Help ! Really bad science gcse mock results

Surely you, as the paying parent, can insist he does foundation? As teen says, it's hardly going to benefit the school, if he gets a U.

Have a look at some past papers and see if the foundation looks more doable for him. Then speak to the school

What do they mean 'they don't offer higher'?
So if someone is expected to get a 4 they would rather put them in for Higher and risk bombing out with a U?
They don't really need to teach differently, just enter for the more straightforward papers.

Are his school offering extra lessons after school/lunch? Dd didn’t do as well as expected either, mainly in physics, she didn’t sit biologically (she has a mock at the end of next month), she’s in top set and got a 9 for chemistry but a 4 in physics so she’s now doing after school classes once a week for a hour and hopefully revising at home. We bought the science revision cards off amazon too and I keep quizzing her (she’s not happy about this) 😂

Maybe he needs to look at taking foundation instead? (More chance of guaranteeing a 4 or 5).

In terms of revision, my DS has found Seneca really good for Science (and it's free!)

I recommend mygcsescience. There’s a one-off cost (£25 for double award or £50 for triple I think) and for that you access to videos on every topic. My DS used it last year and got much better grades in the real exams than in his mocks.

Mine got a 1 also bless him.

Ooops, should have credited that, it is from UnJaded Jade, a YouTuber who does "study Tube" and it was from her science teacher. Ds used it and got 9,9 last year as he was able to see where he went wrong.

You have to look at why he lost marks. Identifying the why is the key to improving. Also doing more past papers. Looking at a book may not be effective for revision, he needs to be testing his knowledge.

So you use the M A R C K S system, go through the papers and on each question write down one of those letters next to every question. The mark scheme may be available either from the school who clearly have it to mark the paper or online if you know which paper he sat.

Maths error
Did you make a mistake in your maths?

Application of knowledge
You know and understand the content but couldn’t apply it to foreign situation/this question

Read the question
Did you miss a key term such as explain rather than describe because of how you interpreted the question but ultimately you have the knowledge and understand the topic

Communication
You understood the application but the wording you used to communicate didn’t get the marks. Could be specific terminology especially in biology

Knowledge
Is your knowledge weak? Do you understand the concept?

Statements
If it’s 4 marks but you wrote 2 points and you can see that even though you filled all the lines you were lacking in points

Tally up each letter to see where he needs to improve first. Hope this helps.

I think you need to analyse his papers to see why he lost marks

My eldest son did find the online Tassomai resources useful three years ago. We got it at a much reduced price via school, it is quite expensive and aimed at those trying to achieve top grades.

I'd say you need him to go through his papers with you explaining for each question why he lost marks.
Did he

• not know the info
• not apply his knowledge correctly
• not understand the question
• make silly mistakes

I'd be expecting school to be recommending moving to Foundation (max grade 5-5).

No advice as my daughter is not revising effectively at all and is about to start second lot of mocks next week. However if the school has graded your son as a 2,3 on the higher papers you need to be aware that this would actually be a U grade in the real exams as grade 4 is the minimum available on the Higher papers. Maybe consider a move to Foundation to at least get a grade?

hello, my love. My dd is the same, I think she scraped a 4, but only really revised Chemistry.
Short of standing there supervising there's very little you can do. I know it's so frustrating.
Mine is a boarder too, which makes it harder.
I'm tempted to control wifi when she starts study leave, easier said than done though as both me and dh work from home.
You are not alone.