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.

Dear OP We have had GCSE results today - 11 passes, 1x8, 3x7, 5x6, 2x5. My DD was a bit upset that she has 6's in two of her A level choices. I am telling her that her revisions strategy was a bit of a catastrophe and given that, she's done really well. Could it be something as simple as that for your DD? I really felt that mine had not been advised by school on how to manage revising for 11 subjects simultaneously. She knew what she needed to do for each one, but not how to schedule a whole programme of revision to ensure she peaked at the right time. The new exams do have an enormous amount of content, and the difficulty has been significantly increased. Add into the mix the newness of the exams for teachers, many of whom did not pace the curriculum properly (through no fault of their own), and it is no surprise that good students stumbled at the final hurdle.

As an HE professional who works in the area of admissions, I also want to say that unless your DD wants to study medicine, dentistry or vet med, it's not likely that her GCSE profile will matter at University application stage. Yes, it is a predictor of success for most, but not all, and with a narrower range of subjects that she loves, and a focused strategy, I am sure she will excel at A level.

See the following article for more info on GCSE's and Uni applications www.theguardian.com/education/2014/aug/21/how-important-are-gcses-when-applying-to-university

“I think you’ve said absolutely the right thing - we need to tell our kids that in exams and in life an honest effort is way more important than results.”

Well, not if the results are what you need to go on to the next stage in life- if my ds had got 6s in the subjects he wanted to study at A level and I had told him that it was the honest effort that counted he would either have burst into tears or left home.

Regarding BTECs I would say don’t bother and stick with A Levels. BTECs are moving to exams as well now and are harder than they used to be.

Your DD’s results are good. They are good enough for her to do A Levels alongside a Maths retake.

This isn’t the end of the world but it obviously feels like it for your DD. All you can do is give her time and allow her to get some perspective on what has happened. Some considered thoughts about what she does next is needed. I agree she needs to learn how to manage stress and pressure and hopefully school will be able to help her.

She must be very disappointed but there did seem to be a big mismatch between predicted grades and actual which would have added a huge amount of pressure if the target grades were too high for her. From what you said, she’d done so much work. Hopefully you can help her with that for a-levels. I fell apart in one of my big a-level exams and got an E bringing my grade down to a C (I did 5 a levels so never mention it and fortunately it wasn’t one of my specified subjects for university) In everything else I was a straight A student so stress can have a big impact on exam performance If things go really wrong. My teachers couldn’t understand how I fucked it up so badly but I was a teary mess and couldn’t concentrate due to something going wrong in my personal life.

That said, some posters are being naive to suggest GCSE’s don’t matter in later life- sometimes they do depending on the competitiveness of the job market. I’ve just recruited for an entry level graduate position. I had so many outstanding candidates (with top degrees from top universities, great extra ciricular and work experience etc). One of the filters ended up being GCSE’s just because it was impossible to distinguish between candidates otherwise.

Regarding BTECs I would say don’t bother and stick with A Levels. BTECs are moving to exams as well now and are harder than they used to be

Yes there are some exams but plenty of coursework. My dd has done brilliantly in hers (also gets exam nerves)

OP DS is the same He got 4-7 (mostly 6) so passed everything however is 2.5% below what he needed to remain at his school and he crumbled in tears. The additionally upsetting thing is he was very ill in year 9 and under GOSH care with an attendance of 68% because of this Yet he has managed to get all his grade up and actually did really good. School will not reconsider on any additional circumstances so it was just a blunt no.

We ended up at a different school where he basically got told to go to the local college .. He looked broken as we left So I suggested we go to the school his younger sister it at and finally there we got some hope. So we will see ... However I felt so helpless my lovely lovely boy and he really did not deserve this I watched him work like crazy to catch up this year and it counts for nothing.. It feels desperately unfair. I keep asking myself what sort of world are we living in where we are telling our children a B is not good enough.

Chocolate Wombat - I work at a Russell Group university. You are perfectly correct in your comments about Medicine (Vet Med and Dentistry). However, my RG university had a string of excellent courses in all disciplines available through clearing with BBC/BBB as a requirement, with passes in English and Maths at GCSE.

I don't think your comments are helpful or accurate (unless our OP's DD wants to be a doctor and even then there are alternative routes available into medicine ie. graduate entry).

So sorry for your DS Enko. I hope he finds somewhere where he can be happy and thrive soon. 💕

OP, she should be pleased with her resaults, she did very well. I know her targets grades were higher but quite often they are not achieved. To get 6’s (B) in every subject apart from maths is pretty good. Achieving 8’s and 9’s would have been a huge acheivent and only a small percentage achieved these. I’m sure your dd will go on to do great things.

It’s tough but you can’t pretend it’s all OK because that’s not how she’s feeling. You have to acknowledge and say despite disappointment life isn’t over.
She should look at grade boundaries and consider remarks.

Regarding BTECs I would say don’t bother and stick with A Levels. BTECs are moving to exams as well now and are harder than they used to be

They are harder due to the externals, but a lot of the external assessments are not traditional exams but also include high control Controlled Assessments. For example in my subject (Business) the finance unit is an exam but the marketing unit is a 3 hour write up based on a case study that is a pre release (this is done in one sitting under strict controls, but it is not an exam that you are not aware of what you are going to be asked). These assessments can be retaken

The remaining units are coursework but the continuous assessment feature which allows students to understand how they are progressing, what they need to achieve etc remains and therefore is of a huge benefit to students who struggle in final exams at the end of 2 years

After uni I never put my GCSE results on anything. Some people don't even put their full A levels, just '3 A levels'.

I got lower than expected GCSEs though not bad, then went on to do really well in A levels and went to a top 5 UK university. No one gives a toss about my GCSEs now!

Though I remember how it felt. She needs lots of cuddles and nice food and a day out and to know you are proud of her

If your daughter knows you’re disappointed for her, but not disappointed in her, she’ll come through this.

@ohreallyohreallyoh

any teacher who reprimands or demoralises a child who gets a high b grade deserves complaining about. I teach and I don’t put the pressure to achieve grades on my students. I work hard to teach them how to learn but ultimately I refuse to pressure them to certain grades. Just because the pressure is on me doesn’t mean the students deserve it on their much younger shoulders. Pressured students are generally poor students.

I'm a graduate with a post-grad qualification and a further professional qualification and I did APPALLINGLY in my CSEs (as they were then).

Although disappointing, your DD's results mean diddly squat for her future career or life.

There was a programme on Radio 4 today about how sitting what are seen as crucial exams at the age of 16 is really bad timing as there is so much else going on I need the mid-teen sphere which distracts from academic study. Also, their brains are still developing - hence the phrase "late developer" is completely valid.

Lots of us made a mess of our schooling - it doesn't mean we don't have a good brain or the ability to make a success of life and work.

💐 For you and your DD!

in NOT I need*

Tell your daughter she’s done brilliantly. 6s are not easy grades to get. She’ll have to resit her maths, but she’s not the first.

Target grades are only important to schools. OFSTED require that they are set because of the Tory party’s fetishisation of corporate culture. They don’t mean anything for the kids. Some do take them very seriously though, which is a shame.

From a teacher, sincere congratulations.

Predicting 8-9 is a recipe to fail imo. Very few kids will achieve those as its equivalent to getting all a* under the old system.

I think 6-7 is a much more realistic high grade for most kids. Had she been achieving these grades though classes? Over a 4 is considered the equivalent of "c and above" so she is fine mostly, apart from the maths which seems completely off to me. Can you get that remarked? It seems insane that someone predicted 8-9 would get 3 in anything.

The 6's should allow her to reach the next step but she will likely need to retake maths (unless they totally messed up the scoring which is sadly not actually unheard of) check if college will allow this.

It sounds mostly like anxiety and nerves are the biggest issue. Has she been sitting exams through school? My kids school have a couple of sets of exams each year. The aim is to get them used to sitting exams. The kids hate it but the system works. They get more formal as they get closer to GCSE with the idea that by the time they sit the ones that matter they are used to being in that environment.

I hope she is ok and can do what she wants to next.

“Tell your daughter she’s done brilliantly”

No, don’t patronize her. She hasn’t, for her.

Tell your daughter she’s done brilliantly”

No, don’t patronize her. She hasn’t, for her.

She has for anyone! A six is a good grade.

Did yoy not read the bit about stupid target grades.

“No, don’t patronize her. She hasn’t, for her.”

Actually, if she put in as much work as OP said, she will have achieved close to her potential. That’s a great result for her.

It’s not her fault that her targets were set too high for her.

Target setting is a weird and convoluted system often based more on a school’s Raising Achievement Plan than an individual student’s ability. OP should be happy for her.

I'm a secondary teacher. Sorry if this has been said already as I haven't read all of the thread. Targets are based on key stage 2 SAYS ie the end of primary school. My son's targets were all 8s and 9s because his primary school 'coached' the pupils so their results would be high and they'd retain their Ofsted outstanding rating! I told him to ignore all targets and work hard for the highest possible grade he could get. As a teacher, we were put under tremendous pressure to get the students to these unrealistic inflated targets by arranging after school interventions etc so the pressure was heaped on the students every which way. It was an awful situation to be in. Your daughter did brilliantly. I cannot state that enough. Her targets were too high because of the ridiculous way they are generated and she now needs to forget they ever existed (they aren't printed on certificates etc and are only used as a measure of progress for the school which is their problem not hers!), move on to the next stage and enjoy her chosen subjects. Yes she'll have to resit the maths but no need to aim for a high target. A 5 will be fine unless she wants to study it further in the future.

Regarding remarks: my understanding is that the most recent grade is the one that stands so if it goes down, that's what you get. Proceed with caution!

Thanks for posting HoneywithLemon - I also believed ChocolateWombat's remarks to be neither helpful nor accurate, but it carries more weight coming from you as an employee of an RG Uni

It sounds like her target grades were much too high bless her unless she really did have a bad day on all of them. Maybe get her a tutor to help with the maths retake.