DS failing A-Level maths, too late to change?

Did he get a 6 with working, or a 6 when coasting?

If he got it working hard, then I really would change.
If he coasted, then there may be some scope for change.

Ds got a 7 at GCSE, with more ability than effort. At his A-level mocks (November/February) in Y13, he got D/E.

So he needed to put work in. We did have the advantage of dd1 who did a maths degree and was able to help, but this is what he did (approximately) in a week on top of what he was doing at school:

1 hour tutor session with Dd1. She would go through class work, and take one subject for which she'd set homework (~2 hours). She'd then mark it, and give him corrections.
He'd also do a paper, timed, as though he was doing it for real. Dd1 would mark it, and give him corrections to do. She'd also use that to choose a subject to go through with him.
Some of it was (he's autistic) that he didn't see the point in "playing the game". Dd1 would say to him something like "all you need to do is say A=45.23% and you get an extra mark". He'd say "I've done the maths - what's the point".

He continued through to Easter with not much improvement, then around Easter picked up to around a low C. But that encouraged him to start playing the game a little, and that brought him up a little bit more.
And he continued with doing the work with dd1 - by now two papers a week.

Yes, he moaned. Yes, how could we be so unfair to expect him to do this ridiculous amount of work... But on the day he got an A! On one paper he got 80% - up from less than 20%.

It was hard work for us as well as him.
Two things for him: Firstly we knew he'd coasted at GCSE (and all the way through A-level). I asked him what revision method he found best, and he said he'd never revised...
So we knew the ability was there.
Second, having dd1 who he does get on with so wanted to please her, so was prepared, if with bad grace at times, to do the work.

What I'd suggest is go and speak to his teacher. Do they feel honestly he's working all out (and did for GCSE)? Do they feel he didn't achieve his ability at GCSE?
Then talk to him. Tell him it's a work or nothing situation. Tell him he will have a tutor; he will be doing homework for this tutor. Get him some of the practice books so he has more questions. Set him a target of say 4 hours work on maths above what the school sets.

Find a tutor. That may be difficult, especially if he doesn't work well on line. Make sure it's a tutor who does A-level, is used to the syllabus etc. It will cost somewhere between £40-£80 an hour. Depending on your ds, then 2 hours may be better than 1.

He needs to decide if the work is worth it for him.

Dd1 was far more excited than ds was about his result, but I think ds, for the first time, realised the pleasure of going into an exam knowing that he could do well.

Just to add, we thought of a tutor but opted for the uplearn because explanation available through topics available at any point in the programme itself and she didn't have to wait week on week for support from a timetabled tutor session

DD needed an A in A level maths. Her assessments were variable in school

She used Uplearn on line. There are different levels of service (basic to one with 24/7 support). It goes through each topic for each board and does examples and then you do problems.

It was great for her - structured to th exact exam board. She spent hours working on it (she used 1.5 speed for explanations I think). She said that when she did the exam, it was the best prepared she had ever been for a maths paper.

I don't know current pricing but it was worth every penny for her to get the A she needed for uni.

Just another option

We use physicsandmathstutor for past papers too

It's good news that his third subject is going well. Now that we know it's computer science that's another good reason to stick at the maths. If he might study computer science at a higher level or pursue a related career they usually like to see maths A level with it.
Finding a good tutor will help with his maths A level but in addition to that he will need to do lots of extra practice outside of the lessons. My pupils find the text book questions are not sufficiently challenging to prepare them for the level of difficulty required in the exams. They need to practice exam style questions (sometimes found in the "mixed exercise" or "review exercise" in the book). There are lots of free websites where you can find these. My favourite is physicsandmathstutor.com

A decent tutor will make a huge difference

I’m in my early 20s - got AAC because I felt I had to pick a ‘hard’ subject (and didn’t do so well in it). All it meant was that I didn’t get my first choice uni.

If I could go back in time I’d pick another humanity subject - I’d have aced it. My advice would be do what you’re best at so you get good grades and can go to the best uni possible. Even one D/E grade can mean clearing/significantly lower quality uni. Me/my peers have found this is what really matters in early careers, the best jobs go to top tier grads. As you say, you can study politics and still become an accountant! I did Philosophy at uni and now work in a technical part of insurance.

Edited as have just seen you changed it to a 7.
Mine also got a 7 and did struggle for the first term in Y12 but had some help from a friend / maths grad to get him back up to speed and is fine now (fingers crossed!!)

It is better to have this wake up call now then in a year’s time.

There 2 options. And they are not mutually exclusive.

1. You make maths tutoring compulsory. He takes the homework he missed to a tutor over the holidays and you find out what the tutor thinks about his potential. I’d suggest 4 lessons of an hour each.
2. You ask the school if he can change. When does term break up? Can you write and say you are concerned and would like to know the options before the end of term?

Maths A level has one of the sharpest drop offs from GCSE. A child with a 7 might think they are strong at Maths, but it’s unlikely they will get above a B at A level and some will fail. It’s an intellectually demanding subject.

https://sites.google.com/view/tlmaths/home/a-level-maths/teaching-order-year-1?authuser=0
https://www.drfrost.org/browse-courses.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_doubling

If he is diagnosed ADHD and is not taking medication, I would say that this is the time to consider it - or if he is, review the dosage. Both my ADHDers report (and I have seen for myself) tremendous improvement in executive function - which is what A level (and university) students really need to succeed.

Two other things:

a. Yes, try a tutor to at least help him to catch up. We've had excellent results from tutoring.

b. You mentioned that he is interested in Engineering. Maths is an important component of most Engineering degrees and will be needed for entry and, should be decide to opt for Computer Science, the best universities are much more interested in good Maths results than taking Computing for A levels.

Problem is some children can get 7+ at GCSE maths without much effort but few will be able to get A/B doing that at A level.

The vast majority will struggle to get A/B if they aren't willing to do 5-10 hours of independent learning a week including lots of practice questions.

My son realised this after the first term in year 12.

I would discuss with the school if he can change to a humanity and you’ll have weekly tutor to cover the missing term.

re: 6 at GCSE.

My son’s school only recommends maths A level for those who got an 8 or 9. If you got a 7 they warn you that you’ll have to work every very hard to keep up. Extra assessments etc. They will not allow with a 6 or less.

i think even with a tutor / change of attitude it’s going to be impossible to recover. I’d be livid with the school for the lack of support eg not highlighting it was a bad choice / not altering you when earlier assignments not done.

The jump from GCSE maths to A Level is huge. Has he changed his education provider or stayed on at his school's sixth form? I did really well in gcse maths, got an A*, i took maths as it was one of my favourite subjects but started to fail my Alevels getting D, E ,U's all the time. I firmly believe it was because I changed from my GCSE school to another 6th form as my original school didnt have a 6th. My gcse teacher was amazing, young, full of energy and understanding, encouraging and would explain in ways I understood. The 6th form teacher read from a book and copied formula onto the blackboard, no explanations, no assistance.

Perhaps if its a different school with different teaching styles that may have had an effect? If hes not engaged he won't be keeping on top of work or paying attention in class or maybe just not getting a good enough explanation.. teachers make a huuuuge difference. If this is the case a tutor may help.

If hes interested in STEM subjects at uni, lots of them insist on X amount ucas points including maths or else a foundation year. Persevering may be necessary.

OP read this thread. Basically if you think he's going to get an A in maths he is going to be bucking a trend. It's very unlikely and he's not got off to a good start.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/5146609-yearly-warning-not-to-take-a-level-maths-with-less-than-a-7-at-gcse

Just to flag to recent posters, OP has updated that her DS actually got a 7 at GCSE.

I still think it's better to rethink tho. As my ds found and others note, the maths gets a lot harder. And that's broadly not the case (in the same way anyway) with, say Eng lit. I'm absolutely not saying Eng lit is easy but actually as your skills develop you produce better work.

I’m a maths teacher and my husband teaches Alevel maths. A grade 6 is no where near high enough to do A level maths. A 7 at the minimum. The jump from GCSE to Alevel is insane. If he is getting an E now I would say it is highly unlikely he will get an A. You wouldn’t expect a grade 6 student to get an A anyways. The stuff he is doing now is the easiest part. It gets much much harder. I would say switch before it is too late. They may allow it now but I would say this will be the last opportunity otherwise he will have missed too much of the other course. Unless he is going to study every night, get a tutor and do all of his homework, I just can’t see how this will improve.

A level maths is just an insane amount of work. I think in the UK there's a perception that people are either good at maths or not good at maths, but in fact it is very teachable/learnable IF you are willing and able to put in the hours.

One of my dc did both maths and FM, having got a 9 in GCSE maths. Said dc was not a natural mathematician, but was absolutely determined to make it work because she wanted to do Physics at uni. She put in absolutely tons of practice, like literally hours every night - several years later we're still using the stash of lined paper with scrawled maths notes and practice questions to light the woodburner. She did in fact get A* in both maths and FM, but reached peak maths during the first year of a Physics degree, and changed course quite dramatically to a humanities-based subject.

If your dc is not a natural mathematician, AND is not able/willing to put in heroic quantities of work, then he would be much better off pulling the plug on the maths and focussing on the subjects he's doing well in, and either add a new subject now (working very hard to catch up) or do two now and see if he can slot in a third subject in Y13.

I guess I'm going against the tide here but he's in his first term, I feel it's a bit harsh to be basically telling him he's going to fail. He has admitted he's not been keeping up with the required practice so if he is keen to continue and will work with a tutor to catch up then that's what I'd do. He enjoys maths and wants to study maths.

Btw I got a B at GCSE maths back in 1992 (before A* even existed, I'm that old), and I got a C at A level. Which I was extremely pleased with and which coupled with my A in English Literature, and B in psychology, allowed me to get into my chosen university. My life was not over!

My eldest got A*, B, B, C in his A Levels, got into a Russell Group Uni and starts his PGCE at Cambridge in September. You don't need to be scoring all As to be successful. Relax a bit.

Maths A-level is ridiculous IMO, it's not just knowing the stuff - it's working out how to apply that knowledge to the seriously complicated questions they ask.

Then even if you get 70% overall as ds did, you still only get a B. Oh and he got a 9 at GCSE and had done FM GCSE too and got a 7 in that.

I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless they needed it tbh.

OP my DC also doing A level with a 6. Was adamant he wanted to do it, had got a 7 in his mock and whole year group’s maths results had tumbled to well below national average. I told him the risks, but wanted to support him to do what he enjoyed, come what may. In a new school now. Is there any context to your DC’s 6?

No formal assessments yet. In class tests going ok with 70% plus. Target grade of a B. Realistic about what a challenge that will be.

Have you considered Uplearn? Son’s school have paid for all of them to get it and DC really enjoys it. I think your only other option is to resit whole of year 12, unless he is motivated enough to start a subject now.