DS monumentally messed up on end of year 12 maths exam. Is there any hope?

[monumentalup]

He got an E and needs an A to do the course he wants. He’s done all homework during year 12 and given no cause for concern, but hasn’t been doing anything beyond that.
He’s obviously gutted and also shocked. Is it too late for him to pull it back?

Why was he convinced that he knew it really well when he “had not put nearly” enough time in to studying?!

She is.

My son did A level Maths some time ago. He got an A* at GCSE so took it easy. Also he was struggling with another subject with coursework and spent far too long on that. At A level a common mistake is not to split your time equally between your subjects. He got a D at AS and had to resit 2 out of his 3 units the following year on top of his A2. We got him a tutor and he worked hard over summer with tutor. At the end of A2 he got a high C. The 2 modules he resat he got A's on. We wondered if he should have resat third year 12 module as he only needed 2 more marks for a B. He found core 4 solid.

Don't loose hope OP, with a lot of hard work he can definitely pull up his grade. Could you possibly hire him a tutor so that he can review all of the content?

Thanks for the posts they really give me hope. We’ve decided to get a tutor to try to get him back on track, starting next week. Hopefully we can turn this into a positive.

you can safely ignore a lot of anecdotes from parents who have kids that sat A Level before 2018. The new A Level Maths is a lot harder than before and expects students to really know their Maths to get the top grade. Granted that grade boundaries are a lot lower but they are low for a reason.
Look at the Maths teachers’ above. Look into if your son actually understood what was being taught. Also don’t expect an E to become an A with work over the summer. More realistic to expect a C. Carry on working in the Autumn term and prove it to his teachers. If he does not need to apply by 15/10 then he has time but not much. Get a tutor and/or expect post result application if he really needs an A in Maths for his course.

Op for sure it’s not too late to improve that grade. ds2 improved an A level PG from a C or maybe even a D to an A with commitment and hard work. As long as he is not planning on med school he has the autumn term to improve his PG.

What did he get at GCSE? That’s quite a good indicator. Ds got an 8 (2019 so exams) and then a B at A level (which he was v happy with).

Could be a plan tho to look at a couple of unis with lower offers too.

Sorry, for clarity, the improved PG for ds was PE not maths; but the grade 8 to grade B WAS maths.

STEM academic here who thinks @BlueMumDays sounds like she has a good idea of what’s probably happened. This type of passive learning is seductive and not easy to train our students out of. And they were top sixth form mathematicians. (On paper, at least.)

OP, your plan sounds excellent. I am glad you will engage the tutor as I think people frequently underestimate the importance of this step. The tutor should be someone he has good rapport with, otherwise try again as this can make a big difference. The key is for your DS to realise the difference between passive learning and proper learning as explained by@BlueMumDays Hopefully he will feel empowered once he does.

It is pretty shocking that he has reached this age and hasn’t grasped or been taught this very basic approach to revising

@Ohthatsexciting Being taught this principle and grasping it are two different things. DH is an academic in an excellent Russell Group School of Maths. The UGs have mostly coasted in, but when they eventually start to struggle they don’t begin the problem sets ahead of tutorial; they only work backwards after solutions have been discussed/posted. I think it is based in fear.

Of course this is by no means all students. Sometimes the most successful aren’t the most able, but those who pushed through the fear.