Bad GCSE mock results

[Stephanie1311]

DS16 has just received results much worse than expected. Including an E for English against expectation of B. G for RE. His best results are B,Band D for Science against expectation of 3 xA's. The rest are one or two grades below expectation.

DS is of average ability across the board apart from Science. He is headstrong and is inclined to blame poor teaching and other things he has no control over. He does accept though that he will have work harder over the next 4 months.

He wants to go to 6 th form college to do BTEC in Engineering or A' levels.

I imagine that this under performance for mock exams is not uncommon. We are naturally worried about his English and him getting enough overall to progress to 6 th form.

Have you been faced with this problem? How did you tackle it? I am currently wondering about trying to personally supervise/help him, getting tutors, booking Easter crammers..etc

If you gave ant experience of turning this around I should be very grateful to hear from you.

Thank you

Stef

[Erebus]

I am wondering whether he's just become 'a victim' of the far tougher grade boundaries? I mean, as you say, he's "of average ability across the board apart from Science"- is he considered really able in Science?- so maybe should be expecting 'B's or 'C's rather than 'A's.

How did the other DC do relative to their predicted grades?

FWIW, our school came a cropper for the first time in years, with last summer's business studies GCSE, taken in Y10. Lots of A*/As expected, few gained, and this is from the best academically performing comp in the county.

He still doe shave time to salvage this. A good thing is the fact that if he needs a good shake up, mocks are a better place than actuals to get it! You may find he's taking a bit of a good, hard look at himself.

But there's still time to turn this around!

[Sammie101]

Did he do a lot of revision for them?

When I was doing my GCSE's (nearly 10 years ago now though) I barely revised at all and got awful results which had no reflection on my actual GCSE results.

It seems like people take mocks a lot more seriously (or maybe my dad was just far too laid back/times have changed etc)

[Vanillachocolate]

What is happening to the grade boundaries? Are they continuing to go up this year? In this year science GCSE 9% fewer students gained good grades. Is it expected to rise in 2014?

[monet3]

The exams are getting tougher and the grade boundaries are higher. Mocks are usually a wake up call to most students. You could get him a tutor for English for a few months.

[noblegiraffe]

You would expect a grade or maybe two lower than target in the mocks, but an E is pretty rubbish.

He does know that if he doesn't get his C in English he will have to keep taking it until either he turns 18, or gets a C? He needs to pull his finger out there. No point in forking out for crammers or tutors unless he buys into doing some work.

The school should be implementing intervention in maths and English to try to get him his C, so a chat with them about tactics would be useful.

[Stephanie1311]

Thanks for your replies. DS is feeling a but of shock which I hope will convert into increased effort. He is willing to attend after school revision classes. Which is a good start.

[steview]

Just completed our mocks - students who worked hard did well; those who just did it 'off the cuff' or some late cramming not so.

The reality is that, for mocks, schools won't do much prep in lesson time (they are still teaching new content) but for the real exams there will be some planned prep (past papers; reviewing some of the harder topics etc.)

I'd suggest step 1 is finding out genuinely how much revision was done; step 2 is finding out from the school whether there were any specific topics/styles of questions that DS performed poorly in (eg. did he do worse in questions expecting longer, multi-mark answers which we find quite common in mocks and is often a bit of exam technique really).

[gobbin]

My DS got the results he deserved in his mocks - a mixed bag dependent on how good the teaching had been + how much revision he did...

Turning it round?...

We had already discussed his learning style and found he was a list-maker rather than a mind-mapper. We began making him do serious revision note making from Feb half term, removed all wires/devices from 1st April and the only hobbies he continued was the odd cricket match when it wasn't within 2 days of an exam and violin lessons as he was doing an exam.

We also got on the exam board websites and downloaded past papers and markschemes (teacher access allows more past papers) and made him do them (and I marked them - fuck me I was ready to do his exams never mind him!) We didn't use tutors. His teachers varied in the amount of support, extra guidance and past papers they went through. Most did very little.

He ended up with his target grades in all subjects except two (one grade down), one of which we questioned and asked school to investigate as his exam paper was D when predicted A on this component.

Cost to the me/family? Lots of arguments, no free time as it was all spent on exam prep, stressful whilst trying to maintain full time teaching job myself. Would i do it again? Absolutely as it got results. This first year of AS levels has been slightly easier to manage as he's that bit older but his wires still come to work with me on days that he comes home early from college!... Needs must. He can bog about when he's qualified as a Radiographer!

[Creamycoolerwithcream]

I think only he 'can turn things around'. It will either click that he has to study or not.

[Starballbunny]

Was the English a mock? Or did it as DDs mark does contain some CA marks that he will carry forward to the real thing.

DDs mocks have been very confusing, some subjects like science and geography seem to have set straightforward practice exams, maths did, but had questions they hadn't done , music and drama set papers they haven't practiced as they have been doing practical stuff first. Art marked their portfolios so far.

Compared to my coursework free linear O level mocks it seems a real mess.

[ArgumentsatChristmas]

Dd had awful mock grades. I was gutted frankly.

My preferred course of action would have been to have a gentle and encouraging talk which would have left DD highly motivated to get her arse into gear and do some work.

I did the talk. Unfortunately it showed no sign of producing the desired effect.

So I wondered if I should just leave her to underachieve. After all why not? Actions have consequences ... She is old enough to have sex, surely she is old enough to take the consequences of doing no work.

But in the end I caved and got her tutors for Maths, Physics and French. I organised her revision timetable and every evening now, I am to be found in DD's bedroom. With a stick.

[Itscoldouthere]

Its awful isn't it, trying to decide if you should put everything on hold/alert and make sure they really get down to it, or leave them to fail.

My DS is really under achieving just had his report and based on his mocks his predicted grades are 11 Cs, if he keeps on working at his current level.

His targeted grades are 2 Cs 8 Bs and an A. He's always been like this, he finds the work hard but also does not apply himself, so could do better than he does.

We argue about it all the time and we have hoped and hoped that he would see the light, but so far it hasn't happened. He thinks he is going to stay on for 6th form, but I think he is not showing enough engagement to justify it.

I really don't know the answer.

[Creamycoolerwithcream]

Itscoldouthere, would you be pleased if your son got his target grades?

[Itscoldouthere]

Creamy yes I would be so delighted, and I think they would be a much truer reflection of his ability, but I fear he is so overwhelmed by the amount of work he feels he need to do, that he just gives up and doesn't really try at anything.

We will do everything we can to try and help him to organise his time and apply himself in the best way, but only he can do the work at the end of the day.

We had a meeting with school this morning and they pointed out its only 15 weeks left, so if he doesn't change and apply himself that could be the end of his school life in 15 weeks, I'm sure this will have been a shock to him as he has probably never thought of it before.

But like you said only he can turn it around.

[Creamycoolerwithcream]

My sons target grades are nearly the same, that's why I asked. He's predicted mainly Bs and a C in French and C/D in French. His mocks were all Cs, except for English Lit anf Geograpghy which were As. So I don't know what to think now.

[Creamycoolerwithcream]

Sorry I meant C in Maths.

[Itscoldouthere]

Well my DS has never been an A A* student so I suppose I've always hoped he would be a solid B student, but he just doesn't work hard enough.

He got a D and E in his english mock so I'm just praying he gets a C in the summer.

I've always believed that if you don't have a B in a subject at GCSE then you shouldn't do an A level, so for him the issue is will he make it in to 6th form or not.

I know he really wants to stay at school, so maybe that will be the thing that drives him and makes him work harder but if it doesn't he is going to have to make difficult choices as there will not be many options for him and I don't think he is really ready to narrow down to one subject but he would have to do that if he has to go to college.

I know I would be happy with B's for him as it would give him the confidence to move on to A levels and he would have a bit more time to grow and mature in the school environment which he is very happy in.

[Itscoldouthere]

Creamy what does your DS want to do and do you think he will get the grades he needs to do it?

I think a C in maths is fine as long as he doesn't want to do something that needs a higher grade.

I seem to be surrounded by people who have A and A* children so it can make me feel a bit depressed, but I think some children just don't shine in exams and you have to accept them for who they are.

I'm just frustrated that DS is not really trying and I feel he is letting himself down, its not about letting us down because we feel it has to come from him or else he will only face the same problem further down the line.

I'm just worried about what the next stage will be if it isn't school!

[Creamycoolerwithcream]

He sounds like your son and definitely wants to stay on in the sixth form. He has a late August birthday and I think sixth form will work for him. He wants to do A levels in English, history, ICT and either Geography or Biology. He gets his report with new predicted grades in a couple of days but going on mock results it looks like geography is a lot more likely than Biology. He took one science exam last summer and got a B and has just taken maths foundation paper with a C but will need a B in the next science paper and in the upper maths paper to take Biology. I think he will get in the sixth form but I don't want him to take a subject he just scraped a B in. I've seen to many people complete two years in sixth form and just end up with an A level in photography or such like. It's very tricky.

[Itscoldouthere]

I agree with you, I would like him to have the time in sixth form to grow and hopefully enjoy the subjects he chooses, but I have also seen friends children coming out with 3 Cs at A level and then having very few options open to them and all their friends going to university, which is very hard.

I have no problems with the idea of him going to college and doing a 2 year BTEC as I think those type of courses can be great for some children especially the ones who have had enough of being in a school setting, but you really do need to know what you hope/want to do if you go down that route as you narrow to the one subject, so for my son it would be a really difficult choice as he doesn't shine in any subject and doesn't know what he want to do.

I do think its hard for them if they are surrounded by bright able children who have drive and know what they want to do, my son feels that pressure as he thinks he should have a plan as everyone else does, but he's only 16.

We try not to pressure him, but we have now made it clear to him that 6th form will not be an option with C's, we felt we had to be honest and straightforward with him, I just hope it drives him rather than making him give up, but I suppose it could go either way so I feel really bad.