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!

Maths is the biggest cause of stress here as well 😬 Was looking at a solid 7, wanted an 8, but now it's all completely up in the air as my daughter found it awful

Good luck to everyone doing chemistry this morning.

Good luck little Chemists!

Chemistry is hard anyway so hoping for a straight forward paper!

So weird hearing talk of school runs. I've only done a handful since Y5, just on tube strikes or large art project days!

DD has really enjoyed study leave but we're very lucky in that both of us work from home a couple of days a week so there's normally someone around. Totally appreciate @Drivingselfmad view that it can impact the more disadvantaged students.

Hoping for a good paper today, only one left here after this. Good luck everyone!

The no study leave is this because Education Minister really focus on absence days and not the different types of absence?

Good luck to all for chemistry and dance if anyone here does it!

DD was the most stressed about today. Chemistry paper 1 (AQA higher triple) went incredibly well, much much better than usual and she didn't want today to "ruin it". She's also super stressed about dance. She's a great dancer, but got a "just 9" in the coursework element and pretty much had to self teach the exam material, so doesn't feel the most confident about it. Having said that, only 4 of them turned up to the (compulsory) revision session yesterday and she ended up having almost a 1 to 1 with the teacher as the others didn't want to answer questions so she said for once it was useful.

Waiting for the usual Reddit reviews the minute the first ones are out!

DS got up early to go in for hot tips before Chemistry this morning. He's assiduously avoided hot tips so he must be nervous! I hope it's going well for them all today.

AQA chemistry higher paper for double award was ‘10/10’ according to DD. Just physics left now on Monday, can’t wait! Feels fun y that she doesn’t have to decide where to place her efforts between now and then, there’s literally only one subject left. So close to the end now!

Yes a report of higher chemistry AQA going ‘really well, much better than expected’ . DS is definitely not a natural chemist (he’d be happy with a 6) so that’s good. Hoping the same for more reports on here as they come in.

Oh that sounds promising! DD doesn't come out til 11am as they start at 9.15am so I'm glad to read this. She's definitely not a natural chemist either!

DD doesn’t seem happy with AQA Chemistry (triple). Hoping she’s done better than she thinks. Paper 1 went well so hopefully she can still get what she needs for A level.

feel like it could be a long summer worrying about it for her… she needs it for the career she wants.

Dd1 back (with friend so 2 sets of feedback). AQA higher combined - good, happy, definitely better than mocks so fingers crossed. Dd2 doing triple so not back yet. She was panicking but well prepared so let’s hope not too much of a car crash (it’s her worst science paper)

Dd AQA said Chemistry Triple was okay, not too bad but not fabulous!

One exam to go!!!

DD said that AQA triple higher went well, not as good as paper 1 which was very very easy according to her, but good nonetheless. @JustOneMoreMargarita I am sure she will have done enough. What did she think could have gone better? People on Reddit have posted answers, I don't show them to my DD because it will make her panic and she forgets the answers anyway, but it might reassure your DD to have a look?

DS thought AQA chemistry good but I think he misunderstood one question from what he had said, which question was worth 5 marks but he was happy with the other science papers apart from biology paper 1 so hopefully that won’t matter

I have told my daughter not to look at these unofficial mark schemes, its done now. Nobody knows the exact mark schemes.

Not sure what she got wrong. Her friends are here so no full postmortem on it yet (they do combined). Tbh I suspect she maybe didn’t do enough revision - she definitely seemed to have a few knowledge gaps yesterday, But there’s also a chance that she’s focusing on one bad question and it was generally ok.

She was negative about that Maths paper on Wednesday and then worked out that she actually did really well so who knows!

AQA chemistry trilogy good here. A moles question which he got and question on water purification which he revised this morning.
so nice that only one exam left.
we got there (almost). I remember the nerves for that first English Lit paper all those weeks ago and praying that he’d done alright during the exam.
I wonder if next week we’ll all struggle to adjust to life without exams!!! We’ve become institutionalised by constant revision and exam timetables 🤣

There was a huge amount of Chemistry that they didnt get taught at dd school. Same when my son was there. Infact the Science teaching has been less than adequate unfortunately.

Edexcel iGCSE chem 2 sounds tricky

Yes, I tell DD not to over analyse what she did, it is done. You don't want her holiday ruined though, I hope she doesn't dwell on it.

@Bluebelle8261 I think it's mostly for the maths questions and there are enough people commenting to know whether they are correct or not... DD doesn't look at them, but for some it will be important to check. Just like talking with your friends after the exam.

DS2 said edexcel higher chemistry combined was the worst paper yet . He’s now seriously worried he’s going to fail combined science as well as ICT . Says he needs to score four penalties in the physics on Monday ! We all watched the Mexico :South Africa match last night so football terminology has taken over here

The answers may be correct but they won't know what extra method marks maybe awarded? I don't really understand it to be honest 😆