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.

“She has for anyone! A six is a good grade”

It wouldn’t have felt like a good grade to my ds, who needed As/7s to go to the 6th form he desperately wanted to go to.

And it won’t feel good to the OP’s dd, who knows that she screwed up the actual exam. Yes, her targets were probably too high, but such big drops indicates either a revision failure or a exam technique failure. The maths is a big red flag for this. Telling a child feeling like this that they are really good grades is not going to help-even though, of course, they are.

“such big drops indicates either a revision failure or a exam technique failure. The maths is a big red flag for this.”

Again, couldn’t disagree more. The “drops” are non-existent. They’re from made up targets.

As for maths being a red flag for either revision or exam technique, maths is pretty much the main subject where exam technique is minimised. There’s no “remember this specific word to get the marks” as in Science, or time management and forward planning, as in an essay subject.

You don’t get a 6 in English without exam technique.

I would say it’s almost guaranteed that OP’s DD has a particular weakness in the subject. This is usually longstanding and occasionally the result of undiagnosed dyscalculia.

I think you and she needs to analyse WHY this happened.
ie did she underachieve or did the school over-predict

1. You say her friends achieved in line with expectations.Does that include predictions of 8s and 9s? My DS2 grammar school was very cautious predicti 9s because no one really knew what the new exams would like

2)it seems odd that every teacher would over-predict her. Does she hqve a problem with her exam technique. did she do loads of practice papers? Did she panic, did she run out of time?

It does sound as thouh anxiety may be a major issue for her.If so she needs to see her GP to address this.

“Technique” was the wrong word. I need a word that means both technique and rabbit in the headlights panic.

I mean it is possible that this child had a pack of appallingly incompetent teachers. But I find it hard to believe that even the worst maths teacher ever would not have been worried and intervening if he thought a 6/7 candidate was likely to get a 3.

I’ve worked with one or two “appallingly incompetent teachers” and they can get fantastic results with the right set of pupils. You know, the kind that buy a revision guide and teach themselves etc. The highest ability ones can succeed despite teaching.

Also, let go of the 6/7 candidate thing. Please. If, as OP said, she revised and still got a 3, she was never a 6/7 candidate. Targets lie.

Also - and this is particularly applicable in maths, as it is now examined across 3 papers - it’s probably not nerves. The maths exams were late this year and the nerviest pupils I knew had no more than one “bad” exam. In fact, the last two were so late on in exam season that most students were struggling to care, let alone panic.

I really feel for her - I once got myself so worked up about an exam I failed it. It was an open book exam so I took my notes in with me and I had a degree in the subject so should have been able to pass - I had just studied too much for it because work had paid for it and I was expected to pass. It was a huge lesson for me in exam stress and not putting myself under it. Tell her it might seem important but no-one had their life completely defined by exams. Together write a list of people who are extremely successful but failed at their first attempts. Richard Branson springs to mind and there are loads of others. Tell her that it was better she discovered now her exam stress needs to be managed differently so she can learn some skills and techniques before her A levels.

I agree with those who have said her disappointment is valid and no amount of "a 6 is a good grade" would help many students led to believe they were capable of 8/9s especially on the day of exams.

20 years ago I got 10 A stars. If I'd been predicted a top grade, like OPs daughter, and thought, you must be joking, I would have said so at the time. Teachers as has been said even if they were poor would have noticed it was a unrealistic expectation. My mum was very hands off but she too would have noticed. I see no reason to assume that OP's DD is not an A star student that has horribly underperformed for her. As many have said this is not the end of the world and it will be ok but I just feel that it's fine to be devastated. She's not going to be over it by the end of the weekend.

I never verbalised to anyone that I was aiming for straight A*s but I had been. I would, rightly or wrongly, have been devastated with Bs. It's ok that she's upset. What it doesn't do is change who she is and what you believe about her and you sound an amazing mum - my mum wouldn't have dealt with it anything like the way you have. Hope the pizza was yummy. And sorry this has taken me forever to write, my neighbour knocked!!

But hmc, I made clear that there are lots of courses at uni and career pathways where the exact grades achieved at GCSE won't matter. Most people will be in the position where the fact they have a string of passes is good enough for their A level place, their uni place and for starting in their career. For most people, having Bs at GCSE won't be a hinderance. However, it is true that it will be a barrier in some areas - some schools do insist on 7s to take A Levels in those particular subjects, some Unis for some courses do sift students out if they dont meet a minimum level of As/A*s because they are oversubscribed and some jobs will look at both A level and GCSE grades when they are seeking to recruit the most academic candidates - these are facts. I never said all RG Unis do it for all courses. Yes, this year there are lots of places in Clearing with lowish A Level grades, but it doesn't happen every year or for all courses and often people wouldn't have received offers in the intitial offering if their predictions were those grades....and when predicting, schools/colleges bear in mind the GCSEs achieved of their students....in maths for example, students starting A Level with a a C or even a B are most likely to achieve D/E at A Level - whilst some achieve higher at A Level than GCSE, not surprisingly most don't.

Perhaps the OP's DD hasn't thought too far ahead with her future and hadn't hopes in terms of highly competitive courses and careers, but if she had, based on her school target grades, she will now be disappointed not only about the grades today, but possible future implications. I think she's allowed to be disappointed and the adults around her need to let her be disappointed and if she had plans, think again and see that whilst every door might not be open to her now, there are plenty of positives to look forward to in terms of A Levels,muni and career.

As a parent though,min would be speaking to the school about what has happened here - to drop a grade or 2 in a couple of subjects could happen to anyone, but across the board and the 3 in maths needs some explaining....for the peace of mind if the parents and girl - to understand if there was over prediction or underperformance or what exactly, and what this means for next steps. This along with knowing grade boundaries will help the DD deal with what has happened with fuller knowledge which will help her move forward.

Today she is disappointed. Tomorrow will be time to start looking forward. M

I went to a Russell group uni with only 1 A GCSE, the rest were B’s and C’s and a couple of D’s actually (science was never a strength ) but the A was in the subject I did my degree in so that made all the difference.

I can categorically say, my GCSE results have never prevented me from doing a thing. I had GCSE’s and that is all that mattered, my access results were the make or break for getting into the uni of my choice.

Like I say, I teach at FE level. One of my brightest access students last year only had one GCSE in English. It was a grade 8. She wanted to study English at uni so she now is and I don’t doubt she will do fantastically. They were only interested in her access results which were distinctions across the board.

I feel for her and wish GCSEs would be scrapped altogether.

If it had been nerves in the exam, I think perhaps she would have come out of the exam at the time upset. I think it's more likely she wasn't really revising, and didn't know how to tell the OP at the time, so was covering it up. She seems to have been expecting bad results. Whatever the reason, I hope it won't stop her doing what she wants.

Apologies if this has already been said, but there is an option to do Functional Skills Maths rather than GCSE. It is still a level 2 qualification, but focuses more on the bits of Maths that are actually used in real life.

Once she's ready to think about next steps, you could tell her about my DD's experience. She didn't do brilliantly in GCSEs because she hates exams. She did 3 BTECs at college and got Distinction Star in all 3, because coursework is much better for her than exams. She's about to start her dream job (she wasn't interested in going to university).

She's fine really well!!! I'd be made up with those results. Maths is hard - I failed first time despite really trying. I'm sure she'll come round - she should be proud, she gave it her all!

Like other posters have said. As long as it gets her to the 'next level' of her education - that's the main thing xxx

Enjoy that pizza! Xx

I can't see how every teacher could have got it so wrong.I think anxiety/panic is the most likely cause.A P friend was tellin me she prescribes medication for a good number of teens for exams .They need to start takin it in good time to give their bodies a chance to adjust to side effects

These are such new exams, teachers are finding it a bit harder to predict results, especially for students in the middle bands. This year group are guinea pigs to an extent, I’m afraid.

If it helps, I never even took my GCSE’s. I did no coursework, didn’t turn up to the tests. It has made no difference to my life whatsoever. I still managed to be very very successful in my field. University isn’t a guarantee of success or even a job. Tell her not to get hung up on it, she can do and be anything she wants.

She's finally come downstairs and got herself wound down a little. She says she's still upset but she's finally accepted her grades and is going to work as hard as possible for her Maths. She's never been strong at Maths and I've understood, she was only 1 grade from a pass which is what she is disappointed about.

She will need to resit the maths but if she does well at A level 6s won't matter

Give her a list of all the famous people that didn’t get good grades but went on to success (Richard Branson, Lord Sugar and others)

And just generally show her love and support, of which I am sure you will

The exact same thing happened to me- I was predicted A's and A's and I got 1 A,2 A's 8B's and a C in 2009. At the time I thought my life was over.

I went on to a-levels, got good grades and since have gained a degree with which allowed me to study abroad in Australia, a masters in neuroscience from UCL and currently training to be a chartered psychologist.

I hope this may give your daughter some comfort. I suffered hugely with exam anxiety and for my a-levels I spoke to my doctor about my anxiety and was granted extra time and got to take my exams in a smaller room which worked brilliantly.

Happy for you to message me further if you or your daughter have any other questions. The most important thing is just to support her through these few weeks which is sounds like you are doing!

If it's 1 grade away in Maths then her [new] college will be able to offer a November resit. If you mean 1 mark then a review of marks a good ideas as there's three papers to find one more mark from. The raw mark score is definitely available from school/college. The grade boundary for a 3 Edexcel was 101 - 135 so 136/240 would secure a 4.

If November resit is very soon after Oct half term; results quicker than summer so 2nd week in Jan.

I thoroughly recommend Seneca Maths as a computer/online revision programme. It says it needs parent and teacher email consent but it doesn't and a student can fire it up on their own. They've even got pathways for the different exam boards.

Ok so she will need to resit maths. Other than that, she is likely to be able to go on and study any subject she wants. Is she planning to do A levels? If so, maybe some help/support with exams and the stress she feels might be useful. Otherwise there are many other options open to young people these days.
DD1 did ‘ok’ in her GCSE’s last year, but the grades really didn’t reflect her ability. She did a year of A levels, but has now decided to take on an apprenticeship in an area she is really interested in. She learns much better practically and although there will obviously be an element of assessment, she will not have to sit exams, which do her no justice.

NRTWT.
I’d be delighted if my boy got these results.
What’s the problem?

They are good grades - Bs in any language.

But if she struggles with exams - BTECs may be an option to consider for 6th form. There is much more emphasis upon course work and less last minute pressure or stress.

Two friends children didn't suit A levels and did BTECs and got into Russell Group Universities.

If she wants to do A levels and you can afford it - get her tutor who currently teaches the A level your daughter is sitting [ rather than just a person with a subject specialism] and get her to analyse her exam technique and teach her both the content and in particular exam technique - e.g. working through specimen papers, mock tests under exam conditions etc.

Good luck and congratulations to your hard working and committed daughter

I am not sure what the numbers equate too these days but i feel for her.

My dad once said to me that once you get your a levels your gcse’s don’t count for much. I know they still do count a bit but he has a point.

Tell your daugter that i got bs and cs at gcse and c,d,e at a level and still managed to go get a 2:1 degree in Accountancy :) anything is possible x