End of year exam results- help!

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Hi all

I wondered if anyone could help with regards to end of first year A Level results?

DS received them today, and tbh I think (havent told him!) that they are really quite poor, but I don't know if they are?

DS has always been a high achiever, but a lazy one with it. Left last summer with all 7-9's and whilst he obv didnt do the exams, he was due those results (based on mocks etc) so they were realistic.

Roll on college and he's totally nose dived. End of topic exams have been a mix, but generally no where what we'd expect.

End of year exams - D D E :(

He worked hard for those exams, well DS's hard - so not as hard as he should, but we saw a definite improvement in time spent revising etc.

He's very difficult to talk to about it, he tends to switch off and stare into space, but then has these big dreams of the future! His head is firmly in a hole in the ground.

So the reason for my post - Does anyone know realistically how much gain he could make before next years exams? I knew with GCSE mocks that the expectation would be to gain a grade (poss 2) but i dont know about A Levels.

Thanks for reading. TBH I'm home alone, heads in a spin and its just good to write it down

I think he needs to talk to his teachers to pinpoint between him and then where he lost marks or what he needs to do to gain marks.

But he needs to go over every paper he sat and identifying why he didn't get full marks. I don't know what subjects your son is studying but for science subjects it can be done like this (MARCKS)

M- maths error
A- application of content, you know it but can't apply it to the question
R - read the question, did you read it correctly?
C - communication, you didn't use the correct terminology or were not clear
K - knowledge, is your knowledge weak? Do you understand the concept?
S - Statements, the question was worth 4 marks and you wrote down 2 points

This is not my method but that of a YouTuber called Unjaded Jade. Once he identifies where he went wrong, he improves on it and then resits the same paper and should get a higher grade, mark schemes are usually provided by the college. This is effort though. Your son has the whole of summer to pull up those grades, get confident with year 12 content. Realistically work out how many hours he is awake for on a non-school day, get him to write himself a timetable to divide between work and play.

Those that coast through GCSEs tend to find A levels are where they come unstuck. He needs to engage with the work and revising.

You could usually expect to improve one grade, possibly two.

He needs to work out WHY he got the grades he did - has he made silly mistakes, missed bits out, does he not understand? Is his revision effective, he didn’t do it for his GCSEs so he hasn’t had that practice.

Has he had any other assessments this year? What has he achieved on those?

He needs to speak to teachers and find out if those are in line with what they’d expect from him. It could be that actually it’s a full a level paper and they haven’t done bits yet, or it’s been graded very harsh, or he’s missed questions out etc.

What subjects is he doing, as that’ll make a difference

Are they predicted A level grades based on lower 6th work or are they the grades he achieved this year.

If they are the grades he achieved this year were those based on full papers (containing content he might not yet have covered) or adapted papers which only covered the completed topics?

He needs to engage with college and figure out where it went wrong. And study study study.

My DD did it - pulled up D E U to AAB but she really had work exceptionally hard to mitigate the mess of her lower sixth year (AS grades in her part).

Good luck

My DD did it - pulled up D E U to AAB but she really had work exceptionally hard to mitigate the mess of her lower sixth year (AS grades in her part).

That's so encouraging, and well done to your DD!

I came on tonight because DS needs 3As for his choice of purse and has been predicted 2As and a B. Not a total shock but not what he wanted.

So glad to hear stories where students have worked hard and got what they wanted in Y13

I’m going to be really frank—it sounds like he is capable (from his GCSEs) but being really lazy because those grades are just not up to scratch, at all. Summer holidays are a great time for him to revisit the whole year’s work and ensure he’s ready to be a better student. I’d also look at settling him further mock exams over the next few months, and getting a tutor too, so you can be sure he has improved by next year. I’d want to give him a bit of a kick up the arse over this—it sounds harsh but the next 18 months may well decide the direction of his life.

If this was hi absolute, absolute best than that would be one thing, but it’s clearly not. Time to go full tiger mom

He does need to establish the cause. DS's physics teacher admitted he had picked the hardest questions from the last couple of papers to give the class a wake up call. There were some 30% and you need a gcse 7 minimum to be allowed on to A level.