Not confident about exams

[Shineynewthings]

Can someone tell me how you managed to do exams at home. My DS is 12 and we're starting to think about taking one or two as I don't want him to end up trying to do loads at once. But I feel overwhelmed about getting his skills up and studying up to that level IYSWIM. I just can't see how I'm going to manage it. I think it's the "how" that i'm not getting. It just seems so huge, and suddenly it just seems really silly to think I could have taken this on myself, that's what everyone else in my family thinks too. The "you're not a qualified teacher" mantra gets louder, and they know this is one area my confidence wobbles in - although we have been doing relatively well (bar a few hickups) until now so I really don't know what my problem is.

Am I making sense to anybody help?

look at some old GCSE papers. Then you'll stop panicking :)

First off - try joining the HEams email group - I'm not sure of the link but I'm sure its been linked to on here before. They can point you in the right direction, and reassure you.

But in general I'd say -

Step 1 - work out what board and type of exams he can sit near you - you need to know so he can study the right syllabus. You may need to cotact EdExcel and Cambridge exam boards and try to find out where in your area might take a private candidate. You may want him to do IGCSEs (International GCSEs) as they don't need any marked coursework.

Step 2 - buy a textbook and/or look at online resources

Step 3 - look at past papers, sometimes you can get ones with specimen answers

Once he's studied a topic, he can try answering the questions and then you can look together at the specimen answers and see what points he missed out

Web site: www.home-education-exams.org.uk/

Email list: groups.yahoo.com/group/HE-Exams-GCSE-A_AS_Levels-OU-Others/

Shineynewthings, what is DS good at? You may want to look at starting with Maths - it is an exam that it is relativelyt easy to practice and study for because answers tend to be right or wrong. English and history may be better to leave until he has more maturity in writing.

Also, does DS want to do the exams? If not, you may be pushing uphill and it may be better to wait. My DS (16) has being doing OU courses (no exams) for about 3 years but only ion subjects in which he is particularly interested. He has only just started to look at it from the point of qualifying for further training or employment.

Oh thanks so much for your replies. A lot of what you say is common sense ( at ommmward) and I agree with all of it. SDeuchars the idea about doing math first and writing subjects last is sensible as DS does struggle with composition etc. I don't want to push uphill as it were, but equally I'm not sure how long the status quo (being a SP who has to work) will remain, and DS does not cope well with pressure, so I'd rather he do a little now and stretch it over several years, as opposed to ending up trying to do a lot at once. OU sounds like a possibility we should discuss. I suppose a lot of it is about my confidence in my abilities and there are other things not related to HE going on in my life which made this appear like another big hurdle rather than just another faze of what we've been doing already.

Time to get over it by doing something.

One thing we've found useful, if you can b bothered with the extra expense and hassle, is to do foundation/core first and then do higher the next year.

My DD1 did this is maths and my DD2 is doing this with Physics this year. Core/foundatin level you can get a maximum of a C grade but it is much easier and more achievable, and will build your confidence and his. Then you only have to build on it slightly to do higher.

Not all subjects have the two levels, but the maths and science ones do, and these are the subjects I'd do first, as Shena has said.

I did it in exactly the order AMumInScotland has suggested. I found an exam centre, found what boards they did, ordered a textbook. We worked through the textbook, worked past papers, took the exam.

Once you get going it isn't so hard - don't doubt yourself. DD1 got an A for her Biology IGCSE last year and I did almost none of it. We did some experiments together, but mostly she learnt it herself. I never did Biology at school, so don't be put off by feeling you don't know enough to teach it. It really doesn't matter.

Thanks for the encouragement musicposy. You put your finger on it - I was doubting myself - I didn't take science at school and barely passed maths - but I contacted the Edexcel exam board and they sent me a list of exam centres and I think we're going to do what you said with regards to taking the foundation papers first so that DS can build up his confidence.

Thanks for the great post

Glad it helped :)