Y11 2025/26 The Final Stretch

[UncomfortableSilence]

New thread to see our wonderful DC through their exams and onwards.

Come and join for chat, support and solidarity.

Happy DS here and the few kids I spoke to in school were happy. English Lit is DS strongest subject so nice to have a confident start. Biology tomorrow is likely to go less well, but he’s been entered for the foundation paper so should know some of it at least!

@wonderstuff same with my dd. Biology and Maths this week, and all other Maths and Science papers, will not be her favourite or her best. All part of the inevitable ups and downs, I guess…

It’s quite hard not to get pulled into the panic. DD was just asking me what will she do if she doesn’t get what she needs. I had to hide my panic and go ‘we will work it out’.

Dont want to add pressure.

It made me realise I’ll get no bloody sleep the night before results!

You can’t be good at everything right? Frustratingly if he put the effort in he’d probably find he had the ability, but I have had to pick my battles. Can not wait until it’s all over.

DS said both papers (English Lit and Business Studies today) were "easy", then skipped off upstairs to put his Macbeth revision guides in the cats' litter tray. I suppose we'll discover the truth of that in August!

We are AQA and DS doesn’t have An Inspector Calls until paper 2 : his strongest along with his weakest.. the dreaded Power and Conflict. Is the poetry anthology the same for all boards? I have no idea how it works. All I know is that he’s doing the exact same texts as DD did 3 years ago.

DTs in different English sets. Aqa board

1 DT Macbeth and Frankenstein
1 DT Macbeth and a Christmas carol.

macbeth and ACC were ok/nice questions according to them. Frankenstein was 🫤.

biology tomorrow (and RE for ACC DT)

glad day 1 went ok. 1 every day this week.

in less good news DH has got a cold in May ! Hoping he doesn’t pass it on to DTs. Arghh fingers crossed.

DS was pretty happy, he said guilt in Macbeth was the theme he had been hoping for and he was happy with the Christmas Carol question too!

That’s what DS had for paper 2. I think the poetry anthology is published by the board so will be different for others. I was chatting to a colleague in the office this afternoon whose son is also doing GCSEs and she said her son had called her and said the Inspector Calls question was quite good. I mentioned that to my DS when I got home and he was so confused as it wasn’t in paper 1 for him! Didn’t realise different boards do the same book but in different papers.

My DD seemed happy when she got home. Happy she could answer the questions and no disasters. She only wants 5 and is confident she wrote enough for that. She wiped though and didn’t get as much biology done as she wanted tonight

@Wincher AQA here. Macbeth & CC today. Inspector calls and poetry is paper 2. Biology AQAhigher tomorrow but no idea what topics that is

Mine was happy they managed to write several pages for each question, much more than the mocks - at least there is more to mark this time. Has also done Spanish speaking and paper 1 of the fairly niche subject of Geology (usually well under 1,000 children take it each year).
Mocks were terrible - to the extent their current school wouldn’t offer them a place in 6th form at any level. Fortunately they have a place at a college that enrols children onto English and Maths gcse resits if they are needed and dc would also be doing a btec alongside if they wind up at that college.
if they get the grades there have a conditional place from another local college that does a levels, I don’t want then staying on at the school that wouldn’t even give them a conditional offer.

That sounds similar to my DD. She'd be happy with a 5 in any of the essay subjects. And this one went much better than any of the mocks (that she got 3 & 4 in) so fingers crossed. I get the impression the poetry anthology and unseen are her least favourite parts though but hopefully she'll have more confidence after today. Now on to the slightly easier (for her) few days until history on Friday.

Is that the one about guys in the gym?

DD showed me the poem and said it wasn’t too bad.

But she said the play excerpt from Streetcar in the earlier exam was random. She knows the play like the back of her hand but the excerpt was a scene where nothing much happens and she really struggled to say much about it.

RE and biology today. Intense. Though fortunately this is only one of two days that dd has two exams in one day. I know others have multiple which seems unfair.

Yes two a day is not nice. It also means they are too tired to revise that evening.

No, it was about some woman pretending a randomer was her dad. (As DS described it).

Ugh. Biology today and it's going to be a hard road for us.

Good luck to everyone.

@3GoldenLamps my DS suggested it was a step dad - I think he was clutching at straws !

not much biology done here last night … hoping for some cramming this morning

I don't think DS suggested even that tbh!

Apparently one of the students in his class who is really strong in every subject came out and said he didn't even bother with it. Just put his attention to the other sections. (That was self-reported though, so who knows).

I had an incredibly vivid dream last night that I was sitting my own biology gcse - I did quite well

That’s my fear re history on Friday. Two important exams on Thurs will wiped her

@Callmejudith that really made me laugh 🤣

Good luck today everyone … my DS needs the luck on his side today … despite biology being on his revision timetable ,designed by me with the aid of ai , several times he has done precisely 1hr plus last nights 40 minutes 🙁

Good luck all today. RE & Biology here too. DD is a bit worried about the time for RE but she’s always been fine.

I am feeling incredibly on edge today so hoping a busy day at work will be a good distraction.