Maths A-level, y12, but if advice please

[FourTeaFallOut]

I wonder if anyone could help?

My ds is taking Maths and Further Maths at A-Level. He seems to consistently get better marks on FM tests and tripping up on questions in Maths which he knows the content of but isn't picking up the marks.

As a result he's got a better predicted grade in FM than Maths, A and B respectively. He's not crying into his cornflakes about it or anything but he wants to study computer science at degree level and, obviously, it's fiercely competitive.

I've got no real way to help him here, this is like another language to me now - I hit my ceiling at long division - and I wondered if I could get some advice from the more knowledgeable contingent here?

I've got the resources to get a tutor to help but I'm not really sure what to ask for to make it a useful rather than just expensive exercise.

So, at the risk of revealing full ignorance here, is exam technique a thing in Maths that can be taught and practiced - or is it just content? Am I jumping too quickly to help here or is it a matter of a stitch in time? Why would he be doing better in FM than Maths, isn't the former meant to be trickier (equally timetabled, fwiw) and does that suggest why or what he needs to do to tighten up the latter?

Most schools dot maths in year 12 and fm in year 13. Is your school not doing this?

No, they run concurrently, with equal class time in both years.

Ask his teacher. They’ll be able to give you more detail of where he seems to be going wrong and whether a tutor would help.

our school runs maths and further maths as 2 separate options too so they do both equally over the 2 years.

Yeah, I guess I could do that 😁. I feel completely removed from his teachers since he shifted to an out of town sixth form college and didn't really want to tread on his toes. I suppose I could drop an email.

Not at all the case IME. In fact I’ve only heard of this on MN.

Yy op I would take to his teacher. Maybe the FM work is at the easier end… tho even typing that it sounds ridiculous

Would he ask his teacher? Without sounding rude, he may understand the reply better.

😅 Yes, don't worry I can take it, I think he'd understand the reply better too. However, I think he might be reluctant to bring up the possibility of using a tutor directly with his own teacher.

We have the Christmas holidays to nut it out. But I think the general advice to start with more information is good.

He doesn’t need to mention a tutor to his teacher; just a general question about where and how he can improve.

My son is in year 13. He’s just doing maths but they definitely started the course with the hardest topic! He has much better grades this year in mocks than he did in year 12 which is normal for the course I believe.
I remember doing maths and further maths at A level myself many years ago and finding further maths easier too. It’s different topics and were easier to understand as a one off. The pure maths took a bit longer to get my head around!

Lots do them concurrently, my DDs did. Not sure how it's relevant anyway other than enabling a more direct comparison.

Anyway, OP - one possibility for your DS relatively underperforming in maths might be the old 'show your workings' thing. They really do have to do this.
The other is that some kids will make more silly mistakes (plus instead of minus etc) on questions they find easier and dash off more quickly. And then what can happen is a combination of these two factors - if they make a silly mistake but have shown your working then they can still get some marks whereas if they haven't they'll get nothing.

My DD apparently got better as the maths got harder in school, I think these factors were part of it.

I’ve just remembered that at a parents eve the maths teacher asked DD1 if she was going to continue maths A level into yr13 or stop at AS. She was planning on taking the full A level. We were both worried for a second that she was implying that DD should stop at AS but it was quite the opposite. The teacher said ‘good; she’ll do much better in yr13 where it all starts to come together’. She got an A so it did come together. So maybe there’s an element if this with your DS too. He defo should ask the teacher.

Thanks all. I'll ask him to speak to his teacher and see where we go from there. He does tend to do everything quickly and it could well be an issue of racing through exams to create more time for the challenging questions. I guess we'll find out.

As an aside, we don't seem to have any parents evening scheduled on the school calendar- is that still a school obligation at this level or could they have opted not to have them?

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@FourTeaFallOut "tripping up on questions in Maths which he knows the content of but isn't picking up the marks."

He needs to go back over those papers and identify why he didn't get the marks. Is it not showing working out, silly errors, bad handwriting etc. At my son's sixth form once all the papers/assessments are marked the whole class goes back over the entire paper. The teacher knows which questions some of them got wrong so they skip any the whole class got right. They use a different colour pen so that later looking back for revision they can see what the need the next time.

Has your son got those papers in his possession? Are they in his folder at college? Can he bring them home and look back at where he is going wrong? Ds2 is year 13, they do maths first then FM. So to help him, once a few months has passed I go through the paper, find the ones he hasn't got full marks on and scan in the paper and provide him with the question again. I know this sounds like something Ds should do himself but if he sees the answer it rejogs his memory so it isn't a true test for him and I have time to do it.

I have never attended a parents' evening at sixth form because if your child is doing well, attends class, arrives on time then there is nothing to tell you of benefit. They use the slots for those who need guidance and motivation. We do get 4 reports a year though with end of year 12 having the predicted grade on based on assessments, year 12 exams, homework hand in and attitude in class. There is also a grade for their attitude to learning and overall attitude with reference to the college ethos. State sixth form.

Ds1 is at Durham in his final year doing Computer Science so any questions feel free to message me.

Thanks @lightthetable He does have the old papers at home. They definitely go over the papers but I'm not sure if they correct answers as they go along -I'll ask.

The school had regular parent evenings up till last year but it seems to have adopted the more hands off approach you describe in your ds's sixth form. We haven't had a report yet but they reshuffle projected grades with each term's assessed paper.

I really appreciate your offer to help with advice. I feel completely redundant in guiding ds, who is far smarter and more ambitious than I ever have been, but I'm still desperate not to let him down.

@FourTeaFallOut well firstly, you aren't going to let him down as you are already reaching out for advice when he is in year 12 which is brilliant. The sooner you know stuff the more time there is for him. This is how to ace maths or any A level subject is not to just move on after tests but learn from them. I will PM you the rest over computer science so as not to derail this thread from maths.

Does he find the maths a level easy and is making silly mistakes? It really is unusual to do better in FM than maths, the content in maths a level is easy by comparison.

They often used to do this when modular exams could be resat, so a weaker y12 result could be improved in y13. Some cover the Maths content first then FM but all exams taken in y13.

Yes exam technique is absolutely a thing at maths and FM a level

The questions are often longer and you have to show the steps you are taking.

It takes a lot of students a while to get their head round it as at gcse it tends to be shorter questions and you can get away with not writing much down,

I don't know if he'd say either were easy but I think that's because he found GCSEs a breeze and so the content and the volume of work has been a step up in all his subjects. I know he prefers his FM teacher but I don't think that's the tipping point.

It's interesting that handwriting was mentioned earlier because that is a real challenge for him, so that might be causing issues again. Would there be any reason to think maths would require more written work than FM?

It's good to know exam technique could be the thing too. Instinctively, I feel like this might be the issue but I don't know yet.

Anyway, I don't have many answers right now but I have better questions to ask now, so thanks for your help.

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet but one term in the difference might be between which modules they're doing in maths and fm rather than maths and fm overall. Eg if the maths this term is calculus but the FM has kicked off with mechanics.

Given you mention handwriting...
Is he finding the maths easy, not writing down his working out, and then getting minimal marks if he makes a mistake?
Whereas the FM, he is needing to put in some working out, so getting credit even if the end answer isn't right?

I wouldn’t worry too much. My DC got A* in FM and a B in Maths and still got accepted onto an honours MSc Engineering degree course in a top 10 University. Computer science is more competitive and as a result of lots of computer science graduates being churned out, there are not enough jobs for them all so wages are stagnating.

My DC initially wanted to do Computer Science but after looking at course modules on different degree courses found that engineering looked to be more fun and there is a massive shortage of engineers so they’ve gone for Engineering. They are in their first year and so far the maths has all been FM and how to apply it.