Y11 2025-26 Final exams are here. Now we wait….

[UncomfortableSilence]

New thread for all things Y11, did they cook or are they cooked. We will find out in 10 weeks😉

I think if I was organising exams, I'd end with one of the big ones that everyone does (maths, English, science) as I am sure it will have a detrimental effect on a lot of the Spanish children having an exam after their peers have finished and started celebrating. And an especially bad effect with it being a MFL which is less popular with children. I'd also have the last exam on a Friday so they haven't given up at the weekend before a Monday/Tuesday.

Changed username in honour of the exams finally being over. I'm so relieved!

I do think there's a possibility of a bit of a crash for DD in coming days and we're another household where revision for Physics was decidedly tired and lacklustre this weekend.

Agree it would be far better to end on a Friday but they probably can't fit them all in such that this is an option and the idea of stretching them out even more is definitely not on.

Well done everyone! Hard work for the Mums and Dads as well as the children.

I literally do not know what I'm doing this week even though supposedly I'm going away with work. I have been saying to myself in my head 'I'm not going to worry about that until the exams are over' so I'm going to have to pull myself together pretty quickly!

This is spot on.

Yes I totally agree it would’ve been better to finish with one they all do. DS has Spanish tomorrow and it’s a bit gutting that most of his friends have finished already and there won’t be many around to celebrate with tomorrow.

My daughter dislikes her school so is happy to leave 😂

Mine has a place for both sixth form and college. I felt emotional because it’s the end of an era for him. Come September, over half of his friends won’t be with him whichever option he chooses.

Also because I’m so bloody proud of him and how hard he’s worked.

Well DS2 got home and burnt his blazer in the firepit which is a tradition started by DS1 that I am not particularly on board with. Neither of their blazers could have been reused so its not that so much as it seems a bit negative and also probably not great for the environment. We will sort out the revision books later and have a ceremonial dumping of things in the recycling bin (after saving anything that can be donated and all maths and English things just in case).

Because I’m a geek I looked at the exam timetable for next year. Everyone appears to finish on the equivalent of this Friday coming with physics! Which seems sensible.

My DD stopped wearing her blazer at the start of study leave (which was beginning of May), they are not allowed to wear them for exams, different to every other school, but I suspect the many pockets could hold notes?

Can someone explain the not marking the whole exam paper thing, please?

Sorry for being so dense, but do they really not mark the whole paper? So if they happen to choose the one question your DC made a mistake, then your DC will do badly, even if everything they didn't mark was spot on?

There are five state secondaries in our small city and only 2 have a sixth form, not including ours. There's a sixth form college and a vocational college.
The sixth form college gets excellent results, better than either of the school sixth forms.
I'm sure I'd feel differently if DS was going back to school in September just without a uniform, like I did at his age.

All the paper is marked, dw, but just for some subjects, for some boards, the same marker will mark qu1; a different marker will mark qu2, and so on.

ETA: the idea being, you get your eye in on Macbeth and mark all of those. Or just those.

We are done!!! Sadly rather than going out on a high, DD said that Further Maths paper 2 was the worst exam she has ever sat, it made no sense and she’d be lucky to get 20 marks. Oh well, luckily she’s not doing it for A-levels and it couldn’t matter less in the big scheme of things. Good lucky to all those still finishing and will be here on 20 August to cheer on everyone’s successes.

We are done too!! Mixed day…

Physics edexcel iGCSE was a gift of a paper and apparently she’d be surprised if she didn’t get 100% which is a relief after Chem on Friday!

AQA FM was comically hard. Hardest paper she’s ever done including significantly worse than senior maths challenge. She said they were all walking out laughing at how difficult it was. Hasn’t put her off FM A -Level though.

She is on a massive high that she’s finally finished. As am I!! This has been tough on all of us!

Dd2 home - she was fine with physics triple (there was a microphone question apparently and we did that yesterday!) and said she got exactly the same answer on at least one fm question as the nailed in 9 maths genius so even though hard, was pretty sparky.

all uniform in bin bags for recycling now. All notes in big piles to be taken down to the tip. The party starts at 5.30 apparently…..

I am distracted today - end of an era and all that

oh and apparently dd1 was part right in the aqa paper - it was a typo around something’s mass. Ironically she thinks looking at Reddit she may have fluked the actual right answer but I presume they can’t take off marks if they’ve made an error

Well - that’s a wrap 🥳 Thanks for the solidarity and happy celebrating to you all x

Dd felt that the question on the AQA combined higher paper was strange but didn’t have the confidence to question it. I called exam office and was told no one else had flagged up and didn’t offer to investigate further. I felt a little frustrated by the lack of concern from school to look into, it so called AQA directly and they said that many schools had already contacted AQA. What will happen now?

Whoooooooooooooooooooooooop I am so happy we are done! But will definitely miss this thread.

I got "decent" from DS for higher triple physics. He is now at his mate's house eating pizza and settling in for the world cup.

I've bought him an England shirt as a surprise well done gift. Really proud of him.

Mine is now in mild disbelief that he is actually finished and keeps asking me if I’m sure he’s done (even after ceremonially ripping up the exam schedule). Think the long unstructured summer might well be very tough in a different way.

Good luck to all those doing Spanish. Agree it would be better for them to finish as a group. No big celebrations planned here until prom on Thursday.

Hopefully the thread can stick around for results day - feel invested in everyone’s kids now!

@Walkingbkwrm i reckon we will still be here this time next year talking about predicted grades and uni open days ( if the thread from DS1s year group is anything to go by )

So happy it’s all over! I haven’t heard how physics and FM went today, I’m only just in from work and DS is out at the park with his friends. But oh how lovely to be done! Definitely feeling a bit emotional about him leaving school. Made him pose for a photo this morning for his last day!

Anyone else's child found further maths gcse ridiculously hard? My son struggled with paper 1 and said paper 2 today was even worse. Yet when he did test papers from last year's gcse he got 8 or 9 grades.

Hurray, all done here!! Good luck to the final maths and spanish students!!

Was it AQA? I heard it was hard

Yep, same. Everyone in DD’s very selective Indie found it the same too (lots of very clever mathematicians). Not too worried, grade boundaries will be low.