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Original poster

Can anyone give me any hope - Low mock grades

34 replies

Tupperwarelid · 12/11/2021 17:41

DS is in Year 11 at a selective grammar school. He struggled with lock down education, found it hard to concentrate at home, missed classroom interaction and as a result got behind with his work, failed to hand in assignments etc.

They had exams at the end of Year 10 and if they had been his actual GCSE's he would have got 4s and 5s, not enough to get him into the 6th form.

They completed their mocks last week and I was honestly hopeful his grades would have improved as he appeared to be revising more, did himself a timetable that to stick to and was doing well in class.

However I have had emails from the school to say that he has got a level 4 in history, a subject he wants to do at A'Level and 3s in maths and biology. He actually appears to have dropped grades rather than improved them He got upset when he got in from school and says he just can't do exams and will try harder.

Is there any hope of him improving his grades? If he carries on like this he definitely won't get into the 6th form at his current school and probably won't get into 6th form at any of the secondarys either.

I don't know what to do so any advice is welcome.

OP posts:
chesirecat99 · 12/11/2021 19:39

How was he doing before lockdown, was he struggling then?

If he fell behind during lockdown, he will be struggling in subjects like maths and languages as they build on knowledge. He has probably missed out on exam technique, how to answer the questions and structure answers, in subjects like history.

Can you afford some tutoring or exam revision courses? Does he know how to revise? Can you help him find the best revision technique for him? If you look online, there are some great tutorials on how to answer history questions etc. The CGI revision guides are really good too.

Fireflygal · 12/11/2021 19:38

Has her got his exam papers back? He needs to go through it, perhaps with a tutor to review the area of weakness.

It must be incredibly tough for him if he is in a higher performing school as his confidence will be dented.

Original poster
Tupperwarelid · 12/11/2021 19:29

Thanks everyone. We have been looking at other schools and colleges I he knows what his options are. He wants to do history. English and media so he could maybe get on a media Btec course and do 2 a levels as well. We have parents evening in a couple of weeks and ‘m on quite good terms with the head of year so once all the results are in I’ll arrange to speak to them.

OP posts:
SockFluffInTheBath · 12/11/2021 18:48

Look on the bright side- gaps in his learning have been caught now not next summer. This is the point of mock exams. He has 6 months to adjust his revision techniques and plug the holes in his subject knowledge. Elevate offer revision tutoring and you can get local subject tutors. As it’s an academic school lean on them for the support they owe your DS. Don’t give up, he has time to fix this.

TeenMinusTests · 12/11/2021 18:45

I agree with Red. Go through papers and identify where in the process he lost marks. You may find some 'quick wins' which once he is aware really pull up his marks.

Also agree, have a Plan B, and a Plan C.
e.g.
Plan A - stay at same school to do A levels
Plan B - move to X to do A levels (lower grade requirements)
Plan C - do a BTEC at Y in whatever

lanthanum · 12/11/2021 18:45

It sounds like you need to start looking at options other than A-levels. Some students do much better studying things like BTECs, where the assessment is not all exams. Some colleges also offer a year of GCSEs to help bridge to level 3 courses, which can work for those who perhaps have fallen behind a bit at GCSE for some reason. Have a look at local FE colleges / non-grammar sixth forms and see what's on offer.

BTECs do tend to be more vocational subjects though - what is he interested in apart from history?

hellsbells99 · 12/11/2021 18:40

I would look at getting a tutor for maths asap. He really needs to pass both maths and English. But look at other options for after GCSEs - college, apprenticeship etc.

ChristopherTracy · 12/11/2021 18:05

They may be in the process of managing him out knowing that these grades may well count towards his actual A Levels.

You can put tutoring in place if you can but I would be investigating and getting a place at another school/college sorted if you need it.

RedskyThisNight · 12/11/2021 17:57

You need to look at why he's done worse then expected. Did he not revise the right material? Did he not revise it well enough? Does he not understand how to answer the questions? Did he work too slowly and not finish half the paper? Has he stopped working because everyone else is doing better than him, and he can't really be said to have "failed" if he wasn't trying?

My DS went from a 3 at the end of Year 10 to a 7 at GCSE with the help of a tutor (in his case he just didn't understand how to answer the questions) so it's possible, but a big ask. What does the school say? It's really odd that a student who is considering A Level would only get a 3!

Plus, you probably should make a plan B. Or maybe even a different Plan B. Maybe somewhere other than a selective grammar school would suit him better.

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