GCSEs 2016

[lefol]

How are your DCs preparing for their GCSEs? Has the penny finally dropped ? Are they revising without any prompting and are they doing more than 30 minutes worth of revision without Facebook, Twitter, snap chat and Instagram? Constant prompting here!

[PurpleDuck]

I'm a bit early into this thread as DS will be doing his GCSEs in 2017, but I thought a bit of advance insight may be useful.

I know the curriculum is changing/has changed - does anyone know whether 2017 GCSEs are going to be very different from 2016? Or is 2016 the first year of the new exam format/content/marking scheme? I have downloaded some past papers - are they likely to be useful in revision for the new style exams? It's always a bit tricky to be a guinea pig for the new system...

Any thoughts/suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[scary mum]

It's only maths & English that are changing for 2017 - the school should make this clear. There will be details on the exam websites & sample papers. G55 has a sticky somewhere with all the timelines. Will link to it when I'm not on my phone.

[ToadMum]

This is the link that Guest55 posted:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... year-group

The Sticky is at the top of 'GCSEs'

[PurpleDuck]

ToadMum, scarymum, thank you both, much appreciated. I will have a look at the link. And thank you, Guest55 for posting that link.

[silverysea]

Are we all set, Y11 parents?

Are we leaving them to sink or swim?

Or is everything under control?

How are your DC's revising?

ARE they revising?

[stevew61]

How are your DC's revising?

ARE they revising?

DS2 has decided to adopt a high risk strategy of not revising as such but doing past papers and then filling in the gaps. I'm having to moderate my interventions so we don't have a relationship breakdown.

I've gone from despair at his lack of work to accepting that some work, past papers, is better than nothing.

Have a new found admiration for teachers who have to mark papers, it is such an effort.

[silverysea]

That's interesting, I thought that past papers was a GOOD strategy?

To find weak areas to work on-but maybe he isn't following through?

I'd be pleased if dd1 did even that-maybe she is?

I am firmly pushed out of the loop.

[stevew61]

That's interesting, I thought that past papers was a GOOD strategy?

To find weak areas to work on-but maybe he isn't following through?

It is good but would be better if he revised all topics first, but I suspect that is beyond his powers of concentration, am hoping he is working through the huge volume of revision set on-line by his school. The current record is a 114 page power-point presentation on physics that I almost printed, bet he's not read it online.......

Marking past papers and seeing dropped marks is painful, and multi-mark questions not attempted is despair inducing for me, but he is starting to realise what is needed to turn his B grades into the desired A, in a few subjects at least.

Maybe I'm being unfair as his older brother and younger sister have a more rigorous and time consuming, note making revising style before attempting past papers. Each to their own.

[3b1g]

DS1 has been doing 3-4 hours a day this week. 50% of that time has been spent answering Science questions on Tassomai, 30% on answering Maths practice questions, 15% on making brief notes from Science revision guides and 5% on testing himself on Latin vocab.

I'd like to see more of a balance between subjects, but at least he is mostly doing revision activities.