14yr old ds on schedule to fail maths!

[KWL51]

ds1 is in yr 10 and has first maths exam on 5th march, parents evening last night told me that he is on schedule to fail.
This is a boy who has been predicted a minimum of a B in all subjects. This last year i have really battled with getting him to understand that he does need to study and that friends will still be there after exams (surely they should all be studying too though??)
He had a panic few weeks for his first science exam and went to saturday college run by the school to cram as much as he could for that exam, and hopefully hes done ok, or so he seems to think. But maths he had a mock exam last week and got something ridiculous like 3 out of 80.
He has revision books and he doesnt go out on a tuesday and a thursday as these are supposed to be homework nights and if no homework then revision. We had to make him come downstairs where i could keep an eye on him as he was either playing on xbox, on fb or staring into space.
I have looked into a tutor for him, but really dont think i can afford it, as the person i contacted one quoted £23 per hour and another £25 per hour, minimum of 2 hours plus petrol money, so looking at £55 per week minimum and i just dont have that kind of fund avaliable.
He has access to online sites via the school, they subscribe to some revision sites that he has been given passwords for.
i tried the sit down and talk as an adult without younger siblings about last night, but instead of coming downstairs he 'fell alseep' when he did come down i just got the standard answer of i don;t know and i could feel myself losing my temper, as he just would not answer me with any kind of plan.
I am at a loss as to what else i can do.

Sorry i know this has been discussed wiht regards to a levels recently, but without gcses, he would be well and truly screwed! (i dont think university is in his plans tbh, he will leave school as soon as he can)

[bigbluebus]

My DS is in yr 10 and has so far taken 2 modules of GCSE maths with the 3rd one due in June. He is lazy reluctant to do any work and always leaves homework until the last minute.
I worked out DS's revision timetable with him by counting how many topics he needed to cover in the revision guide and allocating x number of sections to the number of nights available - with enough time spare before the exam to go over things he didn't get right and time to see the teacher for things he was struggling with. It was often only half an hour's work an evening - so not too much time out of a teenager's life IMO!!! I'm afraid I didn't make it optional and it had to be completed each night before the computer/ PS3 was used. It was as much hard work for me as it was for him, as I religiously marked everything he did from the answer book and then tried to work out with him where he had gone wrong (bloody answer books only give answers and not explainations).

Your DS needs to realise he must pass his maths even if he doesn't want to go to Uni - and from what you say he is more than capable of getting a good grade. I assume he's got a whole week off next week for half term - so plenty of time for revision and XBox.

Is it possible he will respond to a bribe reward for doing his revision? I didn't do this myself as the rewad for DS was the grade A equivalent he has got in both exams so far.

But at the end of the day - it is up to him - you can only do what you can!

[KWL51]

\yes i know i just need to get tough. I was hoping that yesterday was enough of a shock to him that he would get his own act together.
In other subjects and previous exams he has managed to coast along and still get a B, but this hasnt happened this time, so its time for this is what is going to happen and thats that.
He is determined that his friends are out everyday and allowed out later etc, and have tried the reasoning, well if you were doing xyz you could be out each night too. It just takes half an hour or an hour each night and this could all have been avoided.
I have no other experience to draw on as I left school with good gcse and a levels went to uni and got a first, no one had to push me to study, in fact i probably did it in the face of adversity, after being told there was no point as i'm female. Also his dad left school with no qualifications but has ended up a high earner and i think somehow ds1 thinks this will happen to him too.

[notahotel]

All this is just so familiar - my ds is in Year 10 and he's exactly the same! He's doing fine with maths because he's lucky enough to find it easy without much effort, but he's underachieving big time with several other subjects, especially things like History and R.E. which require longer written answers to exam questions. We have found that the only way is to get tough and practically breathe down his neck as he works (at the kitchen table) because he has absolutely no self-discipline. He responds quite well to regular snacks and drinks, and I've given him highlighter pens and coloured post-it notes - he needed to be shown HOW to revise as he was just staring blankly at the textbook. GCSE Bitesize is also quite good as it's broken up into little chunks and they can test themselves. His school uses MyMaths online for all Maths homework and I think it's really good. It does often feel as if I'm working harder than him but I don't feel able to just stand by and let him fail/learn from his mistakes, etc. I think at 14 a lot of boys are just too immature to accept responsibility for all this - my ds hasn't really begun puberty yet. I live in hope that eventually maturity will kick in although my sister says I'll be waiting a long time!

[KWL51]

Well last night after an all mighty battle, he did settle down and completed two test sections from the collins revision book. What amazes me is he gets the difficult questions right but often went wrong on the easy questions?

so tonight he has been set to do four pages of the algebra revision section and questions rather than the tests. i'll mark them and then he can make any corrections and then go out. It shouldnt take anymore than an hour, so he can still be out by 4.30 and wont miss youth club but if he doesnt do it or there is any fuss about doing it he can;t go out.

i feel thats it my responsibility to make him revise and study, as hes demonstrated that he's not mature enough to do this himself. The most i can do at this point is get him to gcse level with the best that he can do. as i know he would be upset to leave school with a handful of poor gcse results or even fails, as hes been put in for higher levels in the subjects with higher levels, thats maths, english, science that he could quite easily fail as lowest mark is a d.

good luck everyone!

[bigbluebus]

Well its a good start - long may it continue. Sadly the aspiration to get good results is not always backed up with the desire to do the work!! My DS wants to get A's/A*'s, do A levels and go to Uni but apparently thinks this will come without any effort on his part.! When he whinges about me making him revise, I just ask him if he wants his dream job and a decent standard of living or a dead end low paid job.
I wish they would create a way to put the national currriculum into games for PS3/X-box. I'm sure boys would be much more receptive to learning - either that or it woulld put them off playing on these damned machines and leave them lots of time to do revision!!!!!
New Business Venture anyone????

[ssd]

watching this with interest, ds is 13

can anyone advise me the best way to get them to revise? I can get him to sit with his books but where should he start? Is there a way to break it down? also ds isn't good at English, writing topics confuses him, the enormity is too much, how can I teach him to break it down and do it in sections? another mum told me to tell him to start with the conclusion, but is this right?

any revising tips would be gratefully received, by me anyway

and agree about the x box, ds loves his and when its not on fb is on, also he seems too immature to apply himself to study, its all or nothing with him

[myfriendflicka]

Hi,

Can you get another tutor by asking around? It is worth talking to other parents, any teachers you know, and calling the maths departments at other secondary schools.

My dd was predicted to fail maths and I got a tutor through word of mouth. He came once a week for four months and charged £25 for that hour, and my dd went from a grade F to a grade C and passed, to all our relief. My dd also had to do homework he set. His lessons complimented what she was doing at school, and he knew the timetable/curriculum because he was working in a neighbouring secondary school to dd's school.

The money side is difficult but I am sure you could find someone who doesn't charge so much.

[nixterjoe]

I think I have the clone of yours...... I am having the same problem, I am still hoping he will grow up and realise he has not got long to pull his socks up or he WILL fail, because I am sick of telling him, I sound like a stuck record !!!good luck with yours

[KWL51]

Seems half term has come round all too quickly this time. I emailed the maths teacher to ask if she knows any tutors so hopefully she will get back to me on the return to school.

For maths revision I was told the best thing to do is sit a past exam or
Some past exam questions (you could use the tests in the back of revision guides) and then see which areas are weakest.

Ds is consistently getting the difficult questions right but the easier ones wrong, e.g he answered a question when he had to break down a formula but adding up a row of numbers he got wrong? (with a calculator)

Also school advised read the question, read it again and then start to think how to answer on the third read through. Students are often caught out on the simplest of questions by not reading properly.

The teacher should be able to let you know which subjects will be covered in upcoming exams. They know that section one say will cover algebra and section two graphs.

With regard to the English I can see that becoming the next issue as ds will write the shortest answer he can and struggles to fill words out. Which considering he is a very articulate boy is astounding. If he could speak his answers I'm sure he would do much better.

Fingers crossed we can all work through this and get them tothe point of finishing gcse's with a clutch of semi decent ones. All I ask is that he does his best if his best was a D that would be fine by me as I'd know he'd tried hard but if his best is a A/B then that's what i expect.