Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

How can I help get my ds through his Nov maths resit?

53 replies

Anxiousthoughts · 24/08/2025 18:40

Just that really. Ds didn't have a great set of GCSE results, but we were both shocked about a grade 3 in maths.

Back story - this time last year he was breezing grade 5s in the foundation paper, started doing higher paper topics in Y11, panicked and got a U in his Nov mocks.

I asked that he did he foundation paper, although he seemed to have developed a panic about maths and got a 2 in his Feb mocks. His teacher was clear that it's a confidence issue - he's actually quite competent. She did not think that he was looking at resitting.

I thought that the best way to prepare for his GCSEs was doing past papers under timed conditions. He did lots up to the mocks, which I marked and he was getting 85% +. I'm as sure as I can be that I was objective - answers were either right or wrong, the right working was there or it wasn't.

Ds thought that the exams went well, although he scored 42,43, 44 so a total of 129, 15 marks off a grade 4.

I want to help him, but I don't know how. He has no idea why he couldn't replicate what he was doing at home in the exam room.

He gets extra time and rest breaks as he has a visual processing disorder, but didn't use them. Obvs not helpful but he hadn't used extra time at home either.

His sister suggested that being in a smaller room with other DC who needed adjustments provided a lot of distractions as there would have been some messing around. I don't know.

He refuses point blank to consider a tutor. What can I do for him at home?

TIA

OP posts:
Original poster
Anxiousthoughts · 24/08/2025 20:11

Thanks both. To my knowledge, he would need to give written consent for the school to get his papers. Or would I be able to access them without him knowing?

He will be utterly furious if I suggest this and will dig his heels in even more about doing any revision.

He's refusing a tutor because his response to any offer of help is 'no' (see above re: extra time, laptop and rest breaks). He's ashamed about how he did, but doesn't have the maturity to acknowledge that having some additional help now will increase the chances of him not having to resit again.

I will look at Corbett maths thanks.

OP posts:
rachrose8 · 24/08/2025 19:59

Look at Corbett 5-a-day here https://corbettmaths.com/5-a-day/gcse/. I’d e commend doing most days.
Start with the foundation, which is for grade 3 and 4, and keep a list of topics he gets wrong, then once a week, he should try some questions on that topic (again on Corbett go to the “videos and worksheets” section - if on a laptop you can do ctrl f to then type a topic to search easily. Thee are videos to help)
Alos, continue doing past exam papers (use other boards for practice to start with) and again keep a check on the topics that are tricky. He needs to be confident in all the straightforward topics, and should aim for nearly full marks on the first half of the paper if he’s wanting a 4.
There are other resources out there but Corbett is great (you can also but the 5 a day book so he can write his answers down - this is what I did for my daughter). Hope this helps (I’m a secondary maths teacher).
Why is he refusing a tutor? A grade 4 in Maths is key qualification. If he won’t have one, perhaps you say if he doesn’t get a 4 in November then he will need one to get a 4 in June (so he’s got 2 months to work hard).
I agree that it would be good to get his papers, but you won’t be able to access mark schemes as they are kept secure as schools use last years papers as mocks.

5-a-day GCSE 9-1 – Corbettmaths

The Corbettmaths 5-a-day for the 9-1 GCSE.

https://corbettmaths.com/5-a-day/gcse/

noblegiraffe · 24/08/2025 19:38

Ask the school to send you a copy of his papers (and the markschemes). They can get them for free for the exam board but the school may charge a small admin fee for this.

Look through his papers and compare them to ones he did at home if you still have them. You should get some idea of whether the problem was not finishing the paper, not reading the questions properly, making silly mistakes or not actually knowing what needed to be done.

What he needs to do from there will depend on what the issues are.