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 in my early 20s - got AAC because I felt I had to pick a ‘hard’ subject (and didn’t do so well in it). All it meant was that I didn’t get my first choice uni.

If I could go back in time I’d pick another humanity subject - I’d have aced it. My advice would be do what you’re best at so you get good grades and can go to the best uni possible. Even one D/E grade can mean clearing/significantly lower quality uni. Me/my peers have found this is what really matters in early careers, the best jobs go to top tier grads. As you say, you can study politics and still become an accountant! I did Philosophy at uni and now work in a technical part of insurance.

I've had a chat with DS.

He's got his Computing assessment back - he got a high B, so that's a relief.

He also came back from college yesterday saying everyone he's spoken to has got a poor grade in the recent maths assessments, including the boy he sits next to, who got an 8 or 9 at GCSE.

He says the teacher won't repeat herself and sometimes he finds it hard to keep up with writing notes in class if he's not heard the first time.

The class is large compared to his other two subjects - nearly 30 as opposed to 8 or 9 students.

DS says he wants to stick with maths, not change, so I think it is going to be a case of finding a decent tutor.

A decent tutor will make a huge difference

It's good news that his third subject is going well. Now that we know it's computer science that's another good reason to stick at the maths. If he might study computer science at a higher level or pursue a related career they usually like to see maths A level with it.
Finding a good tutor will help with his maths A level but in addition to that he will need to do lots of extra practice outside of the lessons. My pupils find the text book questions are not sufficiently challenging to prepare them for the level of difficulty required in the exams. They need to practice exam style questions (sometimes found in the "mixed exercise" or "review exercise" in the book). There are lots of free websites where you can find these. My favourite is physicsandmathstutor.com

We use physicsandmathstutor for past papers too

DD needed an A in A level maths. Her assessments were variable in school

She used Uplearn on line. There are different levels of service (basic to one with 24/7 support). It goes through each topic for each board and does examples and then you do problems.

It was great for her - structured to th exact exam board. She spent hours working on it (she used 1.5 speed for explanations I think). She said that when she did the exam, it was the best prepared she had ever been for a maths paper.

I don't know current pricing but it was worth every penny for her to get the A she needed for uni.

Just another option

Just to add, we thought of a tutor but opted for the uplearn because explanation available through topics available at any point in the programme itself and she didn't have to wait week on week for support from a timetabled tutor session

Did he get a 6 with working, or a 6 when coasting?

If he got it working hard, then I really would change.
If he coasted, then there may be some scope for change.

Ds got a 7 at GCSE, with more ability than effort. At his A-level mocks (November/February) in Y13, he got D/E.

So he needed to put work in. We did have the advantage of dd1 who did a maths degree and was able to help, but this is what he did (approximately) in a week on top of what he was doing at school:

1 hour tutor session with Dd1. She would go through class work, and take one subject for which she'd set homework (~2 hours). She'd then mark it, and give him corrections.
He'd also do a paper, timed, as though he was doing it for real. Dd1 would mark it, and give him corrections to do. She'd also use that to choose a subject to go through with him.
Some of it was (he's autistic) that he didn't see the point in "playing the game". Dd1 would say to him something like "all you need to do is say A=45.23% and you get an extra mark". He'd say "I've done the maths - what's the point".

He continued through to Easter with not much improvement, then around Easter picked up to around a low C. But that encouraged him to start playing the game a little, and that brought him up a little bit more.
And he continued with doing the work with dd1 - by now two papers a week.

Yes, he moaned. Yes, how could we be so unfair to expect him to do this ridiculous amount of work... But on the day he got an A! On one paper he got 80% - up from less than 20%.

It was hard work for us as well as him.
Two things for him: Firstly we knew he'd coasted at GCSE (and all the way through A-level). I asked him what revision method he found best, and he said he'd never revised...
So we knew the ability was there.
Second, having dd1 who he does get on with so wanted to please her, so was prepared, if with bad grace at times, to do the work.

What I'd suggest is go and speak to his teacher. Do they feel honestly he's working all out (and did for GCSE)? Do they feel he didn't achieve his ability at GCSE?
Then talk to him. Tell him it's a work or nothing situation. Tell him he will have a tutor; he will be doing homework for this tutor. Get him some of the practice books so he has more questions. Set him a target of say 4 hours work on maths above what the school sets.

Find a tutor. That may be difficult, especially if he doesn't work well on line. Make sure it's a tutor who does A-level, is used to the syllabus etc. It will cost somewhere between £40-£80 an hour. Depending on your ds, then 2 hours may be better than 1.

He needs to decide if the work is worth it for him.

Dd1 was far more excited than ds was about his result, but I think ds, for the first time, realised the pleasure of going into an exam knowing that he could do well.