We are currently doing the year 12 end of year exams here and with two girls going through them (and a string of friends who are in my house for "group study" sessions) their stress is rubbing off on all of us.
A quick summary, because I know we do it a bit differently here.
Year 12 is the last year of school.
To apply for university you use your "ATAR" score, which is your score from all your exams combined, then ranked amongst everyone else in the state who did their exams (so you end up with a number between 00.01 - 100.00) different university courses require a minimum ATAR score to get in (hypothetical example, say I am doing my exams and want to get into a business course, the business score could be 71.45, so I would have to get that score or higher to get in)
So these exams are a big deal.
These exams span over two months too, as they do all performance exams in October and written exams in November.
Their timetables, which for some reason are stuck to the loungroom wall are
<U>Dita</U>
October 16 - Music Performance
November 1st - English
November 8th - Mathematical Methods
November 9th - Literature
November 16th - Food Technology
<U>Violet</U>
November 1st - English
November 2nd - Biology
November 8th - Mathematical Methods
November 12th - Specialist Mathematics
November 13th - Chemistry
So we are living in this high stress environment at the moment where everything is an over the top life or death matter (Dita had "lost" her copy of Lysistrata, which is one of her exam texts for Literature and we had tears, until it was found in her school bag) and I was wondering if anyone who has older kids who has been through crazy exams or tertiary schooling applications where tensions were high have any advice for trying to instil some calm into the household.
(Meanwhile, I cannot believe that I have to go through this four more times )
A quick summary, because I know we do it a bit differently here.
Year 12 is the last year of school.
To apply for university you use your "ATAR" score, which is your score from all your exams combined, then ranked amongst everyone else in the state who did their exams (so you end up with a number between 00.01 - 100.00) different university courses require a minimum ATAR score to get in (hypothetical example, say I am doing my exams and want to get into a business course, the business score could be 71.45, so I would have to get that score or higher to get in)
So these exams are a big deal.
These exams span over two months too, as they do all performance exams in October and written exams in November.
Their timetables, which for some reason are stuck to the loungroom wall are
<U>Dita</U>
October 16 - Music Performance
November 1st - English
November 8th - Mathematical Methods
November 9th - Literature
November 16th - Food Technology
<U>Violet</U>
November 1st - English
November 2nd - Biology
November 8th - Mathematical Methods
November 12th - Specialist Mathematics
November 13th - Chemistry
So we are living in this high stress environment at the moment where everything is an over the top life or death matter (Dita had "lost" her copy of Lysistrata, which is one of her exam texts for Literature and we had tears, until it was found in her school bag) and I was wondering if anyone who has older kids who has been through crazy exams or tertiary schooling applications where tensions were high have any advice for trying to instil some calm into the household.
(Meanwhile, I cannot believe that I have to go through this four more times )