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Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Secondary education

How much AS revision (sciences and maths) -

26 replies

lilolilmanchester · 18/04/2010 22:22

DS is bright but oh so lazy and so many reasons why he can't revise "now"... would appreciate hearing from parents and teachers if he should be revising already and if so, how much (3 x science, plus maths, plus 3 x module resits). Thanks

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brimfull · 18/04/2010 22:24

they never do enough ime
dd doing a2 this term
she has been doing maths papers

she admits she should have done way more for her as levels

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lilolilmanchester · 18/04/2010 22:30

thanks ggirl, I know I'm not alone in this (as my Dad used to say, "you can't put an old head on young shoulders"...) You can't tell them tho, can you??

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brimfull · 18/04/2010 23:07

problem is they always see there's another chance if they muck it up ..retaking

dd at the final stage now and has actually started to revise properly now with a revision timetable

she said it's because this is it .. her last and final chance and she doesn't want to bugger it up

it has to come from them

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TheFallenMadonna · 18/04/2010 23:09

Yes, he should be revising already. I have my AS classes a fair bit of revision homework over the holidays. I have pretty much finished the course content now, but I worry that they rely on what we do in class to get by

And if he is doing module resits, that is double the work...

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snorkie · 18/04/2010 23:52

Advice ds was given (this was mainly for GCSEs, but a couple of AS too) was to use this holiday to revise the whole syllabus & then work on past papers and resolving any questions/problems arising from the revision in the 4 weeks of term before the exams actually start. He's not done huge amounts to be honest, but he's very efficient when he does work and did well in the mocks so hopefully [crossed fingers emoticon] it's enough.

Your ds should be aiming to do more revision this time around for each module than he did for the ones he's retaking so that he doesn't end up needing to do even more resits. If he's lazy that thought might just appeal to him.

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webwiz · 19/04/2010 08:35

Mmm Just to say I sympathise as DD2 has decided that she doesn't need to start revising yet. She has 5 Maths papers, 1 chemistry and 2 History. I think because her timetable gives her 2 Maths and 1 History before half term and the rest afterwards she thinks she has plenty of time.

Once she starts revising she will work hard and will certainly happily plough through lots and lots of past papers for Maths. I think that she would rather work very hard over a shorter period of time than do it gently over a longer period. I'm hoping the teachers will up the nagging when she goes back tomorrow because she certainly isn't listening to anything I say

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JGBMum · 19/04/2010 08:44

So pleased you started this thread!
DS finally started revising last weekend (9 exams in total)and to be fair he has really put in the hours this week.
His technique has been to go through the text books, work out how many chapters there are that they have covered, and divide it by 10, and do 10% each day so that he will have revised everything they have done so far by the time he goes back to school tomorrow (except for D1 maths as he hasnt got the text book) Boys!!!

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lilolilmanchester · 19/04/2010 09:08

thanks all. DS did about 3 hours in total over the Easter hols - I just don't understand his attitude, he knows from GCSE modules and earlier AS modules that resitting will double the work, but does he care??? He needs really good grades to get on the uni course he wants to do , am beginning to think that uni not a good idea for him til he becomes a bit more self-motivated

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silver73 · 19/04/2010 13:58

Hi

I have a bright DS doing GCSEs. I showed him his exam timetable and explained that he could not wing it any more as he has exams virtually every day and one day has two exams.

I have also pointed out that it is best to get the information into long term memory and this can take a few weeks so needs to do some revision every day.

I found a good book that I showed him that said 30 mins on quality work is worth hours of half hearted attempts. It also found a revision timetable in one of his books that seemed very sensible. It was based on 30 mins of chemistry revision a day ....

Don't know how long it will last though.....

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lilolilmanchester · 20/04/2010 23:09

hi Silver. I went through that with DS last year, to help him realise just how much he had to do. You'd think he'd be a year wiser as well as a year older by now, but it's an uphill struggle. THo having watched Great Ormond St earlier, it kind of puts having a lazy boy into perspective...

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webwiz · 21/04/2010 18:18

Just asked DD2 when she planned to start revising and apparently she hasn't started yet because she hasn't finished the syllabus for some subjects yet. My helpful suggestion of revising the bits of the syllabus she has done has resulting in a stomping off.

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webwiz · 21/04/2010 18:20

I mean "resulted" not resulting.

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JGBMum · 21/04/2010 18:27

DS is still finishing the syllabus, I was a bit , hopefully they will finish sometime soon.........

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MmeBlueberry · 21/04/2010 18:47

He should be keeping up with a normal-heavy homework load, eg 2.5 - 3 hours a night.

How is his teacher helping him with his resit modules, or is it all up to him? He needs to really tackle these seriously by doing practice papers and marking them himself using the markscheme. Unfortunately, there are very few past papers available as these courses are only in their second year. His teacher should be able to cobble together appropriate questions from older papers.

For his resits, he needs to understand where he went wrong first time round. Did he get a copy of his script back so that his teacher could point out his weaker areas? I do this for all my students as a matter of course.

Revising for exams is obviously very important, but it is also essential to practise exam technique and that means going over mark schemes and examiners' reports.

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JGBMum · 21/04/2010 21:52

Mme Blueberry - re copy of the script, I didnt know (and we weren't told )it ws possible to get this. Do you know whther it would be too late now to get a Jan script copy?

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lilolilmanchester · 22/04/2010 00:27

mme blueberry, where he went wrong first time was..... not revising. He/we know exactly what he needs to do, getting him to do it is a completely different matter. I would be less worried if he was struggling academically - in which case we could help him, but he is perfecly capable, just lazy Am wondering at what point we leave it up to him vs other parents' approaches, who "sit on" or pay their children to revise... not our approach, but then hard to see a bright child throw away an easy entry to higher education. Maybe better for him to learn the hard way, as his father did???

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violetqueen · 22/04/2010 09:08

Oh I so sympathise .
Very similar situation here - tho perhaps not so bright .
I wonder if my anxiety ,worrying has been counterproductive - the more on top of things I am ,the more concerned ,the less the DC is .
Could you withdraw ,affect an " I'm leaving it to you "stance ?

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webwiz · 22/04/2010 09:15

Lilo I don't think anyone knows the answer to whether its better to leave it up to them or force them to work!

My eldest DD was very lazy and drove us mad, we sort of managed to get her through GCSEs by saying "you must do a certain amount of work" in the vain hope that she would have a mature approach to A levels. After a good start in the Jan modules she drifted back to her old ways. Although I moaned and nagged a lot there was no way to actually make her work, if I'd made her sit at the table for an hour she would have done absolutely nothing just to spite me. Her A levels were ok in the end thanks to a bit of a last minute panic from about Easter in year 13 but not what she was actually capable of and she was very lucky that her first choice university took her even though she missed her offer. Now that she is actually at university she is transformed to being incredibly hardworking and is doing very well. Although looking back at how bad she was it was a bit surreal to have her revising solidly for the whole time she was home over Easter.

DD2 is different and has just got a bit lazy over the Easter holidays and she will hopefully respond to a bit of a shove back in the right direction.

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MmeBlueberry · 22/04/2010 09:38

JGB, I think there is a window of opportunity for getting scripts back. We always send off the requests within a day or two of gettign the results, but I think there is about two weeks to sort it out.

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JGBMum · 22/04/2010 10:41

Looks like we missed out then, still good to know for the future.
Thanks for your reply, your students are lucky to have a teacher who is so switched on!