Y11 2025-26 - Trying not to melt and pushing through the final weeks

[Stowickthevast]

I finished the thread so started a new one. Welcome all Y11 parents, support and solidarity for the next big push here!

We start almost as soon as our paper is done. I'm half way through one and about to start the next.

It's a massive operation.

Mine told me today that they stand round afterwards and compare notes - especially on the calculations … and if a lot get the same then he feels ok about it … there were apparently a few that were quite far off … I always fear that he’s missed the point and may have a false sense of security.. there is form

Anyones kid/s do AQA Further Maths P1 today? My DC said it was very very tricky.. Not much like past papers apparently..!

Feels like this years students are an experiment :-(

Does a bit doesn't it.. Still the grade boundaries will be representative of that I hope..

Marking has already started as I have teacher friends who were saying they were 'on target' with how many they had marked so far.
What I don't understand is why it takes so long overall (for both GCSEs and A Levels).
My French cousin's daughter sat her Baccalaureate (Bac) last year and had the results within a week!

DD did and she said it was ok, but I am not sure about her judgement, as her school has been very poor on FM. She said there was a lot of regular maths on there.

One of my components had more than half a million candidates. I'll struggle to knock those out to an agreed standard in a week.

Yes. Ds said hard but he felt confident. But it was a tricky circle/triangle question (??) They have a strong further maths class so its hard to judge.
Its his "bonus" one so hopefully less pressure

DS announced biology as “ez”. Man of very few words!

DH is in charge of looking over history tonight - I cannot bear any more of it.

I am worried about DT on Wednesday. He did great coursework but has barely glanced at the revision and I don’t think they even covered half the syllabus.

DS also said Further Maths was hard, and he’s a bit of a Maths whizz.

OCR Biology Triple went well, apparently a lot of interpretation style questions rather than regurgitating content.

Edexcel French writing was fine after some stress at lunchtime worrying about it. Apparently she wrote she falls asleep in class when the teachers are boring! Definitely not true.

Wasn't expecting her to come home for lunch and I'd put her sandwich in the freezer thinking she'd forgotten it so she had a bit of strop about that!

Drama of the day is that I had a school mum friend phone me about prom, her DD is being left out by her erstwhile friendship group apparently so wanted to see if DD would consider including her. DD likes the girl and her little group are nice kids so hopefully will get something sorted - bit tricky navigating though given mum doesn't want her DD to know she's reached out to me.

DD didn't do Further Maths but her friends said it was very hard and she said some of the kids doing it in the exam hall with her seemed to just be staring into space like they'd given up.

Dd said aqa triple biology was easy if you do geography (she doesn’t) as was loads on fish farming and greenhouse gases. She reckons geographers would have had a huge advantage.

@makemineadecafDD said it was about 80% fish and a cat question at the end. All very random and there are a lot of memes saying it was basically Geography Paper 4! TBF some of the stuff she has sent me on TikTok is really funny, even Science Tutors asking if they make the papers ridiculous on purpose! On a serious note although she answered it all she said it was not a nice paper, she was very happy with paper 1 so fingers crossed that makes up for it.

French writing again she said was easy, French seems to have all been very well received by everyone in her class which is good as this was the first year with the new spec.

Good luck tomorrow, History (Germany) for us, she’s had a Google Meet with her teacher tonight so is just going over it all again.

Dd2 said triple bio was fine. She quite enjoyed the fish question apparently. She thought the fm paper was ok although didn’t get to finish. Anything she gets is a plus there though.

bit of a blow today - she’d asked her college of choice if she could swap courses and they said yes but today have said they have her on the wait list only and can’t guarantee. For an anxiety sufferer like her, this has sent her spinning. Realistically I assume that there will be so much movement and it will probably fine but not a stress we need.

Ah well… and we move on.
Spanish listening and history 3 (Germany) tomorrow

@clary sorry to bother you, would you know where DD can find some AQA sample listening tracks for Spanish please? She's done the ones her teacher gave her and was hoping to find some for the new specification on the AQA website but when we click the link there's nothing there. It's shocking how hard to navigate the AQA website is. Thank you 😊

@NotDarkGothicMama that made me laugh as its the kind of thing my DS does only get update when he wants something.

DD is spiralling tonight struggling with Spanish spent most of the weekend doing biology after discovering gaps in whst she had been taught. Done reading papers today and got 57% and 60% had 80% in mocks. Says she can't remember anything ! She normally scores low in listening as struggles but the reading and speaking help bring her grade up.
Hope everyone else's houses are calmer.

Listening to DH do history with DS it’s very sweet. They are both war geeks.

DD had biology and French writing today, and now only three exams left, maths, chemistry and physics. This time next week it will all be over!

I’m confused about people doing Edexcel French writing today - my DS did his before half term alongside listening and reading. He’s got Edexcel Spanish tomorrow - listening, reading and writing.

I have twins but they’re at different schools -DD did AQA French and her writing paper was also separate.

Thanks for this thread, I haven’t had a chance to post before.

My DS seems to be the same about DT. He says they haven’t covered some of the topics but he said he’s not worried, he’s going to watch some videos tomorrow and he said nothing is covered in that much depth! I said it’s a bit late to be watching videos the day before!

How funny, I wonder why that is! My DD is doing the same one that the lady upthread mentioned, who said it was the first sitting of a new syllabus this year and that the writing this afternoon was quite straightforward.

The only one on the AQA website is the sample set here
https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/spanish/gcse/spanish-8692/assessment-resources?componentCodes=8692LH

I imagine this might be the one set by the teacher tho?

Otherwise it is tricky indeed. There is a CGP workbook with audio but I would be sure to check the structure of the questions matches the exam structure (they don't always). Not that it matters as it is all audio and good practice. Just need to be aware of the format of the actual exam questions.

Otherwise it’s a case of legacy questions. Or audio from Edexcel. Again, be aware that the exam format is different (esp no TL questions and answers any more, as there are on legacy papers, not Edexcel new spec obvs) but still, someone speaking Spanish and questions on that is still a valuable revision tool.

ETA: just realised the listening is tomorrow! bit late for the book then but legacy papers are the way