Please advise a struggling S5 and his mum after poor prelim results

[User505351]

DS is in S5, doing 4 Highers and a Nat5. How I wish we could go back in time and do 3 Highers and 2 Nat5s but there you go.

I don't know how to advise him. I'm struggling to get the right person to speak to at school too but I'll keep trying.

Basically, we're wondering if he should drop one higher this year. My feeling is that it is better to have 3 Highers at BBB than 4 Highers at BCCC, which is the absolute best he's likely to achieve this year. He might well get less.

Can anyone advise, is this sensible? Or giving up? He got CDDD for his prelims. On his latest report all individual teachers were optimistic that he could improve on his scores in his final exam, but they're all just looking at their subject, not the overall amount of work he'll have to put in across all four. He'll never manage.

I just have no idea how to advise him. I don't even know if dropping a subject at this point is even allowed because he'll have a gap in his timetable.

But surely he can't be the only kid who finds himself in this position after prelims?

I've been trying to speak to his guidance teacher but this is the week when all S5s are meeting with them for S6 options so he's really busy, I understand that. DS has already had his meeting but we were not thinking that he could drop something at that point so he didn't mention it and the teacher didn't mention it either. I think I'll also email the teacher of the subject he'd be most likely to drop.

I felt out of my depth 16 years ago when I got sent home from hospital with a tiny baby to look after, 16 years on and I'm still flailing around. I'd be so grateful for any advice from parents who have been through this.

Thank you.

(Regular Scotsnet reader and poster with a new name since this is pretty identifiable)

Don’t panic. Exams are still 3 months away. What subjects is he doing?

Maths, English, History, Geography. History was his favourite but he really struggles to get his answers down correctly. He's going to use a computer in the final exam so that might help him get some more information down on time and get him some extra marks.

He'll do fine in geography. He's got a maths tutor but still only scraped a D in the prelim. He'll get a C in English and be happy with that, happy to never read another book in his life.

Poor lad, he's such a worrier. I was so hoping he'd get better prelims just to give him a wee boost.

Yes, been there.

We had to really push our (high achieving) school to let my ds drop a higher. At the time he was doing five (don’t get me started on that either). They insisted he did some pupil support supervision or something to fill the timetable when in fact he could have used that extra time to concentrate on the other four highers.

Agree about each teacher only being concerned about their own subject. If you only struggle with maths for example, you spend a disproportionate amount of time doing maths, by doing extra revision, having a tutor, doing the tutors homework etc. But if you struggle with more than one subject, you can’t do that with them all. There just isn’t time.

In the end it was the covid year my ds was supposed to do highers and they used the prelim results / teacher predictions so the whole thing was a nightmare. I’m still very angry and bitter about the whole thing. I hope you have better luck.

That sounds shit @PostPopper

I know it will all work out and your higher results don't define you, but at this point for ds it really feels like they do. I hope your dd has figured out his next steps and is happy with his choices.

How hard is he working at the moment? Does the school offer lunchtime sessions/after school revision. I mean a D in Maths at this stage isn’t disastrous . Loads have a big step up as there’s so much exam technique involved.

He does need a plan though. Working through his weakest areas. Ticking them off. Proactively asking for help.

Higher year is brutal.

I think he's working hard but not efficiently. He does need a plan. I could help him with that, maybe he'd be in less of a panic if he had a plan.

It's encouraging that you don't think a D is a disaster.

I'm a Maths teacher and a D is not a disaster at this stage. He needs to be clear on where he lost marks in the prelim. Which topics? Lots of careless errors? He then needs start going back through the topics, methodically ticking them off and practising questions. Again keep a note of anything he doesn't understand and ask his teacher/tutor. After school sessions and lunchtime workshops should be attended.

This website is excellent www.highermathematics.co.uk/higher-maths-whole-course/

Print off this checklist www.highermathematics.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/application/pdf/pdf/zeta_maths_higher_checklist-F.pdf
and work through it (remember there are no vectors or recurrence reactions topics in the exam this year) lots of practice questions and checking his answers.

He needs to just work hard from now and he can turn it around.

We were in similar situation and did drop one subject and pick it up again in S6. My DC had 2 subjects they were really struggling with .
Like you we felt BBB was much better than several Cs and potentially failing one.

Agree about every teacher just looking at their own subject and not taking enough of an overview.
We had to push really hard with school though and basically say no the DC will not be sitting the exam.
Worked out fine and DC got an achievable offer for uni in S6

Could he drop the Nat 5 rather than one of the highers?

if he wants to go on to university then getting four highers in s5 is a good plan.

my ds did four highers and a Nat 5 in s5 and with hindsight would have been better focussing on the four highers as the Nat 5 was just as much (if not more) work as the highers. If they need that Nat 5 they could pick it up in s6.

my DS didn’t do well in prelims and worked hard and brought his grades up by six grades across the five subjects. Am hoping he can do the same in s6…

Have a look at college as an option for the transition to uni - DD’s Higher results were disappointing so she did an HNC at college and got into uni based on that.

Hi
I am in exactly the same situation with my child, they are doing 5 highers (maths, English, biology, chemistry and music). They only took music as they were limited by choices in that column. They are struggling with this subject and it is now impacting on their other results. I approached the school after in depth discussion with my child and explained my concerns and that this was causing them huge stress and anxiety. I am unhappy with how this is being handled by the school who are pushing back on her continuing with this subject. They are now saying that even if she wasn't to sit the exam they would still expect her to complete all the course work which seems crazy to me when that time could be better used concentrating on the subjects that she needs for her uni choices. Finding it very frustrating and now want a face to face meeting with the school.

Sorry to hear that @Hollyb47 that sounds crazy to me too! Surely better to focus on four subjects. Also for confidence and approach to study. How is is possible to feel motivated to complete the course when not taking the exam. Just a waste of everyone’s time. At this stage I wouldn’t have thought that the rules around timetable would be as important as having an empty slot at this stage just means more time to focus on their subjects. Hope the face to face meeting goes well

Could he get additional tutors? Supported study at school and easter revision classes? Prelim result do tend to be worse than the final ones.

It's quite late in the day, practical exam is in March, she was advised at her prelim in Dec to consider changing her instrument from guitar to glockenspiel, but this is just added pressure when you don't have an aptitude from a musical instrument. Thanks

Ps she does attend Easter school, Saturday school and supported study after school, so lots of effort on her part, being musically minded is just not her unfortunately especially the practical element. 😬

My son is doing 5 highers, after getting good Nat 5 results. We’ve just had an awful parents night, to be told he has not handed in a draft of English work and has work to complete in class for 3 subjects. He scrapped a pass in prelims. He annoyingly is not worried and thinks he can still get good grades. I am so worried he will fail and don’t know how to help, he has tutoring and I’m always telling him to study ‘ you can lead a horse to water but can’t make it drink’ comes to mind. It is just sad. Sorry no advice good to feel not alone

If your DC works well and efficiently, it's conceivable that they could increase their marks by 10-15% between prelims and real exams. One of my DCs went up over 20% (maths) but typically this was the ball park.

Hope things work out.

For Higher history, https://mrmarrhistory.wordpress.com/higher/ is useful to get the essay structure. I