Bad Year 12 results - how to turn it around

[TheRedDot]

DS has got poor results in his Year 12 A'levels and I am looking for advice as to how to somehow improve them.

It is likely that he will need AAB in his exams to do his chosen course and he scraped CDE in his end of year exams, so he's got a long way to go to get to that. I doubt his predicted grades will be that great as a result. He got 7+ in all his GCSEs so he's able to do well.

He has a job he loves, and he also has a hobby he loves and is really good at and he wants to end up working in the field relating to his hobby. Both these two things seem to be his priority and he can't seem to see that he needs to get these exams to get the job he wants. I don't want to stop either because the job gives him a work ethic and money and the hobby is something that he excels in and is passionate about. These things are worth fostering IMO. I also believe having a job and doing sports are good things for all teens.

How do you get a 17 / 18 year old to focus on their school work? He says he sees what is required but then just doesn't do it. I can't sit there with him because I don't know anything about his topics and he's not 11 years old, so he's got to do this himself. I can lead him to water, but how do I make him drink?

Can he get a job in a field related to his hobby without a degree, or does he need the degree?

Also, what subjects is he doing? Some are notorious for kids who got 7s at GCSE suddenly finding things tough (e.g. maths).

He ultimately wants to go into Sports Psychology or Management. He wants to study Sports Psychology at uni.

He's doing Psychology, Economics and Geography.

It was 20yrs ago admittedly so things have almost certainly moved on, but I fucked year 12 and ended up doing okay in the end. Basically I went from the kid with very little social life who studied all the time to having a new group of friends, boyfriend and a job. I got CCDE after very good GCSEs and it scared me into doing some more work

Ended up getting ABB and went to a decent uni. I am not the hideous failure that my history teacher (got the E in history) told me I would end up as in the summer of 2003. Doing poorly may well motivate him.

Good luck!

Thank you @IJustHadToLookHavingReadTheBook - I think your story reflects his situation exactly. He is new to the school having been at an all boys school beforehand so there is a lot there to turn his head. I hope this is the rocket up his backside that he needs.

Exactly the same. I'd spent five years in a girls school and a social life with boys had never been on my radar until lower sixth. It was a lot of fun, but not so great for my grades I'm sure that your son will pull it together, but I know that it won't stop you from worrying. Got everything crossed for you.

Does he definitely still want to go to Uni?

Dd is Year 12 and there are a few there now who are seriously considering post A level apprenticeships where they will end up with the same qualification as at Uni but with some money, experience and without the £50k of debt...

Also they're realising further education studying is massively harder than GCSEs and they can't face another 3-4 years of it

Won't suit all kids or careers, but it could be a consideration

Well one way to get them to focus on academics is to take something else off his plate. I’d stop the job. Work ethic can be applied to academics just as much as a job. Too, most kids cannot do work and get top grades. Most kids have to put the extra study hours in outside of class.

If you can afford it, replace the job with a tutor in his A level subjects.

He’s doing too much. There is no way DS1 could have coped with a job on top of a levels and having some time to relax.

Time to talk through what Plan B looks like if the grades don't improve? That might focus his mind on what he actually wants. There are plenty of courses he could get on with those grades, so all is not lost (assuming he actually wants to go to university of course).

My daughter's y12 results were awful due to her poor MH BDDE. She attended crammer classes at school and knuckled down and got A*ABB at A2 I can't give any words of wisdom but she did it.

Agree with pps ,let the job go
Ours didn’t work at that stage,exams are the most important thing,

As others have said, drop the job.My school showed us researchr showing a strong inverse correlation between weekly hours worked in Y13, and exam grades.

how many hours a week, outside of lessons does he spend studying?

Have you gone to Open days? Those often motivate students.

He can still get to university with those grades, but he may need to compromise on the university or take a course with a Foundation year.
Apply for courses with a mixture of entry requirements. If his actual grades are much better than his predicted grades, he can apply the next year

I have one similar! He's just doing his yr12 exams but imagine we might be in the same situation as you when the results come out.

I disagree with others about giving up the job... I think it teaches them so much about the real world and certainly over the summer holidays, gives them some structure. I won't be asking mine to give his up but I'm not sure what the answer is unfortunately.

My eldest did his a'levels last year and cut down on his sport and took holiday from work around his actual exams but otherwise, just had to be a bit more organised than others.

Could you afford to consider a tutor for an hour a week? There are plenty of students doing online tutoring very reasonably and it might just provide some focus.

Meet with his Head of sixth, I'm Hoy , we've plenty of y12s struggling ATM. Find out more from his teachers , engage with the school, get a study plan figured out .

There is an inverse correlation between working a job and grades, but only in excess of 10 hours apparently. Before that it can be helpful. I think you need to have a serious talk with him about sports psychology, what went wrong this time and what he is prepared to do to fix it. First find out if he understand what went wrong and how to improve on his exam grades. Some students who do well at GCSE with relatively little effort become a little complacent and think they can repeat the same effort levels for A-level, though this is incorrect. Especially for three subjects which are quite challenging and content heavy with actual thinking required.

Will he go through the checklists with you? For Geography for example, he could make notes on cards of each topic and then you could sit with the CGP or school text book and test his knowledge. They often have exam style questions at the end with answers. Doing past AS papers also helps - look at the mark schemes for the questions he didn't do so well on and you can see what the examiners are looking for.

Writing cards out embeds the knowledge but some kids find visual prompts work too. Now is the time to find the gaps. It will take hard work so he needs a plan - can he cut down hours on both work and sport's commitment for a while.

Forgot to say he needs to look at similar courses at universities where there might be flexibility with grades too. Have a plan B and C.

Before you panic, check with the school what the marking scheme was. At my ds's school, end of year 12 exams were marked as if they were A levels. So in your ds's case, if those exams had been actual A levels, he would have got CDE. And that's not bad with another year to go. You school may not be like that, but do check.

Which subject is which grade? Has he done his coursework for geography yet, and if so, how did he do with that?