My son underperforms in exams

DD was like this. High achiever in class. Lower in exams. Just found out in year 12 that she’s dyslexic and needs extra time. Wish it had been picked up earlier but she masked/hid it well.

Also, they're expensive but oaka books revision guides are brilliant.

The voice recorder is a brilliant suggestion. For kids like your son, the best thing isn't just lots of repetition but also teaching someone the content. Even if it's just teaching it to his voice recorder. Once he's in GCSE years you have past papers to work from and it's a bit easier than revising for Y9 content as it's linear and your know what he's learning.
Lots of lots of practise papers is the best thing. He will know that he freezes and unless he's in exam conditions lots of times, that won't stop.
I'm not sure I would continue the language that far into GCSEs. I think you're underestimating the amount of exams he'll have. Supposedly by now he is quite fluent?

Have they gone over revision techniques yet? Ask Tutor or HoY.

My son was similar. He was also very musical. We finally determined that he was not a visual learner, but an auditory learner, he learnt best by hearing. So we bought him a small voice recorder so that he could make aural voice notes. Sitting trying to revise by reading his notes always lead to underperformance as he just couldn’t retain the information. Look up different learning styles, it helped our son.

When it comes to revision for GCSE courses it almost gets easier to help them revise, at least for science.

The CGP revision books contain everything needed, and nothing more. They are well laid out, so it is easy for you to see the key points of eg 'the theory of evolution' or 'properties of metals'.

School will probably sell you the CGP books at reduced price, but maybe not until y11, you could ask when they do it, and if needed get them early, but take advice on which ones (varies for board, higher/foundation tier, and also combined or triple science). I picked up quite a lot from our Oxfam books.

Similarly the maths guide has all necessary maths, but you need other things for practicing question.

Your school might also subscribe to Seneca which is online across a range of boards/subjects and is good for basic revision.

ps You don't need CS GCSE to do it at A level, or even A level to do it at uni.

Have a real bash at revision for end y9 tests, and go from there.

gb.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn

There's a free course on Coursera called learning how to learn or something like that which covers the best ways...

Learning another language is proven to help children so that is not necessarily to blame. Also learning an instrument is beneficial. Revise frequently, use colour, put list it's or cards up on the wall. I had a mini blackboard in my room which I used for french verbs etc. Quizlet might help too. Writing things out will help, something about writing not just underlining or highlighting other people's.

Sorry @TeenDivided you are correct, just looked at my son's options book as he's also yr 9 and I'm shocked at the lack of coursework.
I sort of just leave him to it, as he's at grammar and he's had positive feedback, so my head is in the sand.

What has your son picked for options OP? I'm sure he will be fine, my son took some assessment papers, they used old gcse papers, so were difficult. Also a lot of children in my son's class struggled with the Spanish paper. If the school hasn't voiced concerns then I wouldn't stress because they will know the averages of the year group. Maybe get him to ask his peers their scores as a benchmark

Your son sounds exactly like me at school. Ive recently been diagnosed with adhd which explains why i was good at essays and coursework (although they'd always be done at the very last minute) and shit at exams. Also why i could focus on things that interested me but wouldn't take in things i found unnecessary or boring. I definitely tend towards creativity. I was very good at masking as well.

My son is the same and in year 9 too. He drops marks for not showing his workings out in maths mainly. We have decided to have a tutor to help him perform better in exams overall. We will do extra work with him to show how and why he needs to put all of the information and not just the answer.

I agree that you need to rule out ineffective revision before SEN.

Proper revision is not about reading and highlighting stuff.

Repetition
Good flashcards
Self quizzing
Timed past questions
Get him to teach/explain the topic to you. Be a deliberately (though not obnoxiously!) dense pupil!

Does he write in full sentences?
Can he write cohesive paragraphs?

Hardly any coursework these days except for practical subjects.
None for English for example.

Check how much coursework goes towards the subjects final grade. I always think GCSEs is a good mix of exams and coursework. I have a memory like a sieve but got a C and I'm definitely not clever, so stress too much, I'm sure he will do fine - he has 2 years to get his head around it.

jelly The school will do some tests for you if you raise concerns. That is what you need for extra time in exams.

My DD had a private dyslexia/dyspraxia assessment last year age 17 that also covered things like this. Should have done that years before, but school didn't indicate major concerns (though imo they should have), and then Covid...

@Manchleedsdog Can I ask what kind of assessment your daughter had? My daughter definitely has processing issues (auditory and otherwise) and poor WM and I’m looking to get her assessment at some point once she starts secondary school. Did you go private?

My daughter did her GCSEs last summer and got all 9s except one 8 in Biology. Many of the 9s were 100%. At her mocks she was getting a mixture of 6s/7s and a few 9s. What changed? Yes she worked hard, but she thought she had worked hard before. The difference was that she learned how to work and what revision methods worked for her. She has poor working memory and APD and realised through assessment (after her mocks) that she is a visual learner so had to use that method to revise. It was helpful to know that she had the poor WM as it does affect so much more than I had assumed it would. I’d get him assessed so you know if there’s any underlying processing issue - not to use it as an excuse but so he has an understanding of how he might learn better.

Yup, you have to know the content, that is the first step.

Only then do you get to understanding what the question is asking, knowing what to include / how to solve, time management, avoiding simple errors etc.

All the exam concessions in the world can't help if the student doesn't know the content.

My kids used to say “ But I don’t understand the question”
I’d answer “Cos you don’t know the content!”
I know that sounds tough but if they’ve really learnt it well, they’ll generally perform well

I totally agree, there’s an awful lot of information needing regurgitation in GCSEs. I’m afraid the only way to remember it well is repetition until you just know it, it does happen! But it does take time. Start early and keep going over and over.
If you can manage to do this well with one test/ topic, it will be motivating, it can then be carried through to everything else.

Why are people jumping to poor working memory and slow processing rather than insufficient revision technique?

The OP isn't saying he runs out of time, she is saying the info isn't going into longer term memory properly?

(Genuine question, my DDs both have poor memory, slow processing. This meant we had to spend more time on understanding / learning / revising key things so couldn't go into finer details. But it isn't at all clear to me the DC is revising effectively yet)

My thoughts went straight to poor working memory and slow processing too. Even academically able kids can suffer from this, and go undetected for years because they manage to do well at school despite their challenges… until they can’t anymore.