DD devastated with GCSE results

[chitterchitter3322]

DD3 is devesated.

Her target grades were 8-9 for all subjects except for Maths which were 6-7. She's revised a lot, every time I've seen her in her room she's cracked on with her revision and she's given up lunch times and even stopped her dance club for a year which she's been doing for 4 years just to revise.

Last night she seemed like she was confident that she'd reach her targets but in the car on the way to school she just broke down and started to cry. She said that she had a bad feeling.

She told me about a month ago she felt so nervous in her exams and all she could feel was knots in her stomach and she could barely even focus.

She's opened her results for a 6 in every subject except from Maths which was a 3 and a 4 in Geography.

Any advice I should give her? Most of today she's been up in her room crying and on her phone not talking to anyone.

Ita bloody awful time. I remember thinking my life is over if I don't get my GCSE's.

Ended up downing half a glass of vodka (stolen from parents) before walking down to school to get them - dad was a work and mum was at hairdressers as I wanted to go alone (they were trying not to make a big deal of GCSE results even though mum had the hairdressers phone in her lap and gave me the number to call as soon as I found out lol).

I did well but you have to ask what kind of pressure makes a 16 need to take a drink to get results. I completely bombed my A levels but got into uni and now I'm a biomedical scientist. People take different routes but you can nearly always get to near to realistic goals

I'm not sure what they are equivalent to in old money, but as long as Maths and English is a pass and she has high enough to proceed to her next step (whether that is college or sixth form) then although it won't help her feel better yet, they won't hold her back at all. I guess it's seeing all of that work and not getting what you wanted; at that age it's hard to see past the fact that although you may be very capable you are just not your best in exams, and see it as you're not good enough even though you put so much effort in. Hopefully come next month when she is embarking on something new she will feel better about them, just be there for her right now and whatever she needs.

Longer term advice but worth you remembering for the future: quantity of revision is not as important as quality of revision. She's obviously worked very hard and spent a lot of time doing it, but it seems that she may not have used the best techniques for helping her learn things and perform well in exams. So whenever exam season comes round again, it would be really worth helping her find better ways of revising, not just doing more of the same.

Oh, FFS.

Bless her heart. She'll be fine when she does A levels in subjects which really interest her.

She hasn't done at all badly!

Agree with everything posted that she's actually done really well apart from maths, so it's a shame her predicted grades were so far off. Think you're doing a great job of supporting her.

It feels like the end of the world for her now but in a few years time her grades will be irrelevant, as they are for this very successful lady and lots of those who posted in response, so get her to read this (relates to a levels but the principle is exactly the same):

m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=570520833693322&id=100022062303812

ZOMBIE THREAD ALERT!!!!
ZOMBIE THREAD ALERT!!!!
ZOMBIE THREAD ALERT!!!!
ZOMBIE THREAD ALERT!!!!
ZOMBIE THREAD ALERT!!!!

My dd's has the same targets and I'm worried too .. did she gets these 8/9's in her assessments ? Can you ask for re marks ?

So sorry for her. Poor girl having knots it her stomach etc.
Her grades are fine but she can retake some and go for a higher grade if she wants.
My daughter is 13 and I was just telling her yesterday that I do not want her worrying about GCSEs no matter how much the school pressure the children.

It’s really important for the school that the pupils get good grades. This is why they feel all this pressure.

Learning should be fun and exciting.

Just comfort her the way you are doing I’m sure. Take her for an ice cream and reassure her.

A maths and English retake should be easy if she wants. I did science GCSE as an adult too. But she has passed her exams.

Also remember she is upset now but may feel better tomorrow! I hope so anyway. You’re a lovely mum.

Chuttypics you actually frightened me!

DS got his today, all U grades apart from a 1 in English and 2 in maths. @chitterchitter3322 Sounds like your DD did her best, could have been worse. Give her big hugs and help her plan for the future.

Grade six is a good result. That would be what we would be looking for entrance to A Level (at sixth form college). She will repeat the maths at GCSE at college. In two months it will make no difference whatsoever (unless she wanted to do medicine or a maths related qualification). Lots of praise about these good spread of results plus jollying along towards the next step, is probably the best way to help her move on.

My children school has been very vocal on the #nowrongpath tweets on Twitter,

Remind your dd that these grades don’t define her, they don’t say how good a friend she has been or how kind a daughter she has been, they also don’t say how hard she works at school or how helpful she’s been to a teacher. They are a snapshot of her school year and some people don’t work well under pressure.

We are in Scotland so not sure how the new number system works though I’m sure I read a 6 is the equivalent to a B which is fab.

@chitterchitter3322

Hi, someone has revived your thread of last year about your DD and her GCSE results. Would you like to tell everyone how she is, if she resat the maths and went on to start her ALs?

6 will not stop her getting into a levels or uni if that’s what she wants, I know it’s hard but try and see the bigger picture. Maybe she doesn’t know how to actually revise, she’s still done well and she can learn from this and maybe look at how she revises going into further education. Well done to your daughter.