Mock exam concerns

[MockExam]

Ds received his chemistry mock result today - Grade 3.

He was expected to achieve grade 6 or above however he has claimed the WHOLE class failed, Ds advised he received the highest grade in his class (12/70)
(His friends have confirmed this as have a few of the other parents)

Ds and his friends have all said the teacher is terrible, they’ve raised numerous concern’s with their other physics and biology teachers however nothing has changed… (he is doing triple science)

For context Ds has had a few other mock results in and has been graded 5/6/7 , his teachers advised he is predicted to achieve 7/8/9 if he continues on the path he is.

Ive requested the HOD to give me a call however if true what would you expect the school to do/how to support Ds moving forward.

In a decent school, i would expect interventions before and after school to bring him up to target. In DDs old school, they also did interventions in half term holidays for year 11s.

I would also expect 2 to 3 hours of studying a night from DS.

Is he definitely doing triple separate Science? Combined is out of 70 and triple each out of 100.

What mark did he recieve for Physics and Bio?

I would suggest watching Shaun Donnelly's free science lessons on you tube then completing practice papers he could teach himself.

Get some books in

In the real world teachers won't do this because it's not in their directed time...

Surely after school sessions have started? Can he attend them?

OP, we've had a similar experience with maths. I'd recommend getting hold of the paper so you can work out where he's going wrong- is it knowledge? Is it reading the question properly? Is it exam
Technique/timing?

DC will need to put the hours in now to get the grade up (not 3 hours a night though- thats extreme.)

In the real world, this happened. Last year, in fact and in every one of the previous 5 years DD was there.

In DDs school, the teachers are beyond PHENOMENAL. And the results speak for themselves.

No he is definitely doing triple individual sciences 🤔 he dropped French so they could accommodate the triple science, we had a long discussion last year with the subject head as his timetable is curriculum heavy.

Ds already studies quite hard, he attends after school revision classes everyday and depending on his sports time time he will study 1/2 hours on top of that daily.

I’ve ordered him the GCSE papers and also mock papers, so hoping they will help, il show him the you tube videos… (I think he already knows about them but il double check)

We haven’t had his biology and physics results yet, they should be coming in the next few days. He scored a grade 7 in Math and English and a 6 in history…

At parents evening his chemistry teacher didn’t raise any concerns so at a complete loss how it’s went to pot.

@BlackBean2023 Thank you I’m going to ask for a copy of it.

Maybe they used a combined paper which wouldn't give a fair test.

Back in my day, mocks were brutal. Almost impossible. Designed to give you the short sharp shock to study. It's probably that.

I’d get a tutor if you can afford it.
I know you shouldn’t have to, but if the teacher really has been that poor, he’ll need some intensive catch up.

Are you sure the teacher teaching chemistry is actually a chemistry teacher?

He may just have to download the specification and teach himself - use BBC bitesize for your exam board and past papers.

Triple paper is out of 100 so I’d be asking why they sat a combined paper. If they used last years papers I know lots of students struggled on the Chemistry last year. The physics wasn’t as bad as they still gave the kids lots of the equations. The beauty of triple is that at least his Chemistry grade won’t affect the Biology and Physics grade.

I'd ask the HoD what they plan to do to help. In my department we have a drop in lunch session and offer twilights as we near exams. However I often advise students to complete extra exam papers and hand them in to us to mark. If you do have concerns over the teacher then you can raise it as an issue, however science teachers are like gold dust at the moment. My own DS has a non-specialist physics teacher, I'm not saying it's right however the HoD may have limited powers to change the actual teaching. I would definitly reach out to online resources on Seneca, GCSE Pod etc as well.

It could be a deliberately brutal mock - this happened to DC2, their Chemistry mock was a 3 and they got a 7 in the real thing. All their science mocks that year were horrific - the kids who got 9s in the real deal got no more than 5/6. If you feel your DS is working hard already, maybe get hold of the paper and find out what went wrong because exam technique matters.

Overall DC2 got at least 2 grades higher in the real exam compared to the mock except for English Lang where the 9 was more or less inevitable.

Remember, they're just mocks. And the exams are just the exams. Not to over egg the pudding, but nurture your child and they will thrive. Getting tied up in knots about exams/results/points is futile. There are so many paths to everything now, there is no need for this kind of pressure. My bro did excellent exams, got into a great course and promptly dropped out of it due to MH issues. He's ended up working for a multi national, without further qualifications, purely due to his own hard work. Try to remember that they're young, and this is stressful. And it's not the end of the world.

A lot of bright students can be a bit shocked after their mocks. They often think that just turning up and attending revision sessions is enough. They don't seem to get that there is no way they will retain all that information unless they do some active revision with it. Does the school use anything like Seneca? Does your ds have a revision guide? Is he doing past papers?

Grade 3 on what basis?

Mock exam grades are not necessarily a guide at all.

He needs to know exactly what went wrong - timing? Accuracy of answers? Gaps in knowledge? Was it a whole paper where they've not actually covered everything yet?

If you're able to throw a bit of money at the problem get him some study books. CPG books are really good.

If you're able to afford a tutor, ask around local FB groups to see if you can find someone that way and go direct rather than pay extortionate agency fees.

I tutor maths and a few years ago I worked with a lad who came out of mocks with the realisation that his teacher had simply not taught him the syllabus. We worked hard and managed to cover the bulk of the higher syllabus before the exams. I'm trying to remember, but I think he got a six in the end, having failed the mock. From an ability level he was capable of achieving higher than that, but 4 months just isn't enough time to learn it all to that level. It was good enough to get him onto his next step which was the main thing.

It's incredibly frustrating to discover the teacher has let him down like this. You should complain to the school, but unfortunately that won't do anything to help your son now. You have got time to try to salvage the situation, but it's going to take a fair bit of work.

I'm a science teacher, there are lots of things that could have happened, but if the whole class did that badly, it doesn't sound great.

In my opinion the best revision guides for students to use independently are the Oxford Revise books e.g these ones www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166503364257?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=vkb8tMxqTVu&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

You would need to check what spec they are doing though, I think they do them for others? He can also sign up for kayscience.com as an individual which would help.

The thing with sciences is that your answer might be right, but you need to use specific buzz words , soecific ways of phrasing things to get the marks.Everyone knows it is bordering on unfair, but there it is.An inexperienced teacher won't necessarily flag this up to the kids.
They need to really study the mark scheme and learn how to hit the marks.

Has he ended up with my sons old science teacher?!?
He was predicted 7s and 8s across the 3 science subjects. All pupils taught by this teacher achieved U's!!! It really knocked the confidence of the kids and has taken a long time for the grades to recover.
This teacher sat in our zoom parents evening appointment, swinging on his chair, tapping his pen on the table and looking at his pen whilst I tried to questions the mock results. He blamed the kids for the grades 🙄

I hope this hasn't affected your sons confidence

Tbf, a child predicted to get 7 or 8 has to be VERY determined not to lift a finger to help themselves in order to achieve a U. You are going to score a lot higher than that solely from just even reading the spec, let alone opening a text book.