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.

My son also said combined Biology higher paper was hard. Not what he was expecting at all. Lots of niche areas. Not hopeful!

I’m wondering if we are talking about a difference in ability range on this combined biology . Perhaps it is the higher achievers who found it hard , where as my DS2 will not have expected to have a clue on the harder questions … he was working out last week that he probably needed about 30% to pass . Hopefully it will all be reflected in grade boundaries . Hope the tearful DCs have recovered and are on to the next

My son said biology (triple) was good and he knew everything on it! Reading this thread I’m not sure if I should feel relieved or like he’s completely misjudged it 😂

He needs biology and he’s had a tutor since September, he’s worked really hard so I’m really hoping he’s done well!

From what I am hearing those who did the triple were happier with the paper.

(Source- DS who is still deep inside of GCSE reddit).

I bet he's done really well. good luck to him!!

DS is laugfhing now at all the memes. I am trying to give him decompression time then start reminding him about the Geography tomorrow!

(I'm off to water the plants for a bit.... it's been a stressful 2 hours since they finished the exam!!).

Thank you so much 😊

Same year, same board for English. I've been talking to quite a few people recently about how hard English Lang and lit are now, compared to what I had to do. 100% coursework - some of it "improved" by rewriting it and only the better pieces were submitted as part of the portfolio.
My DS took iGCSE English Lit yesterday and found the unseen poetry tricky. He thinks he missed the meaning of the poem. It was only a small part of the overall paper, but it is a shame when grades are affected by performance in a 1.5 hour exam - after two years of hard work.
Triple science biology this afternoon got the thumbs up, so onwards and upwards...

Ok so dd1 is home. She said that a fair few of her friends found it tricky (including her bf who cried) but she actually found it ok. She did say that it was not your regular topics but all stuff she knew (and from looking at Reddit, her answers seem very sensible). So fingers crossed

@Wogdener your DS is not alone on the IGCSE yesterday - a few of us were discussing it yesterday . My DS looks to have made up his own interpretation- but he is unaware and I’m hoping he’s done enough as his coursework was good

DD another one who found triple fine, nothing on there unexpected or she didn’t know she said although she was given the wrong paper at the start, Combined Foundation but noticed straight away, Invigilator, obviously hadn’t realised as she came over to her at the end of the combined time glaring at her and said why are you still writing your time is up so she had to explain what happened 🙄

Really hope everyone who’s not happy can park it and move on although I know that’s easier said than done.

Computer Science tomorrow, I don’t think my nerves can take much more!

I think im
glad my DS doesn’t seem aware of gcse Reddit ! Ignorance is probably bliss in this house 😊

Yes, mine found the unseen really baffling. He apparently did 'three paragraphs' on it, but admitted that the paragraphs were actually a single sentence each and variations of each other. But he wrote alot on the 40 marker and feels really confident about that one so fingers crossed.

DS has just said that in the biography he wittered vaguely about the HPV vaccine being good for herd immunity.... that's about all he can recall.

@UncomfortableSilence that's terrible that they gave her the wrong paper!!

DS said RE was easy ABC and difficult D and he's predicting a 6

Bio Higher Triple he said was "nothing special"

I will find out more when I get home. Tomorrow is a whole day of school revising non-calc maths and then Thursday exam. It's his weakest one and I am zero help so I'm hoping he really gets his head down tomorrow.

Can anyone post a link to the Reddit thread? I don’t know how to use Reddit!

DS was happy enough with combined bio higher - he is predicted 6-6 so as someone else mentioned perhaps less pressure to be able to answer the grade 8/9 questions

DD said combined Biology was ok. I honestly wouldn’t put too much store by their perceptions of how an exam went. No point doing a post-mortem. Just on to the next!

Is anyone else’s DC doing igcse edexcel maths .. just lining up the knowledge ready for Thursday … as I’m sure most will be GCSE 😊… DS has worked his way up from 4 to 6 - he needs 6 for his options

Exactly the same as dd.

Yes. We’re aiming for a 4.

Glad to have found this thread! It's our first time going through this, so I'm grateful for all the advice!

It's a difficult week for us with 2 double exam days, English Lit and Business yesterday, Biology today, then Geography and Computer Science tomorrow.

They study unusual texts in English Lit, so her social media feed full of people delighted with Macbeth has sent her into a panic about grade boundaries! Business OCR, she came out crying (as did several others). Biology wasn't as bad as she expected.

Geography and Computing tomorrow, which are her worst subjects, so we'll be glad to get to this point tomorrow. There's no time for effective revision as this week she's only not had an exam this morning, so 6 of the 7 slots up to Thursday lunchtime were filled with exams (then nothing Thursday afternoon or Friday!)

Bring on 15th June!

Good luck 🤞

Mine isn’t either, and I won’t be telling him 😂

Same with DD here.. wasn't easy apparently.. Edexcel triple science Biology

DD didnt call me straightaway and i was so worried. She was taking AQA triple higher. Biology is her better science but she said it was a little unusal in the wording of some questions but nothing that she didnt know, although said she said something stupid for one of them... she's too scared to hazard how well or not she might have done. Why do the results have to take this long!