Bad gcse maths mock

[myladyjane]

Ok so slightly panicked ask for help. Dd is mid set 1, pretty reasonable all round, mostly on tracks for 7s and the odd 8. Got a 7/8 in her last science mock and aiming to do biology for a level where she gets 8s and the odd 9.

maths has always been her weakest subject. In class tests she’s consistently got 6/7 type grades but exams don’t bring out her best side and she gets really stressed by maths especially.

Last mock before Christmas she got a low 5. Today’s she’s got a mid 5. She doesn’t get on super well with her teacher so not loads of support although she has said she thinks dd should be getting a 6 (7 probably a bit beyond her at this stage).

they’ve had it drummed into them that these mocks are likely to be their actual grades so she’s upset because to do biology her offer at college is dependent on getting a 6 in maths (although based upon prior years they will probably let her in with a 5). she did work hard as well.

what can we do in the next 7 weeks? Her sister is in the same year and is on track for 8/9 in maths so she has offered to tutor her as it’s helpful to them both but despite being twins their brains work in different ways and tensions may well run high. Apparently it’s the problem solving that dd struggles with rather than the actual knowledge so all about application. She has access to and uses all the learning resources you can think of.

she is a hard worker but also I have to be very hard not to crowd/nag/force her as that will back fire.

also before someone says she will have to be good at maths for biology a level, she is doing core maths at college to support with this as we had a good chat about that already.

any ideas gratefully recieved - she’s doing really well at everything else so I just want to give her that boost

Tutor tutor tutor.

she needs someone who knows the exam papers backwards and exactly which topics to focus on and what sort of questions.

the questions are generally fairly predictable and doing lots of them really helps.

if you cannot afford a tutor then doings lots and lots of past papers to get familiar with the questions so you can remember how to do them.

She needs to be doing at least 20 mins of maths every day. No exception. It’s the daily practice that makes the difference.

Thanks both - we’ve got a timetable and when she gets her paper 3 back on Friday we’re going to spend some time making a plan based upon her gaps. Dh is printing off as many past papers as we can find. She’s feeling a bit more up to the challenge - got 8s in everything else so far which has helped her wider confindence

If she wants to do a bit of maths revision a day, corbettmaths 5-a-day is good
https://corbettmaths.com/5-a-day/gcse/

If she gets stuck on any topic then mathsgenie has targeted revision questions https://www.mathsgenie.co.uk/gcse.php with videos and worked solutions.

from from 5/6 to the higher marks in a few weeks is genuinely one of the most achievable jumps in GCSE maths especially when the issue is application rather than knowledge gaps, because that's a more fixable problem than not knowing content.

A few specific thoughts that Ihave after seeing this

On the problem solving / application issue this is really common in students who know their maths but freeze when questions are worded unfamiliarly. The fix is exposure to lots of varied question styles rather than more content revision — her brain needs to recognise "oh this is actually a simultaneous equations question dressed up as a word problem" quickly under pressure. Past papers are better than topic drills for this specifically

The stress response in exams when she knows the content at home is a separate thing to fix alongside the maths itself. A few things that help: doing timed practice under proper exam conditions at home (silence, no phone, proper timing) so the environment feels less alien; and building a "first 10 minutes" routine for the paper — easier questions first to build confidence before tackling the harder ones

Twin tutoring could work but only if DD is genuinely receptive — forced sibling tutoring under pressure tends to go badly. Maybe frame it as "can you just talk me through how you'd approach this question" rather than formal tutoring sessions Kingsbridge Education is worth looking at for focused practice papers with good teacher commentary — helpful for understanding exactly where marks are being dropped on application questions specifically, which sounds like her sticking point. PMT and Savemyexams are also worth looking into as they have good practice as well.

here's a possible solution that could work

• first weeks: topic-specific practice on her weakest application areas identified from mock papers
• middle weeks: full past papers timed, mark carefully, identify patterns in mistakes
• last week - light touch, confidence building, no new content

She sounds like exactly the kind of student who will pull it out on the day — hard working, knows her stuff, just needs the exam environment to click!

Wishing her the best

I’d echo the Corbett Maths 5 a day. The Save My Exams website is also superb.

Do you have the marked mocks paper?

With problems sometimes it can help to turn them on their head.
Not 'how do I answer this question' but 'what can I work out with the information I have'.

So for example in a geometry question they tell you ABC is an isosceles triangle. So you know two lengths are the same and the base angles are equal.
Then maybe that has told you the length of AC that you didn't have.
But you also are told ACDE is a square. So now you know the lengths of all the sides of the square.
etc.
When you have worked out info then go back to the question and see if you are further on in working out how to solve it.

The more practice questions she looks at the better she will get at recognising solution routes.

Also however check for dropped marks in the easier questions. Is she getting them all 100%? If not why not? Are there any knowledge gaps or recurring 'silly' mistakes.

If she can take photos of her exam paper or get it photocopied in school (as a one off my child was allowed this) then you can see why she isn't getting the marks she should. You can see if there is a pattern, is she not showing her working out properly?

The past papers online, get her to do one question at a time, then look at the mark scheme, is she writing enough to get her full marks on it? Next question, do it, check the mark scheme. I know that when it mine were doing A level maths they were taught to do this for self checking.

This and a tutor and Corbett Maths should get her a higher grade.

Thank you so much for this - had parents evening this week and her underwhelming maths teacher was, well, underwhelming. The only useful thing we got was geometry needs to be a focus area.

Corbett maths is interesting - her sister really rates it for her Further maths but school hadn’t mentioned it for regular so I’ll get her to look. We’ve got a stack of past papers and she got a 7 on the last one (my ex maths teacher mum did check when her back was turned ;)). She’s still very reticent about talking about it which makes it hard to help but I’m hoping Easter holidays will see her relax and let me in a bit. I like the idea of timed conditions.

i really do appreciate all the comments!

A mid 5 when she needs a 6 with 7 weeks to go is absolutely fixable, please don't panic. The fact that it's problem-solving rather than knowledge is actually good news because that means the foundations are there, she just needs practice applying them under pressure. Our DS had exactly this issue, knew the maths but froze when problems were worded differently. What helped was doing loads of short practice sessions where the format felt less like an exam and more like a challenge, anything with a gamification element where she's earning points or beating a score rather than sitting a test. It takes the stress out of the problem-solving because getting one wrong doesn't feel like failure, just part of the game. The twin tutoring idea is lovely but I'd tread carefully there, sibling dynamics under exam stress can go sideways fast. 7 weeks of consistent daily practice, even just 20 minutes, can genuinely move a grade at this stage. She sounds like she has the work ethic, she just needs to build that application confidence.

She’s doing ok actually - focused on it, realised that she is getting herself in a tizzy in exam conditions which is a super helpful conclusion for her to reach by herself as she’s now feeling more positive that she can do it. She’s been getting 7s in her test questions fairly consistently so fingers crossed.

But also she’s found an alternative course which would get her to the same uni courses via a different route so that’s taken some of the acuteness out of it all