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 dd also struggling to get motivated to revise after school. We’ve settled into a routine where she does 1.5h (give or take a bit of faffage) before tea, then chills after tea. I’m pretty happy with that. I think tmw eve will be a different story tho, with a lot of History cramming. Her teacher said she has Grade 8 writing skills but Grade 3 knowledge of key dates and stats 😬

Mines revision start time keeps moving back .. started at 4 apparently now 5 … weather here is awful and some of our neighbours have a power cut so I’d like him to get on with it really

Hi all- hugs to you all and your wonderful DCs going through this.

DS messaged that geography today went well.

maths tomorrow. History friday.

I'm heading home now from London so hopefully by the time I get back DS will be fed and showered and ready for an early-ish night.

Best of luck to everyone.

Good luck to everyone with maths tomorrow - I guess it’s one we know they are all doing and they all need it !

@waitingquietly we are Edexcel A geography. No case studies came up. It was oxbow lakes, coastal erosion, typhoons and tropical rainforests. My son said it was ok.

DD accidentally missed a page today (only realised after chatting to a friend afterwards) so is really upset. It's frustrating but there's nothing that she can do now. I understand why she's annoyed though. It's one thing not being able to answer a question and another to not even have seen it to be able to try! I guess she won't make the same mistake again though (I wish this had happened in a mock instead)...

Oh no poor @BeasKnee DD - I hope it was not a high mark section .

@ShesRunningOutTheDoor - same here - though you got a lot more detail than me .. DS likes tropical rainforests so will have been pleased they came up

DD had aqa Geography said she mis read a question spotted it at the end and tried to turn it around. Wasn't a fan of the paper. She seems very tired got two more exams this week !

My son in a really good mood today. I think 2 biggies - eng lit and geography done. He’s confident with his maths and well revised for history on Friday, so hopefully a nicer end to the week. The next scary one is the dreaded eng lit paper 2 on Tuesday (AQA)

Edexcel Geography B here. DS came home pleased with how it went. He's not stressed about maths tomorrow. It's one of two subjects where he's done a lot of revision off his own bat so I hope he does well.

DS sees quite relaxed still - he had 2 exams today, and has 2 tomorrow. He’s out on his bike now, but he’ll probably do an hour or so of work later.

I’m not loving any of this - I really don’t think that 25+ relatively high stakes exams are the best measure of our young people (and particularly in this day and age).

I couldn’t agree more on high stakes exams. DS also not a fan on AQA geography, something to do with Sand Dunes. Mind you the last time he really beat himself up about a paper on a mock it went well. We are very much in work hard but whatever will be will be. My difficulty is I am really busy at work and too busy to support as much as I would like

Oh no sorry to panic you @clary DS does CIE German so a different board. He seemed happy with it, apparently there was a random odd question on the computer science paper but overall not too bad.

I invigilated edexcel geography B today and the students seemed to take in in stride, and were quite buzzy coming out of the hall so hopefully that was positive. Only two went to sleep towards the end (invigilator “sleepometer” is often a decent indicator of how engaged they are as an ocerall cohort!).

Maths tomorrow for DS (and me!)- I am not looking forward to it as I’m in a side room of students who are prone to being a bit silly and disruptive. Practising my stern face and don’t mess with me voice!

DD is a bit stressed about Maths. She's desperate for a high mark as wants to do it for A level, but is struggling with a couple of topics on practice papers. I've told her to make sure she switches off by 9 and gets a decent night's sleep.
Big day tomorrow.

Geography went ok here at both ends of the spectrum - dd2 who is predicted a 9 and wants to do a geography based degree was happy and dd1 who hates it with a passion and regrets picking it every day reckons she did passably.

tomorrw will be tense - dd1 really struggled in her mocks and had been working her socks off - she needs a 6 ideally for college (science subject for a level). She’s been comfortably getting that in her practice papers but she gets really overwhelmed and it goes to pot. Dd2 is doing a level maths and is putting heaps of pressure on herself to get a 9. We’ve done and said all the right things to her but we then laugh as she is her own worst enemy and we all know it, especially her.

so no more work, showers and early nights all round. Including me

I'm dreading repeating all this with DD. She's completely the opposite of DS: not academic but works really hard and gets stressed about schoolwork. I think at least she'll revise and let me help her!

I think DD is dreading maths tomorrow, it's her least favourite and she seems to forget how to do the questions overnight! She's been doing past papers tonight, but she's so tired she can't think straight. She's gone for a wellbeing walk with her friend, then I'm making her have an early night. If she doesn't know it now she'll never know it!

Computer Science was excellent according to DD, very happy for her as she’s loved it since she was in Primary.

I was chatting to our Head of Geography today and he said lots of happy students so well done to all that did that one.

Maths is a big one for them all I think so really hope they don’t find it too hard, after yesterdays paper mix up I have reminded DD to triple check she has the right paper tomorrow.

This will no doubt seem SO obvious to everyone else, but - check the batteries on your Dcs calculator!

DS just had a weepy meltdown because his calculator stopped working. Apparently it has been playing up for a few days and today in geog he had to keep tapping it to get it to work.

One simple battery change later...... Just happy we found out now rather than at 9.43 tomorrow.....

DD mentioned the same no Idea how you can get full marks on the sand dune questions.
She is currently getting stressed over maths norigets 90 % but has decided it's going to be an awful paper. Just running her a bath to relax.

Head of MFL here. Use the 5 minutes reading time to annotate with vocabulary, highlight key parts of the question. Distractors are often tense-related, someone else's opinion etc. Ensuring words like 'without', 'except' etc are known helps. Be specific enough when it's the questions where they are writing rather than just putting a letter etc. Listen for connectives such as however, on the other hand for positive, negative or both questions as that will mean it's P/N. Check verb endings carefully in the translation. Revise less common past participles

Just on the calculator @3GoldenLamps - tomorrow is non-calc I think? Agree tho it's worth checking. Before DS2's maths exam I was scouring the shops at 7pm looking for a protractor – everywhere had sold out and I ended up buying a whole Helix fancy boxed set. And then he never used it! heyho. And yes I know school would have given him one. :)

All the best to everyone's DC for maths which is a biggie and I know some love it, others are less keen. Hope everyone finds it OK.

Thanks and no worries @FlyingPandas – just had my tutor session and feeling positive for tomorrow.

On the grade boundaries for biology - AQA last year was 71% for a grade 9; Pearson Edexcel (yes it's one board) was 84% – so quite a variation between boards. I presume the AQA paper was judged to be a lot harder last year tho tbh that's fairly typical looking at the last couple of years and then 2018/19 (no point looking at 2020-2023 IMHO).

@BeasKnee hope your DD didn't miss too much with the missed question. Onwards and upwards.

Thanks to everyone for clearing up the Pearson Edexcel confusion.

Also please remind your children rather than sit having a panic because they don't have a protractor or a calculator with working batteries or whatever it is they need just put their hand up and ask.

My DS is allowed a calculator tomorrow for maths. Must be a different exam board

Maths IGCSE is with a calculator too