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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

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Original poster

A level mocks disaster (his words). Any advice for best way forward ?

29 replies

affinia · 21/03/2023 10:44

DS has always been a high achiever and when he got A star A A offers he didn't think anything of it. But his recent mock results are very disappointing. From a distance it doesn't look like he's on track at all. Even papers he thought he'd done well in were not good and he's always been good at assessing his performance.

He says the problem is exam technique and he's never really had to build up really good exam based revision schedules. He could always hold everything in his head and cram. This does not work for A levels as the content is too vast and he's now gone into total panic mode which isn't helping.

Does anyone have any advice on how to structure the last 2 months and how to talk him down?

OP posts:

KittyMcKitty · 21/03/2023 10:47

A levels are hard! My dd in year 13 has gone from finding gcse chemistry a walk in the park to A level chemistry being a never ending slog!

what subjects is he doing and what did he get in his mocks? (Did they sit full papers and are they using the June 2019 exams for grade boundaries?)

KittyMcKitty · 21/03/2023 11:04

Also how much revision did her actually do for his mocks and what sort of revision was it?

my dd had mocks in January and has probably been revising proper since February.

Im sure his school will have talked to them about different revision techniques / planning etc.

WarningToTheCurious · 21/03/2023 11:04

Has he got access to past papers together with the marking schemes so that he can see what is expected to be in the answer for each question?

Seeline · 21/03/2023 11:13

Which subjects?

What are school doing/saying?

MarshaBradyo · 21/03/2023 11:15

What did he get for mocks?

senua · 21/03/2023 11:20

Isn't this the point of mocks? To frighten them into proper study and revision.

If teachers can't give advice then get some tutors. Ask for (copies) of the papers back so that he/they can see precisely what went not-to-plan.

Cheer up. It's best that he gets this shock now - when family and school are around to support - than when at University - when he is on his own.

bguthb90 · 21/03/2023 11:48

On what basis did the school give him predictions of A*, A A ? Was it not based on some form of examination?

Original poster

affinia · 21/03/2023 11:51

He did revise but focused far too much on his weakest subject, maths, to the detriment of the others. His coursework deadline was just before mocks. He didn't make much progress in his maths at all and then did really poorly on his physical geography where the feedback was his knowledge was really good but he wasn't answering questions and was providing too much irrelevant detail.

The problem now is picking himself up and making use of the time left!

OP posts:

Original poster

affinia · 21/03/2023 11:54

His predictions are 3 x A star!! His school is pretty tough with predictions.

Things have just gone badly this year. His first year was fine hence the predictions. Mocks were late Feb/early March and so this is the first time we've seen what's happened. Parents evening in Jan was fine. No concerns expressed.

OP posts:

Lovetotravel123 · 21/03/2023 11:55

Easter revision course with a private provider?

KittyMcKitty · 21/03/2023 11:55

So he’s doing Maths, Geograohy and ?

is his geography NEA complete?

basically he needs to do past papers - there are loads easily accessible (Physics and Maths Tutor has squillions).

geography he needs to respond to the key words - his teachers will have taught him this - and answer the question they ask.

Has he made a revision timetable? He needs to print out the course specs to check he’s included everything.

Ehat did he actually get in his mocks?

KittyMcKitty · 21/03/2023 11:56

What sort of revision did he actually do?

vamptable · 21/03/2023 11:58

I actually pretty much bombed all my real first year exams, not just the mocks, and still was able to pull it up with re-sits to get into my first choice uni. I had loads of friends that were the same

Just let him know that A levels are tough, that it's really common for people to have a bit of a wobble at first, and that he is capable of recovering the situation. The teachers will be able to give him some good advice in terms of where he lost marks and what he could do with focusing on. He will still be able to get those grades OP- just needs to pull his socks up in between now and the exams!

Somanycats · 21/03/2023 11:59

We went from D's in mocks to a* in real exams. But then ds did no revision for the mocks because why would he, they are not important.
So your boy needs now to buy every revision guide for his syllabus. Work through to a schedule and ensure he know (and understands!) every fact contained within. He should do every past paper that exists until he is getting 100%.
Lots of schools put their mocks on line so he should do any he can find if they come with a marking guide.
He should definitely read the example answers that the boards put up, super helpful for arts based subjects - shows the type of sentences construction that trigger marks etc. He should read the guidelines given to marking examiners which are freely available online.
If he is focused and diligent, he should definitely not go into the school based revision sessions which are too generic and can't take into account where he himself is in his revision. He should stay at home to revise if that would be best for him.
AAB B best results in the ( low achieving) school.

vamptable · 21/03/2023 12:00

Also is he just looking over his notes, or doing lots of past papers? Everyone I know that did well pretty much exhausted the bank of past papers and found that by far the most useful

OffTheTableMaurice · 21/03/2023 12:01

Agreed with past papers and their mark schemes, go through questions one by one, don't do the whole paper then check, look after each question and write in what he should have put in a different pen colour. Where I am it is called green for growth that is so they remember what to add.

There are lots of walk through videos on YouTube for all subjects for essay structure etc but he should have been taught this in his class too.

Maths, go back over the work he did in books, it will refresh his memory of how he did it. Maths is always a tough one and those on 7s at GCSE are most likely to get D/C grade unless they put in a lot of work from the start. It isn't too late to turn this around. He needs to speak to his teachers for specific feedback.

How much does he want this? He has time every day after sixth form, plus weekends and the Easter holiday.

user73 · 21/03/2023 12:05

Don't worry too much. DS is predicted Astar Astar A and got BBC in his mocks in January. His teachers are still confident he's on track to meet his predicted grades and its given him a good kick up the bum.

Pythonesque · 21/03/2023 12:15

A big issue for this year's A level students is that they didn't get a "normal" GCSE experience. Depending on their school, they may have had a lot of assessment, but it was more spread out and rolling topics or whatever. The finer details of exam technique and focussed revision, some of them are only now discovering they don't know. DS had a mock paper that threw him completely, he didn't know what he was supposed to write down for the answers in that subject. His teacher went through it afterwards and confirmed he knew it all, it's just understanding how to answer the questions, on paper.

Maths at this point is I think mainly about practice and more practice, especially if he's got strong predictions (which would imply he can do the stuff, even if it is his weaker subject overall. DD was a bit like that).

I hope he can get some focussed help with what answers are needed for particular questions, and how to use the mark schemes etc to his advantage in working that out.

Original poster

affinia · 21/03/2023 12:23

Thanks all. Yes NEA are completed thankfully. He is committed to working, that's not really the problem. Its working effectively.

I don't know the exact results, this all came out last night. From what he said Maths maybe a C, Geography A for human C/D for physical - he didn't finish the paper because he was writing too much. His 3rd subject is fine as long as he schedules sufficient time.

The problem is lack of actual exam preparation rather than just knowing facts. They still haven't finished the syllabus at school when I think they should now be doing exam technique and past papers.

OP posts:

senua · 21/03/2023 12:30

feedback was his knowledge was really good but he wasn't answering questions and was providing too much irrelevant detail.
He needs to play the game. It's not about the knowledge, it's about passing the exam - they are different things.
Number One exam technique is RTQ - read the question! Particularly, look at the verb in the question - is it explain, describe, evaluate, compare, etc.
Also, from your update, allocating time according marks awarded is crucial. The 80/20 pareto rule applies: you will get 80% or the marks in the first 20% of answering (OK, probs not 80/20 but you get the idea). If time is limited, it is more effective to start the next question than finesse the previous one. Perfection is the enemy of good.

ittakes2 · 21/03/2023 12:58

If you can afford it get him tutors for the exact right advice.

WarningToTheCurious · 21/03/2023 14:55

It sounds as if he knows his stuff on physical geography but didn't get the time management right. Knowing how long to spend on each question / element and sticking to that and keeping everything relevant will be key.

vamptable · 21/03/2023 14:59

I really struggled with this and I found what helped me is (very quickly) writing a bullet point list of the points I needed to make to get the marks immediately after reading the question. If I didn't do this, I would often get off track (going into too much depth, as your son is) and therefore not have time to get them all down. I think some people also kind of panic and just start writing hoping the ideas will come to them as they do along.

It is all about writing the correct buzz words in essay based subjects a lot of the time. Tell him to read the question, take a couple of moments to really think, plan and then start writing

vamptable · 21/03/2023 15:05

Not sure if it's the same now (I did my A levels 8 years ago) but I know previously you could gain a few more marks if the marker could see a lot of key words and relevant information in your plan. Its still written on the page after all and it shows the examiner that you have the knowledge, just perhaps ran out of time. Worth a go if that's not what he's already doing

WarningToTheCurious · 21/03/2023 15:29

Even if you run out of time, it’s worth listing what you would have written about (might have had to do this myself in a big exam when I messed up my timings - still passed no problem).

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