GCSEs 2019

[MamaBear]

How did everyones mocks go?

DS1 just finished his last mock on Thursday and will be getting his results soon.

[loobylou]

Dd finished yesterday. She's had a couple of results so far which she was pleased with. She felt maths, English language and French were harder than she anticipated. It will be interesting to see the results.
Regardless of the results she has learned a lot about how she works. She's realised that she comes out of exams very "buzzy" and alert, still feeling like that even after walking home. If she then takes a break, it all dissipates so she's decided working straight after getting home and then having a break will be better for her. Also she had a "down" patch on Saturday mornings -probably because everyone in the family was home and no one else was working - so we've decided that we will go swimming or walking every Saturday morning (once she starts proper revision again) so that she gets some exercise and doesn't feel as though she "ought" to be working.

[silverysea]

Mocks ended yesterday for dd2, after a nearly solid 2 weeks. Some days had 3 exams. I hope this is not representative of the real schedule? Mocks didn’t even register with dd1, in fact When dd1 did her actual GCSEs in 2016 I think there were 3 weeks, not counting a half term break week, in the middle, but she did 9.5 subjects and dd2 is doing more subjects. It wasn’t delightful but dd1 definitely saw mates, kept up her activities though about half normal, had time chilling at home etc.

By the end of these mocks, dd2 was flagging, texted me about thinking of skipping her only outside activity in the entire 2 week before the last day - I told her in no uncertain terms for goodness sake to go out and do something different. She did and came home happy, tried her best the next day, but I utterly do not care about how she did on that! It wasn’t a likely topic for A level anyway.

It has inspired a renewed search for another 6th form as well, a bit of a scrabble but we have an interview offer already, aren’t interested in another pressured environment, and past performance is more than adequate for the “second tier” type of school, plus she is a busy worker bee academically so clearly can perform well enough, without having to be surrounded by annoying type A stress junkies! Scales falling from eyes and all that? Hope she’s not disappointed to stay put, at this rate! Jeez. Maybe should have never entered this rat race GS but at least she’s well prepared.

[scary mum]

They have a lot more exams these days as they all have to be taken at the end (so 9 science exams for triple science). I think my DS had 25 exams whereas DD doing the same number of GCSEs had 17. They will be spread over about a 5 weeks with a week for half term in the middle. So still quite intensive but not like doing mocks over 2 weeks.

[ToadMum]

Silverysea, DS2's school has had the public exam timetable up on its website for a while (DD's might have as well, but their new site, like the old one, is a thing of mystery, even to those of us pretty well-versed in the ways of the ether ). We have also just had his Statement of Entry sent home for us to check.

Have a look on the exam boards' websites for the exams that your DD is taking. Or even just at one of them, as exams are more or less synchronised, so you can get the drift of timings.

[Stokers]

Hello, 2019ers - I've been meaning to post for some time. Your posts are taking me back to last year as DS geared up for the final push towards his GCSEs. It's lovely to hear how supportive and concerned you all are.

One thing I would suggest is helping your DCs be 'task' focused not 'time' focused. DS was very time focused up to Easter and became trapped in this 'I must do 6 hours a day' cycle which was monotonous and soul destroying. He was getting up ever earlier at weekends so that he could get his 6 hours out of the way by lunchtime and give himself some free time in the afternoon. We finally persuaded him at Easter to become more task focused - what am I going to do today? OK - a Geography practice paper, which I will mark and then revise the questions I got wrong; an essay plan on a previous Shakespeare question and some quotation learning; and possibly some focused Maths questions on topics I struggle with. He found the time went much more quickly and he felt like he had accomplished something at the end of it. Revision was never a joy but he did feel like he was in control.

I've also recently read The GCSE Mindset by Oakes & Griffin and would really recommend this (the workbook is also available but is designed for schools - you can model the activities yourself quite easily) for both parents and students. Full of good exercises and 'mind-setting' approaches that I think would really support a dc who needs some direction.

Best of luck,
Stokers

[loobylou]

Silverysea, dd has got the GCSE timetable. Obviously your dd will be doing different subjects but she has no days with 3 exams but 6 days with 2. She has 23 exams in total over 4 weeks (half term comes in the middle of that).

[Eccentric]

My Dd has her GCSE timetable too and like Loobyloo says she has 6 days with two exams. Half term is in the middle so allows a week of revision then and there are some days in between for revision.

[Crackerjax]

We're still in the midst of mocks .. dd will finish on written papers on Wednesday, and then has her PE Oral on Tue.
But it has been a full on 2 weeks, with just 1 day where she had 1 exam. We also lost her nan last week, the school gave her the option to postpone, but she decided to continue.
We've always said to treat it as a trial run and that she will learn so much.

[Tinkers]

Now you are getting timetables, I’d just thought I’d mention DDs experience last year.

Her two german exams were the last two exams. In the last week that was it, just those.

As a result she planned to do a fair amount of her german revision the weekend before as everything else would be done. Seemed a reasonable thing to do. She did some regular quizlet stuff for vocab throughout, but not much else.

That weekend, after all the other exams, quite frankly she was exhausted. She didn’t do anything like what she had planned for german revision. She didn’t get the grade expected partly as a result.

Something to watch for when your DCs are doing their revision plans.