GCSE Revision is hard work!

Jagraf

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I also think it's quite shocking that so many people (and so many schools) should be worrying about formal revision when students are really only 3/4 of the way through a 2 year GCSE course.It shows how much education in this country has become geared to passing exams and teaching to the test rather than on real learning and broadening students' educational experience.

I think normal classes should go on until shortly before the exams with a maximum of a week spent on revision or else such a lot of teaching time is lost.

They also do too many subjects imo. DD did 12 gcses (I know at some schools they do more). Even at A level mocks for AS come really early on the academic year and then AS then mock A then A. Kids can burn out very easily.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I also think it's quite shocking that so many people (and so many schools) should be worrying about formal revision when students are really only 3/4 of the way through a 2 year GCSE course.It shows how much education in this country has become geared to passing exams and teaching to the test rather than on real learning and broadening students' educational experience.

I think normal classes should go on until shortly before the exams with a maximum of a week spent on revision or else such a lot of teaching time is lost.

IIRC, we didn't officially finish the courses until Easter and then went on 'study' leave straight away. I didn't do more than give the books a perfunctory glance and if something looked unfamiliar, I'd just spend about twenty minutes on it. I think it was three weeks until my first exam, the vast majority of which was spent going round to friends' houses and just chilling out, watching telly or listening to music.

I think a bunch of As was a good enough result to come out with afterwards, and I certainly wasn't stressed about it - unlike today's year 11s, who either look haunted or are just utter pains who give up, thinking they must be stupid to not be able to keep their intensity of work and recall the same after nine hours at school, starting with before school intervention, no breaktimes, only ten minutes for lunch and then compulsorily kept behind for two hours after school every single day (and being put under extreme pressure to abandon music lessons, even though they take GCSE Music with performance representing nearly half of the overall grade, because it meant they'd possibly miss up to 20 mins of cramming in another subject).


Not that my mother had the intellectual capability to lecture, teach or in any way comprehend the subjects, but had she suddenly taken it upon herself to force me to revise every day and monitor every aspect of the process, the stress that would have caused would have made my results far worse than the general suspicion of and disinterest she had for anything resembling education.


Sometimes the better approach is to back off - if you fail core subjects, you end up having to resit them and do all the work again, your choice, not anybody else's problem [shrug]. And that's more of an incentive than trying to force it on anybody.


Although I will admit that the prospect of cold, hard cash would have probably got me looking at my books more than once....

missbiggles1

The only exam leave we had was not have lessons during the exams and we had a revision week immediately before they started. I really don't think any more is necessary. We also had to come back to school after exams to start on the A level syllabus.

FBaby

Jagraf wrote: »

They also do too many subjects imo. DD did 12 gcses (I know at some schools they do more). Even at A level mocks for AS come really early on the academic year and then AS then mock A then A. Kids can burn out very easily.

The problem is catering for every pupils' needs. Some actually do like the buzz of exams as otherwise get bored. The problem is that state schools have to try to provide the best for such a variety of pupils with a variety of needs.

bylromarha

suki1964 wrote: »

How the flip did I pass my cse's and o levels when I had no parents taking care of our daily needs let alone educational needs I never know

I knew I had to study if I wanted to pass and get a job, so I did. Same as both my sisters. Certainly never had parents sorting out timetables and study periods for us

I think the stakes are so much higher now.

To get to uni I needed CD. I got CCE. The same course today is AAB. If there really has been no change in the A level standard, then I'd have needed a heck of a lot of pushing to have achieved AAB. As it was, I did what I needed to do rather than achieve my full potential.

suki1964

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

IIRC, we didn't officially finish the courses until Easter and then went on 'study' leave straight away. I didn't do more than give the books a perfunctory glance and if something looked unfamiliar, I'd just spend about twenty minutes on it. I think it was three weeks until my first exam, the vast majority of which was spent going round to friends' houses and just chilling out, watching telly or listening to music.

I think a bunch of As was a good enough result to come out with afterwards, and I certainly wasn't stressed about it - unlike today's year 11s, who either look haunted or are just utter pains who give up, thinking they must be stupid to not be able to keep their intensity of work and recall the same after nine hours at school, starting with before school intervention, no breaktimes, only ten minutes for lunch and then compulsorily kept behind for two hours after school every single day (and being put under extreme pressure to abandon music lessons, even though they take GCSE Music with performance representing nearly half of the overall grade, because it meant they'd possibly miss up to 20 mins of cramming in another subject).


Not that my mother had the intellectual capability to lecture, teach or in any way comprehend the subjects, but had she suddenly taken it upon herself to force me to revise every day and monitor every aspect of the process, the stress that would have caused would have made my results far worse than the general suspicion of and disinterest she had for anything resembling education.


Sometimes the better approach is to back off - if you fail core subjects, you end up having to resit them and do all the work again, your choice, not anybody else's problem [shrug]. And that's more of an incentive than trying to force it on anybody.


Although I will admit that the prospect of cold, hard cash would have probably got me looking at my books more than once....

I think me and you went to the same school

I remember coming back after Christmas and doing the mocks. As I say, in my time it was CSE or O levels, yours mocks decided what stream you went into

I remember getting a fail in maths and having to take the paper to head of year for remarking, and getting moved onto O level, and having about 6 weeks to study for it

But as you, for the rest of study it was like 'schools out' and no study was actually done, in fact I started work full time, just going in for my exams

Certainly there was no input from parents, All they wanted to know was we had a study day and therefore the truant officer wasn't coming knocking. That wasn't just me and my family, just about everyone I knew. It was up to us if we studied and got the results

heuchera

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

What? When I did my O levels (and A levels) I just got on with my revision. I made my own timetables, my parents had no involvement, they weren't sitting the exams and didn't know any of the subjects to O level standard anyway.

It's up to your children to sort this out for themselves, not up to you.

suki1964 wrote: »

How the flip did I pass my cse's and o levels when I had no parents taking care of our daily needs let alone educational needs I never know

I'm getting the impression that both the school AND the parents want the pupils to get A********* grades, because it looks good on THEM, regardless of the amount of pressure they're putting the poor kid(s) under. Our education system really does sound crazy now.

It's no wonder so many teens these days end up in the mental health system. (something that was relatively rare a couple of decades ago). 10 to 12 hour school day, then more revision in the evening? :eek: Just about anyone would crack under that sort of pressure.

If a child wants to "go to uni" they will do the work. If their parent wants them to go they will sit about and wait to be nagged

Lunar_Eclipse

I think it's way too early for revision: they'll peak too soon.

DD is hoping for 11 A/A* and won't be starting until the Easter holidays. Her mocks were mainly 'night before' affairs.

During Easter and then study leave (she gets precisely 4 days before her 1st exam), I will provide lots of delicious food, all the sticky notes she cares to buy, reasonable bedtime nagging and a test companion if she asks, but absolutely no financial incentives (what the hell does that teach them?!) or pressured revision - it's stressful enough (and possibly more about the parents failings?)

DD has muttered organising her files during half term, great idea and possibly more like a day's faffing about in reality. She will need the rest by then; if they work hard during school lessons, they shouldn't need to do much after school for a few months.

theoretica

There is revision and 'revision'. The first to my mind is looking over things that have slipped out of memory by someone who learnt it properly when it first came round. Many A* students will only need to do this. However the word is often applied to actually trying to learn or understand the material better than in the first place which in my experience is much more time consuming than putting the work in initially.

NewShadow

elisebutt65 wrote: »

Just had his mocks. Only about 15 weeks to go so we're starting off gently, with 30 mins each on 2 subjects Mon - Thurs. 1 hour each for 5 topics on a Sunday. He's having Friday nights and Saturdays off for mates etc. Then from 1/2 term onwards we'll start to ramp it up a bit and be more focussed on his areas of weakness as well as embedding the basics.

Sorry if I'm a bit late to this, but...can I just check:

School until 5.30, then work at home for an hour Monday to Thurs.

Plus, 5 hours on a Sunday.

And you're intending to ramp it up closer to the exam date?

Personally I can see why he might be a bit fed up. Sounds like he's got no 'escape' from it all - especially if he's the type of kid that's scared of giving the wrong answer - meaning he's likely fairly nervous about it.

Is this really normal for kids nowadays?

Could just be me being soft, but it sounds like a recipe for academic burnout.