weekend for 5 hours of biology/chemistry/physics but it's revision only so that statutory school time is all new stuff.

He doesn't seem to be stressed at all and is busy taking bets with his friends on their likely grades in the next round of mocks after half term 🙄

I actually made DD stop revising last night when I caught her writing at 10pm.

She mentioned some friends are doing 3 plus hours a night during more at weekends.
Did point out she has plenty of time after Feb mocks if needed and we can look at reducing her after school clubs in run up to gcse exams. Still no timetable from the school but looked up the dates for her.

That’s madness. My DS will probably manage 2.5 hours today but it is one of the two days he finishes school at 3.30. And he always gets more done at the beginning of the week by Thursday it will be an hour if that. He sometimes does a little bit (French vocab, English lit quotes, or maths questions in the mornings but that depends how much he’s slept). He also does no more than 3 hours in a Saturday or Sunday and again that varies e.g this weekend he’s competing so it will be a lot less, and the work is a mixture of set homework, finishing lesson work and revision

BBC website lists all the exam dates - you just need to know which exam board and paper (eg Higher/Foundation)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zw27tcw

Kids come in many different ‘fonts’ when it comes to study habits. Some go hell for leather early on and risk burnout. Others do very little at the point in the year and have a sweaty panic near the end. Some manage a happy medium! Most of them get there in the end, in my teaching experience. Important to remember that homework IS revision at this point.

From talking to friends with Y11 DDs I think this is quite common @Tebheag— I know of DDs whose friendship groups are logging every hour of revision on an app, so they can each see how much the others have done and their cumulative totals.

On the one hand it might seem like great encouragement but unfortunately it can also foster slightly obsessive behaviour with some DC feeling like they’re “failing” if they’re not logging as many hours as their friends. As with all these things, pros and cons!

DS hasn’t yet ramped back up with revision as he only finished mocks a couple of weeks ago. Our challenge is going to be getting him focused again as his mock results were amazing (all clear 9s except one subject which was borderline 9) so the temptation to lie on laurels will be very much there. I appreciate this sounds like a dream position to be in. But I also know from friends with older DC that mocks are no guarantee of success in the real things and I also know that DS will be distraught with anything less than a clean sweep of 9s come results day.

@FlyingPandas that app sounds horrific! I can't actually see the pros. Keeping your own log to make sure you are on track and not favouring one subject too much over the others is fair enough. Sharing it with your peers is a recipe for disaster.

Yes I totally agree @Littletreefrog - but it’s definitely a thing unfortunately!

Dd still has homework but this is revision still. Most subject content has finished now.

Alevel options deadline has now passed so subjects are locked in. She’s really excited by her choices which is lovely to see and has given her real drive and focus to the finishing line now.

DD was also really positive about her choices. I had a chat with a member of SLT at school today and they were asking about DD as they know our school is her preferred option. They said her choices are all very ‘separate subjects’ has made me a bit

@FlyingPandas DD also got a full set of 9s bar one 8 and has consistently got this but she also will be very disappointed if this isn’t the end outcome, I’m trying to manage this as best I can but it’s making me worry.

@FlyingPandas so glad DD does not have that app sounds awful. She also mentioned some are counting how many papers they have done too.
Fingers crossed your DS and @UncomfortableSilence DD keep up their grades for the real thing. It is hsrd when they get great results in mocks!! Would have loved DDs to be real thing mostly 9s with a few 8s.
@36and3 can your DD not change subjects if they are locked in ?
DD got told today she has phone interview for college 6th form still waiting to hear about school 6th form.

I am sure this app was created with a good purpose behind it and lots of pros however the unintended cons sound awful.

English seems to be the only subject here where they have finished content and are revising/able to go over content in class.
I am starting to wonder how close to the wire it is going to go for other subjects as this year their below average (results) comp has decided to do another round of mocks (although in class rather than exam hall) which they need to fit in too.

I am also starting to resent people who say GCSEs are easy than they used to be.
when I sat mine years ago some were modular and some had coursework. There were less exams and not many subjects were it was all based on (terminal) exams. (I know IGCSEs which can only be taken in private schools have coursework) there were less grades then (A-G, not even A*s) compared to the English 9-1). I think the people that say these things should be made to a) see how much work our DC are doing and b)sit a full set of GCSE exams and then give their views 😂.

@TebheagShe can in theory change them and I’m sure they’ll be a degree of flexibility even after results day but this is for her school sixth form so I assume they’re already working on staffing and timetabling.

@UncomfortableSilencewhat subjects has she gone for that make them “seperate”?! There’s always a link somewhere! My dd has gone for English lit and history, and biology and psychology so I suppose can be seen as two “pairs of subjects”. Ultimately she’ll probably drop history.

Interesting about separate subjects @UncomfortableSilence

We had parents evening last night and Dd was talking to her biology teacher about possibly choosing it - so far she's selected German, Maths, Economics and English but is very unsure. She smashed biology so her teacher was very encouraging and says she did Bio, French and English and has a PhD in biology, so nothing to stop you being successful.

Otherwise her mocks were pretty good but not all 9s like some on here! She messed up one Maths paper but I think that's a good learning curve. Was very chuffed to go up a grade in both English and Physics.

Anyone else's child doing art? They have their final on March 9 so it's a big push now to get everything finished by then.

A level choices were the other cause of stress over the week end. DD must have cried about 3 or 4 times about the stress of exams and A levels. She is pretty set on French and Maths, then is considering Psychology and Drama. She will likely drop Drama or Psychology as she is set on doing an EPQ, but she isn't convinced by Psychology either. She overly worries about doing "proper" A levels and worries drama isn't one.

As for revision, she is totally overwhelmed. She spends a lot of time revising - Pretty much every spare time she has, about 3x4 hours in the week and 10am to 8pm on week ends - but I'm not sure how efficient it is. She's bright and was predicted high marks, but her november mocks didn't reflect that in subjects like chemistry and biology. She seems to have so many resources from each teacher, but it's almost too much. She sometimes makes notes, sometimes flashcards, there doesn't seem to be a method... I'm worried.

@Stowickthevast DD is doing Art but her exams days are the week after the Easter holidays. DD is going into Art a few lunches and after school there’s just so much to get through isn’t there.