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.

DD has just come in saying biology (combined) higher paper was super hard… and questions were very strange.

DS also said RS was fine this morning. I asked him to tell me about nirvana (the state not the band) this morning on the way in and it came up on the paper. So that made me feel useful 😜

Tbf he is generally quite upbeat after exams and it is no indicator of how well he’s actually done!

Those of you who did GCSEs in the 90s, I did mine in 1993 and it was 100% coursework for English lang and lit! Exam board was NEAB (northern). Looking back it seems crazy that it was allowed. So much writing and rewriting of essays!

Oh god. Dd1 is sitting this and wants to do bio a level. She’s a track 8 for bio normally and a track 7 for the other 2 sciences, occasionally an 8 on a good day so was counting on today being ok.

dd2 is doing the triple paper so hopefully that went ok

As my eldest reminded her, higher paper grade boundaries for science are really very low. Sometimes it’s only around 60% for a grade 9. So they can feel like they did badly but still get a high grade. Exam
board was AQA

This has felt like a long 2 hours waiting for bio to finish. It is DD’s weakest science and she was so worried about it. I hope it’s going ok.

DS2 reports back that biology combined was better than expected . He reckons about 50% which would be good for him and science .. he was 4.4 in the mocks (though I think the chemistry was massaged ) .. it is always possible that he’s missed the point on another posters strange questions though !

Dd1 has gone to the gym so I have to wait and see. No text is not the best sign though…..

Dd also said biology combined was super hard… we have spent so many hours going over mitosis , enzymes , heart and none of them came up. Hopefully grade boundary will be low 🤞

Dd2 just home - she said triple was fine so that’s something.

Just found this thread trying to find some info on today’s bio exam. DD has come out very deflated saying there was nothing she knew. We’ve had a pep talk, said it will be better than she thinks and to forget about it now.

DD said separate biology was harder that she anticipated and that there was a tricky data set question on vaping. She doesn’t seem too gloomy about it though so hoping she’s done ok

Just found this thread. Waiting for a message from DD on how triple Biology went… I felt like she seemed pretty well prepared last night but the lack of feedback is making me nervous

Mine just burst into tears saying biology was harder than expected !
English and business yesterday in her words were a paper sent from heaven!

Same. DS came out of biology combined and said it was awful and he had never seen some of the topics that came up before. Then he collapsed in tears in the car on the way home. He was predicted 7 possibly scrape an 8. Now he's on the reddit thread looking for what others are saying.

DD also upset as didn’t know lots of the paper. She’s being brave and hoping to make up points on the other papers. It’s a knock in confidence early on though especially after a positive day yesterday.

I wouldn't worry, if they all found it hard, then that shows something. my dd is predicted v high grades and she said that even if she had the text book open in the exam, it wouldn't have helped, because it was just the questions that were hard to answer. She still doesn't know how you get 4 marks for explaining how to turn a microscope from x10 magnification to x100. 😂And something about geese! I have said forget about it and move on. Six exams for double science and you end up with two grades, so one exam really doesn't matter that much.

My DD said that Combined Biology was on niche areas of the syllabus and is frustrated as she had studied hard. It’s useful to know some others felt that way too. She’s being quite pragmatic about it though which is good as I didn’t know if it would knock her confidence.

DD is doing triple science, strongest in Biology. She found today's paper much harder than expected. She's pretty upset and also really frustrated because so much of what she knew just didn't come up. Hopefully it went better than she thinks.

I also did GCSEs in 1993. With RE a year early (church school).
Combined science which was a test every 6 weeks, 100% coursework on eng lit, eng lang and art.
Think I only sat 'proper' exams in maths, French, history and Latin (!)

No wonder A levels were such a jump and blooming hard!

My DD came home saying the same. She also said a lot of the topics “guaranteed” to come up every year didn’t!

@Onthesofawithmydog that’s a good way of looking at it overall. Biology is dds best science by some way though although her physics is pretty decent so hopefully the other 5 papers will be better and grade boundaries lower.

It is just a shame it’s so early on and her next 2 are geography and maths, one if which she can do well if she can be arsed but is low on her priority list and one of which is her real nemesis and she really panics in. If she had history or English it would feel
less intense…

Okay, the memes on GCSE reddit about the biology are funny. There are some clever students out there.

I think I'm in the minority of parents who said biology (combined) was great... although DD doesn't have best track record of knowing which have gone well or not! Two down this week and two apparently gone well. Long may it continue 🤞

I hope everyone who found it tricky did better than they thought.

Mine said biology combined higher was amazing! AQA. That doesn’t fill me with optimism