Year 13 2023/2024 - General support thread

[Rollergirl11]

It’s now the time for our young adults to sit their final year at sixth form/college. Everyone is welcome!

@MirandaWest yes if my DC was going on a school trip overseas (that I was paying for), I’d be at that meeting!!

Morning everyone,
Only ever posted on this thread once but I am always reading your posts.

I am feeling so sad fir my daughter she is in year 13 doing A level biology, chemistry and Business.

She recieved her mock results yesterday which were so low and we have no idea how or why. She studies very hard and are more than happy with how much effort she puts in. Her predicted grades were never that goid but she didn't even meet those in ger mocks.
Her results were biology E, Chemistry E, Business D.
She is taking a gap year but then hoping to go to uni, obviously eith those results it will have to be a foundation course to start.

We know she can do so much better but guess I am just looking for some reassurance and advice.
Thank you in advance.

I should add my daughter got 7's in sciences in her GCSE's but has struggled from day 1 with A levels.

@Lbet - that's really tough. It's awful for dc if they're working really hard and not seeing results. If it were me and my dc then I'd start by setting up meetings with their teachers to discuss. If predicteds were higher then is there a disconnect between class work and assessed work? Are the low grades due to lack of knowledge, application or exam technique? Once you've got some answers then you can go from there. Best of luck. There's still time.

Hey@lbet, welcome to the thread. Sorry for you and your DD. Were these mock results much lower than her predicteds and what you were expecting? As @QueenMabby suggests the first thing I would do is speak to her teachers and find out why the discrepancy. If she can determine the areas of weakness/gaps in knowledge she can then work on improving those areas. Do her college offer intervention sessions that she could join? Failing that and if finances allow could you possibly look in to a tutor?

Sorry to hear about your dd @Lbet, that must be disheartening. What does she want to study at university? The previous posters have given good advice and I would say maybe she needs to rethink whether university is the way forward? If she wants to do a single science degree, I think the grades will be three C's minimum.

If she wants to do something health care related, how about looking at more vocational qualifications or careers such as occupational therapy, speech therapist etc.

@Lbet my DD struggled with A levels in Y12. At parents evening in January of Y12, all three subject teachers said the same thing - that she was struggling to make the transition from GCSE to A level. It took most of Y12 before it clicked what she needed to do. DD has always been the same - from ballet classes aged 5 to phonics to 11+ to music exams, it takes her a while to get it.

But she does get it. She goes a roundabout way to get it so it takes longer. Her dear flute teacher, the only one that’s ever really “got” her, with zillions of years teaching experience, explained it to me really clearly. Because she doesn’t go from A to B in her learning, she zigzags all over the shop hitting walls on the way and readjusting, it takes her longer. (Upside is that it builds resilience and problem solving in a way normal learners don’t have.) Once she’s got it, she really gets it. It’s been the same with A levels - from D predicted for her uni subject in January to A* and highest mock result in the year in the summer.

With A levels she has found it’s not just about learning content, it’s about practicing the questions and getting feedback. Can your DDs subject teachers give her questions and feedback? It definitely doesn’t sound like an effort/application issue and as it’s across all subjects it does sound similar to my DD.

@Lbet oh that is hard. I think she needs to meet with her subject teachers for their views and look at what she can do to improve. Has she been practising past papers? That is the best thing she can do, but the often leave doing that until after mocks so maybe not done many yet. By the way though, foundation course is not a bad option, really good!

My dd has her last mock today - not done much work for it at all (D&T, her best subject) but doesn't seem stressed - so not expecting a good result. But she did get her 3 personal statements done last night and the school are doing her UCAS reference today so hopefully submitting soon. She has been utterly lovely since the debacle that was Monday morning! She also attended an online open day for one of her UCAS choices yesterday - with only 7 attendees, and she asked a question, it would have been out of her comfort zone a few months ago, so it's good to see her developing some confidence there.

It’s hard isn’t it. We all want them to succeed and do well and be happy. Nits so hard to see them disappointed.

It’s worth thinking about what the predicted grades are and asking the teachers if they are aspirational and will be a real stretch, or are genuinely within reach. For some students, D and E are good outcomes. For students starting A level sciences with grades 6/7, a D may well be the highest grade they can get to, even with lots of work because it’s a big step up. This can be especially so if Maths isn’t especially strong. What was GCSE Maths?

Id think there are 2 things to be checking with teachers - what is actually achievable for your DD, (A possibility is that her expectations might need to be lowered a bit) and then what can she be doing to achieve her very best.

Perhaos she has only had results and not the feedback yet? It’s important to understand where she lost marks and what is needed to improve. Sometimes, for students who have a lot to improve, it can be hard for them to fully understand what the areas of weakness are…because if they knew that,they might well have addressed them. So being tenacious in seeking feedback is really important.

Often threads on MN seem dominated by people predicted Astar grades and going for top unis. Most students won’t be getting those grades and Cs and Ds are perfectly normal and for lots are a real achievement. So finding out what’s realistic is part of moving forward.

Hope she gets some useful feedback OP and then feels she can move forward. It’s not over yet. These are just mocks and there is def time for improvement.

We may need a new part 2 thread soon!

@Lbet sorry to hear this. You've got some really good, thoughtful advice already, (what a lovely, supportive thread!) but here's a few thoughts.

As the falling below expected occurred not just in her science subjects but also in business, which I presume is more essay and opinion based, that suggests the issue is a systemic one for you DD. It does sound unfortunately given her GCSE grades that she has found the jump to A Levels generically too much and isn't ready.

What is key to finding out is whether she's not ready because:

-she got stressed and under-performed;
-she's a slow burner;

-A levels were always going to be too much for her academically;
-A levels were too much for her on an emotional maturity level in that she wasn't able to be as self-motivated and focused as she needs to be;
-she was (and this is a trite phrase) working hard but not smart; and/or
-she's not being honest with herself about how much revising and how hard she actually was doing. Looking at her coursework marks over the past 1.5 years is a good thing to do.

I believe A Levels are too much at that age and that the system of applying on predicted grades even before you have your mocks results is bad.
the years 16-18 are such a time of growth.

My DD had to take a year out for health reasons during her A levels and the silver lining is that she's so much more emotionally mature and therefore has a much better work ethic. She really wasn't that focused and working hard enough when she started A levels at 16 (she is ND so that's a factor), it's an age where there is so much competing for your attention too. So I really feel for you and your DD.

@Lbet just reiterating that she has time to improve a lot before the exams if she can find out how. DS went up 5 grades in total from A level mocks to the real thing.

I don't know anything about chemistry or business but have had two DC do biology and the key thing is the past papers and the mark scheme. So look at / understand / learn a topic and then try some past paper questions. Mark them according to the mark scheme - our exam board is very specific about what's needed to get the marks, even to individual words and phrases. Once you have done a few, it becomes much clearer what they want. Biology is an absolute bugger for knowing and understanding the content well, but ending up with a poor mark ime.

Yes good point about having lots of time to approve. As I said earlier in the thread, my DD doesn't have her mocks until the end of March, and while she is happy about because she feels having them closer will help her more, it doesn't give a lot of time to course correct. A month or two makes a huge difference at this stage when they are getting to the point of consolidating what they've already learnt and focusing on exam technique.

That crept up on us! I’ll start a new thread.

New thread here people as this one is almost full. All welcome!

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/further_education/4987989-year-13-2024-general-support-thread-part-2

Thanks for the new thread! Can we finish this one up first before moving over?

Ds is back at school today after his mocks. We have parents" eve in a couple of weeks so should get grades before then.

We had a good sort out of his work drawers the other day. He had piles and piles of completed past papers so he's definitely been doing some work. Many weren't marked though so I'm not sure how effective that work has been!

DD was intending to sort out her folders on Tuesday ie her day off between mocks and back to school work. She woke up at 12 noon that day - must have needed the sleep!

Thanks for the new thread @Rollergirl11 . Ds is half way through mocks now and feels two of his subjects have gone fairly well but he's continuing to make 'silly' mistakes in maths. I've advised him to have a week or so break then start plugging the knowledge gaps. I think it'll be difficult to motivate him to study more though.

I can't remember when they advise to start doing past papers. Can anyone advise on that as ds found doing them, marking and looking at the examiner comments very useful for GCSE?

Thanks for new thread @Rollergirl11

Dd's last mock was "best exam yet. knew all the answers so was just a bit of fun really" - she's not that arrogant really, is teasing us, but she's happy (lacks confidence on everything else) - is a subject she just gets which helps loads, and the written paper (one only) will be only 50% of the final mark.

But she realises she needs to pick it up for the other subjects, as do all her friends - peer pressure works so much better than nagging and her classmates are mostly great. The less helpful ones seem to have dropped into the background recently.

And the UCAS application is ready to submit to school, reference has been done, so she will do that tomorrow and it will go in either then or Monday. Will be relieved to see it go!

DD got back one of her mocks today - it wasn't the paper from last June so she and another friend had done it before (think it was June 2022 paper) and they both got very high marks which is reasonable. They did tell their teacher afterwards 😃

She and a couple of friends are going out this evening - I seem to have drawn the short straw as the dad of one of the friends and taking them and I am picking up. Maybe I should try and outsource to DS instead 😃

You should definitely do that! I have to do all the late taxis and if it's a weeknight, have complete cotton wool brain the next day!

Usually DH would do picking up but he’s had to go on a work trip so down to me this week!

DD and I have set 11pm as a cut off point so is fine

I must admit I hate the taxi part of parenting teens.
Feel bad as my dad often used to collect me from nightclubs at 2am when it was easy to get in underage back in the nineties. Really did not appreciate that as much as I should have done.