AIBU to think this tutor has an attitude?

You really need to listen to the tutor here, your DS is clearly no good at history. Why don’t you suggest that he has it as a hobby but focuses on the things that he’s good at for actual exams? It sounds like he likes it but would probably get more pleasure from it without the pressure of exams.

This is a wind up ! The OP just keeps coming back more and more ghastly😂

What’s the highest level of education in history that you have obtained, OP? It sounds as if you are telling his tutor how to do this job, what are your credentials?

Tutors can’t make the impossible happen. You have a son who doesn’t really give a shit, doesn’t make notes, turns up late, puts no meaningful effort in, and frankly is not good at history. The tutor can’t complete your son’s history assessment for him, and your son has been through 3 history tutors now. Most pupils that succeed in history do it without the help of a tutor. Yet your son, with every opportunity given to him, still doesn’t get it. A tutor can’t make someone who fundamentally isn’t capable, capable unfortunately. No matter how much money or “mind maps” you throw at a stone, you can’t make blood come out of a stone.

You lost my sympathy when you wrote 'bless him'

I can't believe that you didn't ensure that your DS was ready in time for his tutorial by making sure that he woke up in time and had found his laptop charger and charged his laptop.

History is one of those subjects where you need to be able to retain historical facts which involves revising and remembering stuff which your DS seems incapable of doing. There isn't a magic wand to wave so that your DS suddently becomes good at History without him (and you) taking the advice of an experienced tutor rather than thinking that you know best.

If you know exactly what he needs - mind maps etc, why are you wasting money on a tutor? There is endless material online for how to revise effectively, even on Tiktok etc.

When I was studying A level law, I needed to remember countless law cases and the dates. Our teacher taught us to write down all the cases and make a little saying out of the first letter of each case, eg the following would be ‘the cat sat on the mat’. Its a good way of remembering it.

Thomas v crown
Clarke v crown
Smith v crown
Owen v crown
Thompson v crown
Matthews v crown

Spend some time researching techniques and find one that suits him. But to revise, you need to know the content. Does he? He’s not even making notes. He should find some bitesize videos on each topic, and get up to speed with all the info before looking at revising.

History requires you to be a good essay writer. If he’s not, and struggles with memory, it’s not the right subject for A level. He’s got time to increase his knowledge on each topic. Pick one and spend some time helping him to learn the content and remember dates etc. Then randomly test him over dinner etc. Put the dates on the fridge - kitchen cupboards etc

My DS did history and philosophy A levels. Having spent a lot of time helping him revise ... history is very fact based, lots of remembering things in order to argue and structure the essay. If he's showing little inclination to remember dates and things now, he will struggle.
Philosophy is strangely another memory subject. You have to precisely learn lots of different ethical and philosophical arguments and be able to quote them in the correct way. These are often very similar to each other. It was a lot of flash card revision. To get you to the point where, again, you can start writing an essay/argument.
If DS does not love these topics then it will be tough for him to do. If he does not like or is not good at essays. It will be tough for him to do.

As others have said, you can’t revise what you never knew in the first place. If DS is genuinely interested in history there’s nothing stopping him learning about it as a hobby, but I don’t think doing it for A level is a good idea.

You’re totally unreasonable. Your son should have study skills by now. Would you rather the tutor continue to take your money, even though your son has little aptitude and motivation for the subject?!

Op revision is what you do when you've mastered the material, but are needing to keep it fresh in your memory, because the courses are two years long and exam isn't until the end.

What the tutor is telling you is your DS hasn't mastered the course content or skills. He's got big gaps in his subject knowledge and is weak in the analysis & essay writng skills. The tutor needs to teach him the content & skills before he can get to effective revision methods.

It sounds like your DS really wouldn't cope well with the a-level.

You need to get organised too, all this being late and messaging to move the time because you've got mixed up, it just sends a message you aren't prioritising this at all.

If there are knowledge gaps then teaching him how to revise is pointless as there's nothing to revise from. Get him on BBC bitesize to fill those gaps, but make sure he does the right syllabus.

Yabu

So we meet this tutor and he says in our initial meeting with him that tutoring is to complement ongoing revision. I don't agree with this because I view tutoring as teaching my DS how to revise. The tutor was clear that he’s there to help raise Ds’ grade on top of his personal revision. If you wanted someone to teach study skills then you needed another tutor who teaches that.

There’s lots of other problems with your expectations. For example a baseline assessment is pretty basic- a 8/9 student needs different teaching than a 4/5 student.

If your son isn’t even making notes then it sounds like he needs someone to teach the facts as it doesn’t sound like he’s turning to other sources to create usable notes. For example there are many teachers on YouTube who have uploaded GCSE revision lessons and using YT means being able to pause and rewind on demand. I can’t comment on history teachers but my kids definitely used YT for other subjects.

I loved history as a kid, GCSE history was the highlight of my entire education. I was going through all the GCSE reading material, and whatever else I could get my hands on, as a hobby by year 8. Did zero actual revision and A* starred it with a load of 99%s.

I was buzzing to get into the A Level, but I found it much, much harder. I still enjoyed it but it was a real chore at times, and it put me off studying it at uni.

I wouldn't say it's pointless if you're not doing a degree through. I've worked on and off as a journalist over the years, it definitely gave me a good foundation for that, and a few other aspects of my professional life. Personally as well, I think it helps me look at the bigger picture and try to understand different perspectives with a lot of things.

OP, I would recommend you show your son how to take notes. The inability to do this will impact massively. He only needs to take down the pertinent information but if he is unable to do this he’s going to struggle.
If you hope for your son to manage A Level history he also needs to be able to debate the issues and give his own views. This requires critical thinking skills and he either has the ability or he hasn’t.
To create an essay on history or any other subject, he will need good written English skills.
As a pointer in the right direction, I would suggest he goes onto a history forum and read what people are discussing and how they express themselves.
I wish your son well, especially if he enjoys history.

I'm somewhat unconvinced the DS is even going to history classes. Is the teacher a timid or scatty type, visibly weary of trying to corral insubordinate teenagers and/or exclusively engaged with the keen students?

I once skived a whole term of English Lit. Our teacher was very sweet but boring as hell, and the class was a three-hour block. The term I skived was Wordsworth and his fucking daffodils. Whiny git!

I am gobsmacked at your blinkers OP. Your DS is headed for a max grade 5 in history. You have been through 3 tutors, unashamedly turn up late for sessions, he can't even say what topic he's studying, isn't interested enough to make notes in class. Instead of blaming everyone else, stop ignoring the elephant in the room - your DS is not going to be good enough to do it for A level.

Fortunately, history is a subject that's easily accessible as an hobby for those interested in it - books, podcasts, online discussion. Encourage that for your DS.

Please do not encourage him to do philosophy and ethics - it’s a lot of essay writing and remembering which philosopher had which theory and then applying this to a question plus also remembering quotes. My daughter got a 9 for gcse English ( including 100% for paper 1) and a 8 for English literature and she struggled with P&E as she has a poor memory.
also economics - you said your son was ok at maths rather than good at maths. My son was told not to do economics unless he was also studying maths at A levels (he got an 8 for gcse maths so was capable of maths). Maybe business is a better option for your son at A level as a 6 in English should be ok

Can I just add despite getting a 9 in history and my son liking history - his career guidance suggested he did not do it at A level as it was a lot of work and unnecessary unless he wanted to study history at uni

“DS just needs to be taught how to create his own quizzes, and how to create flashcards and mindmaps”

I am really surprised you think this is the solution. It’s unlikely he does not know how to write a flash card - he just needs to do it. Seriously, just get him to write flash cards and either test your son with the factual info yourself or hire a 6th form A level student to do it for you.

My son did GCSE history, he got a 9 but I suspect it’s because he is good at essay writing (went on to study English literature for A level) and has a good memory (was literally learning dates the night before his exams).

If your son can not get a 7 (or at least a 6 for some schools usually privates) for gcse history he will not be allowed to take it for A level.

Work out how he remembers facts and dates - I would link dates for my son to other important events in his life ie remember the second war ended in the same day of the month as your birthday etc etc

HRTFT. I got to the part where you said DS is doing really well... a six in English... I am now struggling to believe the veracity of your OP. DD has just started university. She attended a non-selective bog-standard Northern comp .and waa told to hope to do well at A levels she should be looking at (minimally) 7s at GCSE in the subject, preferably 8s.
DD gained a 9 in GCSE history and still didn't take it at A level. If your DS can't even recognise what subject he learned in lesson this week and isn't working near a six, which you consider to be doing well, it seems insane he'd even consider History at A level. The tutor isn't a magician.

OP I think part of your issue is that you seem to have a fairly fixed idea of what tutoring should be and you have a tutor with a different idea of what he’s offering.

And that with your experience of what sound like some truly awful previous tutors and your (I think admirable) desire to do everything you can to help your DS be able to do the A levels he’s most interested in have put you on edge and are making interactions you might otherwise have taken in your stride feel more personal.

Your son’s tutor might have an attitude, he might not. Sighing on your first session was unprofessional even though you were late. But that doesn’t mean his assessment of your DS’s capacity for history A level at this stage is wrong. He’s just giving you a heads up. He’d be remiss not to. You don’t have to do anything with the advice.

Have you tried talking to the tutor about all this?

Maybe see if he’d do a few extra sessions with DS where he goes over revision techniques, history essay structure, how to analyze a source, etc.? It may be that his school has terrible history teaching (I know we had a couple of dud subjects when I was in school, though we still got reasonable results over all) or a teacher he just doesn’t gel with.

Firstly, imagine you employed a coach to teach your son how to run 100m really fast. The coach will need to know how fast your son can run before they start a training plan.

That’s what baseline means.

Secondly, the tutor cannot teach your son to revise notes that haven’t been made.

I'm still trying to work our what he could possibly have confused with the Cold War. Warfare in cold weather? Is he thinking of Napoleon's long retreat from Moscow? Or the Eastern Front? The mind boggles.

You’re going round in circles? Not half as much as everyone else on this thread. You’re not listening at all.

This cannon be real, surely?

You're sending the tutor mind maps and revision techniques and telling him how to do his job?

He needs to drop you as a client and you need to stop trying to make your DS do History because he's not going to do well

You've got a History Tutor when you really want a Study Skills Tutor

It's like hiring a drum instructor and getting annoyed he isn't teaching music theory instead