Ds didn't see 5 questions on maths paper 1 and has missed his A by 7 marks. What would you do?

[AguaSinGas]

Ds thought he'd reached the end of the paper at Q10. There were 5 more questions. I contacted school as soon as he got home (he realised when he overheard students in the bus talking about questions he hadn't seen). School checked immediately that he didn't have a faulty paper. He didn't.

We knew his A star was lost, but remained hopeful for a A (based on conversations with his maths department who said that even if the grade boundary shifted upwards by 5 points, which was their feeling it could do, he could scrape the A. The boundary went up by 10 points. Had their boundary prediction been correct, he would have indeed just scraped the A)

He has lost his uni place as the A in maths was a hard line.

He got 3As. And a B in maths.

His marks per paper breakdown are:
Paper 1: 55/100
Paper 2: 65/100
Paper 3 69/100

Raw score 189, A boundary 196.

He can: apply to see his scripts. Or ask for a review. Or move on.

He's spoken to the uni, who have said no based on the B. He wants to retake the maths and reapply for 2024.

But we've been discussing whether we should get the scripts and just see if those 7 marks could be found in a review. We know 7 marks is a lot to find in a review.

We found out on results day that the school applied for special consideration but it was rejected by the exam board. We didn't know they'd done that.

What would you do?

If he was an A star all the way through for maths I wouldn't advise my child to settle for a remark. Uni this year is lost so aim for the top I say, knock it out of the park on a resit.

I agree working for a year and building up a pot of money to stick into a LISA for a future house deposit. He can put £4k in this tax year and get £1k from the government, then another £4k in next tax year and have £10k earning interest whilst at uni.

And reassure him not to be embarrassed as it’s more common than you think.

Exactly the same thing happened to my son, and quite a few of his friends too. Missed by 7 marks. Luckily for him he still managed to get into the Uni of his choice, but if he hadn't he would have taken the year out to resit.

And it happens loads. Ds1 missed an entire double page of a maths paper luckily when it didn't matter but made him very aware of page numbers and question numbers and Ds2 did it this year in a year 12 maths mock, misread maximum for minimum and missed his A star by 1 mark.

Both my sons did/do maths and further maths which is why I said I would advise the resit and get an incredible UMS rather than settle for an A on a remark.

Honestly I think this is a good example of why this cohort were disadvantaged by not having sat public exams before and learned about this sort of problem and how to manage papers under stress. There's nothing to be done but resit or take a place at a different uni but your son should not feel bad - these lessons are often learned with expert, which he didn't get, until the real thing. Big hugs and onwards now.

Yes, we understand the unliklihood of finding 7 marks. Hence not applying for the review at 805 am on Thursday. We knew there was a possibility this was coming. We knew what our options were before the results came through.

Now that we've had a couple of days to digest, I think I'm just double checking that were doing the right thing.

The uni were wonderful with him, but they won't budge. The A in maths is concrete.

What's complicated it all is that he had an offer to study the fully funded tech degree apprenticeship with PWC. Salaried too! He beat tens of thousands of other applicants in the recruitment process. His A in maths was never a worry. It was his chemistry that he was concerned about because he'd been borderline A/B for the whole 2 years at sixth form. He worked so hard and got his A, comfortably!

So his feelings are magnified, knowing exactly what he's lost out on.

It's worth looking at the review.

I'd also advise in terms of the gap year that he needs to keep doing some maths on a regular basis, and if he's aiming for a degree where there is any mathematical content at all it might be worth looking at some of the modules for A - level further maths as this will allow him to keep studying and potentially get ahead for uni.

Yep an A star student, described as a talented and gifted mathematician from day dot.

He came out of the paper 2 exam, rang me and said it went really well. He was right, of the 10 questions he did answer, he was operating at about 86%. The next phone call, about 10 minutes later, while has was on the bus, when he realised what he'd done... Well, it was like a different person calling me. He knew he'd fucked it. But, we did what we could (contacted school) and remained hopeful and positive.

It surely is one of those life lessons, you can be talented and gifted and still make really, really costly mistakes.

I think I'll ask for a copy of the scripts on Monday. Nothing to lose. But I'm sure it won't make a difference. He actually predicted his raw scores to within a mark on each paper. He knew what he'd got right and what he'd not. He knew he was struggling to think straight in the subsequent papers and battled to keep his focus. And he did! And I'm extraordinarily proud of him.

Thanks all!

It's always worth reviewing the paper. You've nothing to lose by doing it.

Dd went up a grade in her leaving cert maths (Ireland) as the corrector had marked a full part of a question wrong when it was completely correct. The mistake was due to dd's handwriting, her using different letters to normal in an equation and the examiner not reading the legend she had included at the begining of the answer.

Again, completely agree. We have already discussed that he can't just turn up for the resit in June without keeping his mad in.

He's considering having a go at FM. He taught himself most of the y12 content and school almost allowed him to sit it, to see what would happen, but in the end we all agreed it was risky and could distract him from what he needed to do.

Bloody 'kids', eh?

Your son sounds amazing. I hope that he eventually gets what he wants - in a few years time this will be a distant, unpleasant memory.

Thanks, he is amazing. And it will be a distant memory soon. And he did really bloody well.

But you know, we're our own worst enemies and he's working through those difficult emotions. He'll get there.

He could probably teach himself further maths in a year. For my sons they sit all of maths A level in year 12 on 10 hours a week contact time. Then further maths in year 13. Ds tells me it is not a full A level in the sense that you are learning something from scratch, instead you are building on your maths foundation knowledge.

In his shoes, I would resit and try to get the max out of his enforced gap year.
He's done really well.

Gap year and resit. Gap years are common anyway and useful to earn money and do a bit of trav. No one will blink an eye

Does his school offer further maths? If so, how it generally works in our school is the students study Maths and Further Maths study as follows
Year 12 - they study A level Maths and then only in Year 13 - do they look at/study Further Maths

So Year 12 is the whole A level maths syllabus. Therefore he could ask to retake the whole Year 12 course - which would keep him fresh - and then resit next summer.

We have had a couple of students do this over the years. And as PP said, because they are then not doing any further studies (and were "excused" the pastoral/extra curricular stuff) they worked at the local Morrisons).

I actually don't know how FM is taught as his school. I know he had a tough time deciding whether or not to do it and in the end he plumped for the EPQ in the hope it would help him to seem well rounded. (Although he chose a mathematical/computing topic!)

His school have said he can enter for FM as an external candidate next summer.

Hell, I think they take the money for any exam he wanted to have a go at!

It sounds unfortunate but fair. Uni is very different to Alevels and students will be expected to be organised. Does/might your son have ADHD? I'd definitely be looking into this and taking action.
I'd say the chances of 'finding' another 7 marks are tiny. I wouldn't even bother. I'd be looking at ways to make good use of this year if his heart is set on taking this particular route. Not only would I be looking at a resit but I'd be looking at maybe doing an OU maths module as back up.This will be good grounding for future self study.
Above all I'd be assuring him that it's not the end of the world. Incidently most students that don't get their offer/go through clearing do OK. Is a different course an option?

Oh, it is fair. It was entirely his own doing.

He will not consider any other corse. One of the things we have discussed is widening the net for next year's Ucas application.

He declined his insurance immediately.

ADHD. No, although, I've read about the hyper focus aspect to it and can definitely see some of those traits, but no, he's NT. And he's usually organised and capable in the real world. He has part time jobs, navigated the recruitment process for PWC largely on his own.

He just had a hug brain fart in one exam.

It's a big assumption to think he's likely to have £4k spare. Maybe this year if he's living with parents but next year when he's at uni? You're correct though to be thinking about the long game.

My typing is deteriorating as I'm getting rasdy to go to work. Apologies.

I think that is very unfair on schools and teaching staff! They do not work on profit, or think about "how much money would we get for this"! Unless I am misunderstanding your point?

Results day disappointments happen - and schools/heads of years/teachers have seen it and coached students through it.
Resitting is the best option for some students. Not for others. We sometimes have students resitting - even if we advise it is possibly the best course of action - it is their choice. Money does not come into it for these one or two students every couple of years who resit!

even if we advise it is possiblynot the best course of action

Do a gap year and retake. Then go to uni eith both some experience and money. The gap year job often turns into a holiday job (a better one than most students can get) and it helps you get a job during uni.

Dd took a gap year then had worked as a research assistant for a professor as she had the right experience. Ds, who is just going into year 13 will also be doing similar.

It may end up being a blessing in disguise.