It may be lush outside, but please could we have hush inside?
Exam season. Takes you back doesn’t it?
I’m living in a household with an AS student (equates to lower sixth): Techie’s doing 5 subjects, and another student, Scout (first year of GCSE’s, or year 10, or fourth form in my day) who will have his exam week just after half term – but had one half of a GCSE exam today, in psychology. Oh, and Cycloman, who’s not doing exams.
Revision is the order of the day for the boys. Well, most of the time they are in their rooms they say they are revising, but I wonder sometimes what would happen if I snook downstairs and turned off the modem? Anyway, no-one wants any help. I’m redundant, except for food provision, laundry, lifts and keeping the house in order – oh, and NO NAGGING. (I don’t generally nag, ackershally, but I have been itching to get my hands on Techie’s room…though I have had clear warning signs that this would be seriously unwise until mid-June. At least.)
Anyway I don’t know how much help I could be. I can hardly keep abreast of how the science exams work these days, at GCSE level…. when I was that age I did 3 science ‘O’ levels – and none of this modules lark. Today they can get basic science then go on to ‘three separate awards’. It’s confusing.
And as far as the maths and further maths goes, I’m lost…but them I’ve been unable to help with maths homework since Techie was in year 6.
So I have a houseful of males, each on their own track and I’m starting to feel the fact that I am the only female. Even the cat is male (well neutered… but certainly not female). Maybe I should get a female canine companion?
Or at least, looking only a few weeks ahead – at least book a holiday?
Boadicea's Chariot 
Yes that does bring everything back, Pseu! 🙂 The requirement not to nag is paramount, I always used to find. I think I just said to them both “It’s your future. Up to you what you do with it but the future starts here…”
The difference in revision styles with my two was extreme. No1 son shut himself into his room with computer and acoustic guitars and we could hear there wasn’t a lot of reading going on.
Son no2 took himself into the school library every day working to his own neatly-organised timetable of revision. We weren’t at all surprised by the style of no1 son but we were totally gobsmacked by the self-motivated application of son no2!
Techie has been working hard and came out of an ‘easy’ maths exam this morning…. I do hope his assessment of how he’s done is right 🙂 – he said ‘everyone else said it was a hard paper, but I didn’t think so’
As I recall, it was always the best bit of the summer – wonderfully warm – and when the exams finished it went back to ‘normal’ miserable summer. But, that’s probably a false memory!
I think that was true in my day, too…but we are in a cool phase at the moment.
(I hear it will be warm by the weekend again.)
I used to love school, please wish your kids good luck with their exams for me 🙂
The boy did exceptionally well at O’Levels and then coasted at A’s. Needless to say he got the shock of his life by failing one, and getting very poor grades elsewhere. They gave him a viva at Swansea for engineering, and having sailed through it was asked incredulously how he managed to actually do so badly in the exams.
I don’t think he told them about the marijuana and the all night parties!
A lesson seriously learnt. He never tried it again.
Had they not accepted him I really think he was intent on “Shipping before the mast”!!!
Sometimes they have to wake up all by themselves.
Very true, Christina!