A Strange But Urgent Request....

Poppy9

mountainofdebt wrote: »

You can.

You simply ensure that your child has done sufficient revision and you're not up tight about the exam the night before either.

Then on the day you wave them off and tell them that all you want is for them to do their best.

Any then pray that they read the question right!

Sorry I have to disagree here. At 16 & 18 years of age they are in no mood to listen to Mum & Dad telling them to start revising early. They are young adults with their own minds. They have to do it for themself at this age. It's a very important lesson for them to learn.

I think every parent tells their child they can only do their best and every child knows this. However they know they will only be doing their best based on how much revision they have done. Completely different to realising their potential.

Oh well I'm off to bed now. DD off too as she wanted a social network hour!!:D

Shanelle

I'm back, DD is out with friends and is spending the rest of the day relaxing. As I've probably said before, she doesn't do ANY study at all 1 day before. Everyone in DD's class in sitting most of their core exams this year. She worries less about the options she has chosen, as she tends to fly through any exams there. I would say quite easily she is an A in maths, averaging A in English and is a B in science, after the exam the craze for science will start!
Dd has already taken her Language exam in early november of Y10, and is now taking literature, from the teachers I've talked to they didn;t really have a choice regarding when they had to be taken

southoftheriver

I knew what I wanted to do when I was 4, I knew what GCSE/A level grades I needed when I was about 14. I have always been really motivated. My mum was supportive(ish) but didn't really get that I needed good grades and that C's wouldn't do. So I really understand your daughters motvation.

I think its admirable that you are trying to help your daughter Shanelle, especially if you know that she will stress anyway, but you may be just perpetuating the idea that she got her mark right. Maybe it would be better to sit down with her and talk through things that she finds difficult, or for her to tell you how she would analyse something. Talking out loud can help even if the person can't give you feedback or a mark.

When I was in my first year of university I ended up in hospital. I had my books and my folders with me so I could study. When I woke up after a nap my books had gone. I was really hacked off and after investigating who had taken them, I found out that one of the pastoral tutors from my uni had been up to see me and had swiped them! Apparently I wasn't going to get any better if I didn't rest. She did eventually let me have my folder back because I was so bored but she was very adament that I didn't do too much. Sometimes you need someone to support your personality and be there to watch without fuelling it.

poet123

Shanelle wrote: »

I'm back, DD is out with friends and is spending the rest of the day relaxing. As I've probably said before, she doesn't do ANY study at all 1 day before. Everyone in DD's class in sitting most of their core exams this year. She worries less about the options she has chosen, as she tends to fly through any exams there. I would say quite easily she is an A in maths, averaging A in English and is a B in science, after the exam the craze for science will start!
Dd has already taken her Language exam in early november of Y10, and is now taking literature, from the teachers I've talked to they didn;t really have a choice regarding when they had to be taken

Then I would have been having words with the school. The GCSE course of study is formulated over a set period for good reason, and those schools who try to circumvent this timescale often do not have the pupils interests uppermost in their minds.

My youngest son has been told he can take certain of his GCSE's early, but he certainly wont be doing it if it puts undue pressure on him, or he is danger of underachieving because of it. I would far rather him gain a comfortable A* star in y11 than a pressured A in Y10.

Poppy9

I'm just sitting her ticking off another exam. Five down, only 11 or is it 12 to go Roll on end of June when I am no longer shown up to be thick as !!!! when I can't answer past paper questions

Poppy9

poet123 wrote: »

Then I would have been having words with the school. The GCSE course of study is formulated over a set period for good reason, and those schools who try to circumvent this timescale often do not have the pupils interests uppermost in their minds.

My youngest son has been told he can take certain of his GCSE's early, but he certainly wont be doing it if it puts undue pressure on him, or he is danger of underachieving because of it. I would far rather him gain a comfortable A* star in y11 than a pressured A in Y10.

DD did her maths a year early. The school offered 30 pupils from the group (there are almost 300 in year). The pupils were called together as a group and if they wanted to do it they were given a letter home which parents had to sign.

I really wasn't sure but DD was really pleased to have been selected and keen to do it so I signed.

By the December of Y10 when they were sitting end of term exams DD was struggling and had a C in the exam. At parents evening in early Feb. her maths teacher told her (and me) that she had lost her confidence in her ability and that she was a very capable mathematician but unless she got her confidence back then she wouldn't improve her grade. I asked DD what she wanted to do; she could move class and do it in Y11, get a tutor or let me help her get back on track with planning revision. She went for the last option so out came the past papers, she had to do 2 a week. Not under exam conditions but to find out what she knew - to get her confidence back and to work on her weaknesses. By Easter when she sat her mocks she had an A in both papers.

She worked her socks off after Easter plowing through past papers and achieved an A* in final exams (I think she had 83% and 91%) in the two papers.

Was it worth it? On balance I'd say yes but I wouldn't have said that last year

Yes she was stressed, but she is always stressed (by exams and life, it's her personality). It's taken lot of pressure off this year in that she has one important GCSE under her belt. She is sitting an advanced maths paper at the end of the month but the pressure is off.

She also learnt important lessons from last year in that if she organises and applies herself she can turn things around. I hope this will help her in the future when she feels she is drowning or falling behind.

Lunar_Eclipse

Humphrey10 wrote: »

I have never heard of anyone doing multiple (or any, actually) practise exams at home, not even for proper qualifications like A levels or degrees.

Really?

Several children in my daughter's class (Y6, so only age 10/11) did exactly this in the run up to their national SATS exams recently. Also, for those who sat entrance exams to private secondary schools in January of this year, this would also be normal practice, for about a YEAR. Crazy perhaps, but normal.

As I observed all this pushy parenting around me, I thought it had really changed from my schooling/parenting of the 70-90's, but a close friend informed me (she's 37) that she spent every Sunday doing practice exam papers at home for a whole year before sitting her 11+ for grammar school entry. And that was the norm amongst her peers. So it's been going on for decades.

I feel a bit for the OP. I don't see positive value in the request she made initially, because I think it could send her daughter in to a last minute panic (despite her not having a history of behaving this way) and agree reassurance is the way to go at this point in time. However I also disagree with some of the comments basically criticizing the high expectations her daughter has in terms of her university hopes. These don't usually come from nowhere when sitting down filling in university application forms. Everything seems to happen much earlier these days, schools talk about university from about Y9/10.

Whilst my daughter, who is only 11, did not have a tutor or do practice exam papers for exams she has sat recently (because I felt it was unnecessary and also don't agree with it), it has been made very clear to us what her academic potential is based on her progress and IQ. She can choose to do whatever she likes with her life, but we are aware that she has the intellectual potential to consider degrees & careers that some would struggle with and yes, we assume she will aim high in terms of university choice if she so desires. Interestingly, most people live up (or down) to expectations others have of them. If a teacher thinks a student is a grade A student, they usually are. Likewise for C grade students etc.

There is a world of difference, in my opinion, between being a pushy and demanding parent and having high expectations for ones children, assuming they are in line with their natural ability and developed talents. However, maybe the difference is simply in the latter bit.

The exam is this morning. We have friends sitting it too. Good luck to your daughter OP!

bagginslover

poet123 wrote: »

Then I would have been having words with the school. The GCSE course of study is formulated over a set period for good reason, and those schools who try to circumvent this timescale often do not have the pupils interests uppermost in their minds.

My youngest son has been told he can take certain of his GCSE's early, but he certainly wont be doing it if it puts undue pressure on him, or he is danger of underachieving because of it. I would far rather him gain a comfortable A* star in y11 than a pressured A in Y10.

Have you never heard of modular GCSEs?! The students take smaller exams over a period of 2 years. They are examinied on smaller chunks of the sylabus at a time, this REDUCES stress as there is less to remember at a time. It also raises the exam pass rate. The timings of the exams are set by the exam board, not the school (yes the school does get to choose the board, but the vast majority of boards are offering modular courses now, and who wouldn't choose to benefit their students?!) so talking to the school would be pointless in this case, and even if it weren't, its a little late now!

melancholly

bagginslover wrote: »

Have you never heard of modular GCSEs?! The students take smaller exams over a period of 2 years. They are examinied on smaller chunks of the sylabus at a time, this REDUCES stress as there is less to remember at a time. It also raises the exam pass rate.

you see i think the idea is that it reduces stress, but i think for a lot of students (and indeed parents!) it just makes the stressful period much longer. if you react badly to the stress of exams, having to do them more often won't make things better! having exams every few months that are 'important' is a lot to put on teenagers. throw in the need to have resits, you can end up with students taking lots more exams in one go.

i don't think there's an ideal way to structure exams for every student btw as they all have different ways of coping; students need to be able to adapt to the systems they have as best they can.

poet123

bagginslover wrote: »

Have you never heard of modular GCSEs?! The students take smaller exams over a period of 2 years. They are examinied on smaller chunks of the sylabus at a time, this REDUCES stress as there is less to remember at a time. It also raises the exam pass rate. The timings of the exams are set by the exam board, not the school (yes the school does get to choose the board, but the vast majority of boards are offering modular courses now, and who wouldn't choose to benefit their students?!) so talking to the school would be pointless in this case, and even if it weren't, its a little late now!

Of course I have heard of modular GCSE's. However, the school my son attends doesn't offer them to the most able pupils, as, along with a lot of schools they consider them to be of lesser value than the linear equivalent.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23538675-leading-schools-will-shun-new-modular-gcses.do


In fact, I believe the Govt are considering phasing them out, as they too consider them to be the dumbed down version of an already devalued qualification.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11809797



It is also far from proven that it decreases stress. http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6050385


So, it is very much a moot point as to whether it is of overall benefit to pupils.