DS failing A-Level maths, too late to change?

[falalalalalalalallama]

DS has just completed the first term of A-Level and it looks like he made either the wrong choice or something has gone very wrong.

He's done two assessments in maths and got an E in both. Meanwhile, he has an A in the assessment for his other subject and is predicted an A - this is a humanities subject. (Third subject hasn't done an assessment yet.)

He's a very bright and articulate young man. He's on the spectrum and doesn't have good organisation. He says also didn't realise he was doing so badly in maths, although it turns out he often wasn't doing his homework.

I feel like history is repeating itself. I was a bright child with (at the time undiagnosed) ADHD and I flunked A-Level maths despite having a lot of promise, because it's so easy to get behind and then everything builds on what comes before so it's easy to lose the thread.

He'll have to work hard to catch up and he says he wants to do this, but I feel he is being unrealistic as he has no plan for how to actually do this, and since getting the low grade he's focused on his extra curricular stuff, not maths.

He's interested in STEM based careers, but he excels in humanities. He's well read and well informed and writes and researches well.

I suggest changing subject but he said it's too late.

I suggested a tutor but he said he doesn't want one.

The universities he wants to go to ask for results like 3 As. That seems totally unrealistic now, although I know it would absolutely be doable for him if he was studying all humanities subjects.

If he's going to stick with maths I think I am going to insist he tries a tutor.

Are there any other options?

WWYD?

I am going to talk to his 6th form college, but I would really appreciate any advice.

I'm not familiar with current GCSE grades but the college I worked at some years ago rarely allowed students with below an A at GCSE to do A level. The statistics showed that the chance of staying the course and passing A level maths (let alone getting a high grade) were very low for those embarking on A level maths with a B at GCSE. It sounds as though your DS was ill advised to take A level maths. Given his mixed attitude to work I doubt if starting a new subject now is feasible, always assuming the school would allow it. Would he consider starting again in September with a better fit of subjects?

I think a university subject target and then the grade requirements might be a good starting point.
Assuming he wants to go.
I think stick with maths and get a tutor might be sensible.
Though my son's friend moved from science to history in Feb and got a B. He was very motivated.

Did you say your son wanted to do computing at uni? Which unis has he been looking at, as a lot seem to require maths A level. My eldest is doing Comp Science at uni, and there are maths modules in it, so it does help to have a good maths background.

Have you looked forensically at your son’s maths assessments to see where he is losing marks? My dc has dyslexia, and in year 11, we found that he was having difficulty transcribing from one line to the one below, due to misremembering abstract symbols in short term memory. (And losing lits of marks). Having extra time to enable him to double check everything, and correct mistakes (where a + gets transcribed as a - in the line below due to working memory) really helped him.

In terms of adhd, I think quite a common issue is being unable to really focus or revise until the adrenaline kicks in, which is usually one or two days before an exam. This is no good for maths!! The best way to learn and revise maths is to be practising regularly - going over concepts, practice questions, and past papers again and again.

One of my other dc has suspected adhd, and the way we are getting over this in the short term is by getting him a tutor, who can go over concepts, and can get them doing practice qu’s. Sadly we have realised it is the only way to get our likely-adhd dc over the line. As we are in an exam year, we have increased to 5 sessions per fortnight (for two subjects). It is essentially outsourcing the hardest bits of the revision (the drive / focus) - but it seems to be the only way…

It might be worth exploring everything you can online as well - there are some very good offerings for A-level maths resources on YouTube, he may get on better with videos rather than textbooks.

Body doubling is another thing - some with adhd find it easier to focus in a room with someone else in..

Best course of action is an open and honest meeting with the college and his teacher

Oh gosh I think this is your issue. A level maths is HARD, at our school they only allow 7s and above to even take it. I suspect the absolute best he'd be aiming for is maybe a C, so he's not actually that far behind. To go from a 6 at GCSE and expect anything above a C at a level ua highly unlikely. Personally, I'd be discussing how to drop it and replace somehow. He clearly has amazing passion for his other subjects and if you don't like it, and aren't naturally gifted at it, maths is brutal. I got an old school A in maths gcse, the school tried to put me off doing the A level and I came out OK, but not as good as my others and I hated every step of the way I wish I'd been able to replace it or drop it!

Many years ago, I dropped maths ALevel after a year as I found it so hard. I picked up another A level the year after and finished a year later than my friends. It wasn’t a big deal as I had friends in the year below, there’s no time limit on these things- I didn’t actually go to uni until I was 22.

A level maths is, apparently, ridiculously complicated. If he is struggling now, I suspect he always will. I struggled with A level biology after getting As at gcse. I really regret not ditching it and picking up another humanities subject.

DS1 got a good 7 at GCSE and A level maths almost finished him off. He came out with a B after being heavily tutored, and was lucky it wasn’t to the detriment of his other subjects which took a real back seat.

OP my DC also doing A level with a 6. Was adamant he wanted to do it, had got a 7 in his mock and whole year group’s maths results had tumbled to well below national average. I told him the risks, but wanted to support him to do what he enjoyed, come what may. In a new school now. Is there any context to your DC’s 6?

No formal assessments yet. In class tests going ok with 70% plus. Target grade of a B. Realistic about what a challenge that will be.

Have you considered Uplearn? Son’s school have paid for all of them to get it and DC really enjoys it. I think your only other option is to resit whole of year 12, unless he is motivated enough to start a subject now.

Maths A-level is ridiculous IMO, it's not just knowing the stuff - it's working out how to apply that knowledge to the seriously complicated questions they ask.

Then even if you get 70% overall as ds did, you still only get a B. Oh and he got a 9 at GCSE and had done FM GCSE too and got a 7 in that.

I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless they needed it tbh.

I guess I'm going against the tide here but he's in his first term, I feel it's a bit harsh to be basically telling him he's going to fail. He has admitted he's not been keeping up with the required practice so if he is keen to continue and will work with a tutor to catch up then that's what I'd do. He enjoys maths and wants to study maths.

Btw I got a B at GCSE maths back in 1992 (before A* even existed, I'm that old), and I got a C at A level. Which I was extremely pleased with and which coupled with my A in English Literature, and B in psychology, allowed me to get into my chosen university. My life was not over!

My eldest got A*, B, B, C in his A Levels, got into a Russell Group Uni and starts his PGCE at Cambridge in September. You don't need to be scoring all As to be successful. Relax a bit.

A level maths is just an insane amount of work. I think in the UK there's a perception that people are either good at maths or not good at maths, but in fact it is very teachable/learnable IF you are willing and able to put in the hours.

One of my dc did both maths and FM, having got a 9 in GCSE maths. Said dc was not a natural mathematician, but was absolutely determined to make it work because she wanted to do Physics at uni. She put in absolutely tons of practice, like literally hours every night - several years later we're still using the stash of lined paper with scrawled maths notes and practice questions to light the woodburner. She did in fact get A* in both maths and FM, but reached peak maths during the first year of a Physics degree, and changed course quite dramatically to a humanities-based subject.

If your dc is not a natural mathematician, AND is not able/willing to put in heroic quantities of work, then he would be much better off pulling the plug on the maths and focussing on the subjects he's doing well in, and either add a new subject now (working very hard to catch up) or do two now and see if he can slot in a third subject in Y13.

I’m a maths teacher and my husband teaches Alevel maths. A grade 6 is no where near high enough to do A level maths. A 7 at the minimum. The jump from GCSE to Alevel is insane. If he is getting an E now I would say it is highly unlikely he will get an A. You wouldn’t expect a grade 6 student to get an A anyways. The stuff he is doing now is the easiest part. It gets much much harder. I would say switch before it is too late. They may allow it now but I would say this will be the last opportunity otherwise he will have missed too much of the other course. Unless he is going to study every night, get a tutor and do all of his homework, I just can’t see how this will improve.

Just to flag to recent posters, OP has updated that her DS actually got a 7 at GCSE.

I still think it's better to rethink tho. As my ds found and others note, the maths gets a lot harder. And that's broadly not the case (in the same way anyway) with, say Eng lit. I'm absolutely not saying Eng lit is easy but actually as your skills develop you produce better work.

OP read this thread. Basically if you think he's going to get an A in maths he is going to be bucking a trend. It's very unlikely and he's not got off to a good start.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/5146609-yearly-warning-not-to-take-a-level-maths-with-less-than-a-7-at-gcse

The jump from GCSE maths to A Level is huge. Has he changed his education provider or stayed on at his school's sixth form? I did really well in gcse maths, got an A*, i took maths as it was one of my favourite subjects but started to fail my Alevels getting D, E ,U's all the time. I firmly believe it was because I changed from my GCSE school to another 6th form as my original school didnt have a 6th. My gcse teacher was amazing, young, full of energy and understanding, encouraging and would explain in ways I understood. The 6th form teacher read from a book and copied formula onto the blackboard, no explanations, no assistance.

Perhaps if its a different school with different teaching styles that may have had an effect? If hes not engaged he won't be keeping on top of work or paying attention in class or maybe just not getting a good enough explanation.. teachers make a huuuuge difference. If this is the case a tutor may help.

If hes interested in STEM subjects at uni, lots of them insist on X amount ucas points including maths or else a foundation year. Persevering may be necessary.

I would discuss with the school if he can change to a humanity and you’ll have weekly tutor to cover the missing term.

re: 6 at GCSE.

My son’s school only recommends maths A level for those who got an 8 or 9. If you got a 7 they warn you that you’ll have to work every very hard to keep up. Extra assessments etc. They will not allow with a 6 or less.

i think even with a tutor / change of attitude it’s going to be impossible to recover. I’d be livid with the school for the lack of support eg not highlighting it was a bad choice / not altering you when earlier assignments not done.

CORRECTION!!! He got 7 for maths at GCSE not a 6!!!

My mistake, sorry people!! (See post above)

Yes, he's at a 6th form college separate to his old school as they didn't have one.

This is the thing - is IS a natural mathmetician - or he was, at least. It was one of his strongest subjects for years. He had a couple of duff teachers a while back and fell behind, but I thought he'd caught up recently.

He enjoys algebra and picks concepts up quickly. Where he's failing, as far as I can tell, is putting in the time to make it stick, which is especially important as his memory isn't too great.

Problem is some children can get 7+ at GCSE maths without much effort but few will be able to get A/B doing that at A level.

The vast majority will struggle to get A/B if they aren't willing to do 5-10 hours of independent learning a week including lots of practice questions.

My son realised this after the first term in year 12.

If he is diagnosed ADHD and is not taking medication, I would say that this is the time to consider it - or if he is, review the dosage. Both my ADHDers report (and I have seen for myself) tremendous improvement in executive function - which is what A level (and university) students really need to succeed.

Two other things:

a. Yes, try a tutor to at least help him to catch up. We've had excellent results from tutoring.

b. You mentioned that he is interested in Engineering. Maths is an important component of most Engineering degrees and will be needed for entry and, should be decide to opt for Computer Science, the best universities are much more interested in good Maths results than taking Computing for A levels.

https://sites.google.com/view/tlmaths/home/a-level-maths/teaching-order-year-1?authuser=0
https://www.drfrost.org/browse-courses.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_doubling

It is better to have this wake up call now then in a year’s time.

There 2 options. And they are not mutually exclusive.

1. You make maths tutoring compulsory. He takes the homework he missed to a tutor over the holidays and you find out what the tutor thinks about his potential. I’d suggest 4 lessons of an hour each.
2. You ask the school if he can change. When does term break up? Can you write and say you are concerned and would like to know the options before the end of term?

Maths A level has one of the sharpest drop offs from GCSE. A child with a 7 might think they are strong at Maths, but it’s unlikely they will get above a B at A level and some will fail. It’s an intellectually demanding subject.

Edited as have just seen you changed it to a 7.
Mine also got a 7 and did struggle for the first term in Y12 but had some help from a friend / maths grad to get him back up to speed and is fine now (fingers crossed!!)