GCSE Maths resit Nov 2024

[Abs88]

Hi,

My child sat GCSEs in May and wants to retake his Maths GCSE in Nov to improve his grade.

He has now left school and is at college but the college will not allow him to retake his exam as he has already passed it.

I moved to England from Scotland around 18 months ago and the education system is different.

How can I arrange for him to rest his GCSE Maths in November?

I cannot find anything on google except places charging around £300!

Could someone kindly help.

Thanks.

What grade did he achieve? Schools and colleges facilitate resits of maths if the grade was below a 4, but not otherwise.

He can sit the GCSE privately - yes it costs several hundred pounds as you have discovered. Why does he want to gain a higher grade particularly - is it to support A level study?

It may surprise you to learn that schools have to pay for exam papers. Add to this the cost of invigilating exams, maths is 3 papers so lets say 7 hours for 2 invigilators as due to safeguarding there will need to be more than 1 invigilator in the room. I believe schools and colleges provide a resit for free if the child has failed. Schools simply cannot afford to offer free resits.

Have a look for NTS or NST training near you. As long as he’s under 19 it’s free but may take some convincing if he’s already passed.

Will college let him resit if you pay the exam fees?

He gained a 4 but requires higher as he wants to study Economics at uni.

I have enquired at local colleges and they do not allow private candidates.

Time is running out to register him and I don't know what to do.

Could you kindly provide links to those as I cant find them.

Thanks.

If he wants to take econ at uni, he should be doing maths A level. Certainly most of the higher tier unis ask for it, though I guess some less popular ones do not. But maths A level with a 4 at GCSE is a really bad idea tbh. Even if he retook and gained a higher grade he's starting massively on the back foot. Is econ such a good idea if he only just passed maths? Was there a big mitigating factor for his grade 4 (not that there is anything wrong with a grade 4, but it doesn;t say maths A level/econ degree to me)? What makes you think he will do so much better five months later? Sorry if that sounds harsh. But I think you might be wasting your money.

He was quite sick when he took exam. He was in top maths class when he was doing Nat 5 in Scotland.

Do you now of any way he can do his resit? Am based in West London.

You could go here - this is a private centre in Wimbledon - but looking at the fees structure you would now be classed as "late" for October exams and the fee would be £400 instead of £290.

I work with this company in my role as MFL tutor/examiner and find them very good (tho I don't get paid to recommend them and obvs I haven't taken GCSE maths with them).

Have you spoken to his maths teachers at his former school? Were they surprised by the 4 and expected a 6/7? Has he been doing any maths work since he sat the exam or at least since results day? On his own - with a tutor? I would think that would be essential tbh.

www.tutorsandexams.uk/