Coping with Year 11 stress and anxiety

[Moon unit]

Yes DG he did do well. Mostly 9s and a few 8s.
He wasn’t predicted anything like that.
Predictions were a couple of 9s couple of 8s mostly 7s and a 5.
He actually got a 9 in the subject he was predicted a 5.
I am not saying this in anyway to boast but just to illustrate that really working hard from the end of Feb was what did it.
He reminded me at the end he had worked for 117 days with two complete days off and two evenings at concerts.
To be honest we were very surprised he suddenly decided to get a spurt on.
We did know quite a few people who underestimated the new GCSEs and were disappointed.
He did watch a lot of revision videos on you tube.
Science with Hazel was the one he used most.
He hadn’t read a book apart from the set texts since primary school.
I did show him Piggy’s advice which was great and he listened to lots of podcasts of the set texts rather than rereading them.
I say all this in the hope it will be encouraging to the 2019 cohort.

[Daogroupie]

You are not boasting at all and this is fantastically encouraging to the 2019 cohort.

To completely exceed most of his predicted levels, one by four levels, is very inspiring.

117 days is extraordinary. What did the school say?

Do you think he will do the same for A levels?

It must be great for him to know that he is capable of this level of focus if he decides to go for again in Y13.

I would definitely hire him! Keeping continually focused for that a third of a year is very impressive. DG

[Moon unit]

Thank you DG!
The school were very pleased with the results.
His school is still doing AS levels so mocks in those are in six weeks.
He has said he will do more work for these mocks than he did for the GCSE ones but also planning to use the same working pattern as he did previously.
Six hours a day on non school days still does still leave a lot of downtime I think.
It was usually over by 4.30 leaving a decent amount of time for sport,friends etc.
The bits of GCSEs which were most challenging for him were the music composition,Eng lit ( apparently how to learn Eng lit quotes is the most googled GCSE question).
I would advise anyone doing GCSEs this year to do some work on the quotes every day from now. Even 10 mins a day would pay dividends I think.
The other challenge was Geography due to the sheer volume of information.
He made A3 mind maps of all the case studies and did get me to test him on those.
I guess what I am saying is that working hard was what helped him cope with the stress.
Good luck to all 2019 sitters.
You will know what helps your child better than anyone.
My other piece of advice is not to talk about the exams all the time.

[fairyelephant]

It is interesting to read about different approaches. The most important thing for mocks is of course that in themselves they don’t matter so we can just help our DC to decide what they might need to change in terms of prep for the real thing. DS has been doing between 3 and 4.5 hours a day, in 45 minute blocks. I really think he would struggle to do more, although DD certainly did more last year. What matters is what he has been doing in those hours! That’s what he might need to change. We’ll see...

[kenyancowgirl]

It's interesting that parents think mocks don't matter - they don't compared with the real things but, they do matter if you are unwell for the real things (which happens more than people realise!) As one of the measures, if an estimated grade is going to be given by the exam board, they will look at the mock grade and where you ranked alongside your peers and look at where those peers rank in the real thing, and your judge your estimated grade from that. Yes they do consider other school tracking and teacher input but mocks assume a significance in this case.

[Eccentric]

It's interesting that parents think mocks don't matter - they don't compared with the real things but, they do matter if you are unwell for the real things (which happens more than people realise!) As one of the measures, if an estimated grade is going to be given by the exam board, they will look at the mock grade and where you ranked alongside your peers and look at where those peers rank in the real thing, and your judge your estimated grade from that. Yes they do consider other school tracking and teacher input but mocks assume a significance in this case.

They also matter in that many schools help their students to make final decisions on their A levels based upon their results. I also know of at least one indie that makes decisions as to whether girls can continue into sixth form based on their results. They matter because it is a good practice for the real thing. Definitely the revision practice has been good for my DD, she has learnt a huge amount about how to revise more productively and concisely. She has learnt about timings in the exams and has realised that she needs to find a way to spread her time over the whole paper(s) more effectively.
However let's face it (and his may be controversial) it is not the end of the world if our DC's don't get the required results in mocks or the real GCSE's or A levels as long as they get a C in maths and English they can do an Access course to get into any University and onto any course later including Medicine.
I heard a wonderful lady on the wireless who had been in and out of care for most of her childhood due to her mother having mental health problems. She left school with no qualifications all, worked in a few menial jobs and then started working in a care home and loved it. She started an access course intending to train as a nurse but decided to go for full on medicine instead and now works as a Registrar in A and E.
Yes it is easier and saves a year for the access course if GCSE and A levels results are good first time around but it actually doesn't matter if they aren't. Some YP are not mature enough or ready and frankly it makes me cross that so much pressure is put upon them at such a young age. Most YP believe that this is their only chance and that if they fail, that's it their chances are gone when the opportunities are there for their whole life. Many would be better working for a while and going to University or finding a vocational course later when they are more mature.
My eldest Dd is a good example she is doing her Maths and English GCSE now at 23, she had a bad time at secondary school is also dyslexic but much more severely than my youngest she left school with no GCSE's but is very talented musically and got onto a music technology course despite not having GCSE's based on her musical talent alone she got 3 merits which count as 96 UCAS points. She now wants to go on to University to study paramedic science. I had a chat with the Uni and they said she may not have to do an access course even because she is volunteering in the field in which she wants to pursue and is what in their terms is called borderline despite not having the required science A level. I think Uni's will often make exceptions for older students who are sure about what they want to do, all stick the course and actually work.

[loobylou]

One of my colleagues (now aged 50) left school with no qualifications. He went to college to resit his O levels and meet an inspirational lecturer who persuaded him to do a nursing qualification. He nursed for a few years then ended up qualifying as a lecturer in practical skills to student doctors/physios etc, traveling all over Europe.
Then he decided to start a medical degree at the age of 37 and now he's a great GP.
He'd be the first to say he didn't go the easiest route but it was a lot of fun travelling the way he went.

[piggys]

The bits of GCSEs which were most challenging for him were the music composition,Eng lit ( apparently how to learn Eng lit quotes is the most googled GCSE question).
I would advise anyone doing GCSEs this year to do some work on the quotes every day from now. Even 10 mins a day would pay dividends I think.

It's worth mentioning that students' recall of quotations is actually a lot better than they think it might be. I personally learn through repetition and hearing them spoken frequently, as if I was learning a song by hearing it played several times.

The other important piece of advice is that approximations of quotes are perfectly acceptable -in other words if doesn't really matter if the quote is a bit inaccurate - the gist of it (with the key words included, obviously) is fine. No examiner is going to penalise a candidate for getting the order of the words wrong. CAVEAT: this is not the case for poetry where accuracy in quoting is much more important.

The other thing candidates can do is paraphrase quotes: eg instead of writing something like "Romeo depicts Juliet as 'a rich jewel' as well as 'the sun' to illustrate her enriching influence", they can say "Romeo compares Juliet to many bright or illuminated sources such as jewels and the planets in order to illustrate her enriching influence". The advice to take from this is: when in doubt, go for it. You'll get marks for it.

[loobylou]

The bits of GCSEs which were most challenging for him were the music composition,Eng lit ( apparently how to learn Eng lit quotes is the most googled GCSE question).
I would advise anyone doing GCSEs this year to do some work on the quotes every day from now. Even 10 mins a day would pay dividends I think.

It's worth mentioning that students' recall of quotations is actually a lot better than they think it might be. I personally learn through repetition and hearing them spoken frequently, as if I was learning a song by hearing it played several times.

The other important piece of advice is that approximations of quotes are perfectly acceptable -in other words if doesn't really matter if the quote is a bit inaccurate - the gist of it (with the key words included, obviously) is fine. No examiner is going to penalise a candidate for getting the order of the words wrong. CAVEAT: this is not the case for poetry where accuracy in quoting is much more important.

The other thing candidates can do is paraphrase quotes: eg instead of writing something like "Romeo depicts Juliet as 'a rich jewel' as well as 'the sun' to illustrate her enriching influence", they can say "Romeo compares Juliet to many bright or illuminated sources such as jewels and the planets in order to illustrate her enriching influence". The advice to take from this is: when in doubt, go for it. You'll get marks for it.

Thanks piggys. Really useful.

[hermanmunster]

One of my colleagues (now aged 50) left school with no qualifications. He went to college to resit his O levels and meet an inspirational lecturer who persuaded him to do a nursing qualification. He nursed for a few years then ended up qualifying as a lecturer in practical skills to student doctors/physios etc, traveling all over Europe.
Then he decided to start a medical degree at the age of 37 and now he's a great GP.
He'd be the first to say he didn't go the easiest route but it was a lot of fun travelling the way he went.

They are often the best - but don't start me off on "what age should people go to med school?" saga Definite fan of Grad courses