How can I support my son after unexpectedly poor mock results?

[Mrsfothergill]

Throughout the year DS has been predicted grades 6 - 7 on most subjects and has done well on past exams papers in class. He's recently sat his mocks and something has gone wrong. He's mainly got grades 3, and in one subject that he was predicted a 7, has been ungraded. He's asked for feedback from his teachers but they don't appear to have given a great deal. The final report is due out on the last day of school so there's going to be no opportunity to discuss what it says with his teachers until September.

The majority of the mocks took place during the last heatwave and there's no air-conditioning or fans in the school, the exam he got ungraded on was taken on a day when it was 40 deg, so not sure if this could have had an impact.

I'm not really sure how to support him over the summer as he's feeling quite down, plus we have to use these grades on the higher education portal for his college options.

Firstly, I suggest you speak to the school in Sept to show how he has improved and see if they will give revised grades for college apps.

Does the school break up today? (Round here they have two more weeks). If so, when did he get the grades? If there is more time at school then deffo find out more - eg ask to take photo of mock paper so you can look at it over summer.

Which subjects are low? Was the 7 to a U a higher paper (where the lowest grade is a 3)?

Which subjects matter to him? Suggest looking at past papers and mark schemes over the summer @Mrsfothergill and seeing where he is struggling. Would you be confident in this (I ask bc on another thread a parent seemed to say they were struggling to understand a GCSE subject). If you have a good level of education yourself I am sure you can manage the past papers and MS for maths, English lang and lit and science.

If he is really struggling in core subjects even after some solid work over the summer, consider a tutor. But tbh if his PGs are 6/7 then he is clearly able so it may be exam technique or revision?

Thank you @clary , I will definitely contact the school for a photo of the papers he's struggled with. We have a week left so there's still time, he only got the grades this week.

All papers are higher, the lower grades and ungraded are in Spanish, business studies and hummaties which I would struggle to understand. English, maths and science he seems to be ok with.

He doesn't seem to struggle in class or with homework, which makes me think it could be technique. They apparently were revising during lessons in between exams, which I guess may not have suited him as it sounded rather intense.

My stepdaughter performed terribly in her mocks when she was in fourth year. She is very bright but just panicked I think 😅 We got her some CGP books which we did whilst we went on holiday for the summer, but we found she knew all the content very well but really struggled with exam technique. We eventually got her a tutor when we got home in the September and that was night and day - the teachers weren't teaching her how to actually write an essay, or time management. Once we got that cracked she ended up getting 7s and 8s, and finally finished with a good set of 8s and 9s in the real exams.

If you can stretch to a specific exam technique tutor they're well worth the investment, but you need someone who actually teaches technique and not just a teacher who will teach the content.

Ok well of those you mention, only Spanish has a higher tier. Was that the U?

Business is fairly comprehensible imho - I have no background in studying it and I can follow the mark scheme. And I am sure with history or geog you can support with revision practice? Spanish is trickier if you don’t know it. Did he complete the paper? Were all aspects tested? Happy to have a look at the Spanish paper if it helps - DM me, MFL is my subject.

What were his mock grades in core subjects - bc your OP said he got mainly grade3? Maybe not as bad overall as it looked if he is OK on maths, English and science?

Firstly I would say - don't panic! As others have said it is most likely due to exam technique/ time management. We also found the GCP revision guides, workbooks and flash cards extremely useful. Now is a good time to pick them up secondhand - just make sure they match the right exam boards. There are also lots of good online resources.

Firstly I would be making sure he knows the content. Breaking it down into sizeable chunks is a good idea otherwise it can feel overwhelming. Most exam boards will provide the specs online and you can use these to see what needs to be covered. We used pieces of A3 paper stuck on the wall and wrote all the different topic areas out. He can then start ticking them off as he goes over them. You could also make a revision timetable for over the summer based on the areas he needs to revise/ practise. Then the next stage is past papers. Lots of them! But I would concentrate on content first. As long as he wants to do well and is willing to put the work in over the summer, you have time to improve his grades drastically and he will feel a lot more confident going back to school in September. Good luck to him.

Thank you all, and @blahblah2347 that's a good idea on a tutor for exam technique. Your SD done amazingly with those grades she must have been so pleased. It's given me hope my DS may be ok.

@clary yes, it was Spanish that was ungraded. I haven't a clue how the papers work (it's been 30 yrs since I sat my GCSEs), but there were three exams and he got a 1 in speaking, them either 2 or 3 in the others which ended up as ungraded? This is one of the reasons I'd like to see his full report as I think he's also confused by the marking. Thank you for offering to look at the paper, I've asked the school to send me a copy.

English was 5 and Science 6, we're still waiting on maths.

I do l know that a lot of the teachers were suggesting which questions to focus on as some had higher marks than others, again I'm not sure if this was the right approach for him.

He's just given me he's actual results for Spanish which was ungraded.

Speaking 18%
Reading 24%
Listening 42%
Writing 44%

That's positive as writing is stronger.
Speaking result is very low; obvs cannot see paper for that so he should ask the teacher where he lost marks. To get a grade 4 in Spanish AQA last year you needed just under 46% but obvs on all skills.

School might well suggest he sits foundation tier which is more accessible (capped at grade 5).

Happy to look at the papers if you get screenshots

I would try to contact teachers this week. I wonder if something had gone wrong : to go from a 7 to ungraded had to be something more than feeling a bit rubbish in the heat. Is it possible that a paper went missing ( happened to my DS in a GCSE Art exam) or maybe the paper was ungraded for some reason eg he broke the test conditions rules? Don’t just rely on DS to check and report back accurately. Email his form tutor and HoY.

The U is in a higher tier paper (Spanish). He needed about 40% overall for a grade 3; below that figure (the % was just over 30%) it’s a U.

So probs around a 2/3 if not H tier. Still a long way off a 6/7.

For speaking it's really important to understand what gets marks. Even native speakers can do badly in the speaking exam, if they don't include a variety of tenses, for instance. It's not enough just to speak correct Spanish. The school should be teaching them about this. Maybe they haven't done that yet, but I would have thought it's a waste of all the time needed to run speaking mocks if they don't teach them what they need to do first.

Yes I agree. I say this a lot but yes, even native speakers can go wrong, even at GCSE. I conduct a lot of speaking exams and I have seen it.

It's important @Mrsfothergill that DC use three tenses (or timeframes), have verbs correct, and develop answers where they can. Which board is it? Happy to give more detailed hints.