Science re-sits

[mummyflood]

DS has received his GCSE results and was disappointed to get D's in Chemistry and Biology - got C in Physics. He would like to re-sit the chemistry in Yr12, and asked about this at his sixth form enrolment day yesterday.

Apparently the teacher has told him, a) she has to check some paperwork so will let him know on the first day back whether he can do the re-sit at all.
b) it will be completely independent study (I suppose then that you would call that revision) and
c) it will probably be a year before he can do the exam again.

Could anyone let me know if this all sounds usual, as I expected him to be joining either a GCSE class or an AS level class with appropriate work given until the end of November (the date he said the first re-sits are usually done) I was surprised at her suggestion of a year, seems a long time to be independantly revising!! - he re-sat his English Language, originally done last November, in order to improve his grade - achieved a B this time

Also, he sat the higher paper, so has suggested that he would like to re-sit but this time foundation - again, is this a reasonable thing to do?

Thanks in anticipation

I think the problem may be that the qualification is "cashed in" which means you have been given a final grade and can't resit bits of it like you can when still in year 10 or 11. He would have to start again with the course and resit all of it.

It is normal for work for resits at sixth form to be done independently, DD2 is resitting a chemistry AS module in January and she have to do all the work on her own.

OK, thanks for that Webwiz.

Have been trawling the net, and it is looking like as he did OCR Gateway, he won't be able to resit until next summer. It looks like if it had been AQA there would possibly have been resits done in November or January. Unless I have read it all wrong - the whole thing is confusing and frustrating me to be honest! I wish the school were more forthcoming with their info and communications - we didn't even get a breakdown of the marks unlike friends at other schools and unlike the modules he has previously completed in Yr10 or 11.

My feeling is, that as he has sufficient GCSE's without the two sciences to pursue his career of choice (trade within the forces), he should put the idea of resits at least on 'hold' for the time being, see how his application goes, and if it doesn't succeed for any reason, then have a rethink in general. In the meantime he has been accepted onto 3 AS levels, which he should be able to complete before, or about the same time as, he knows whether he has been accepted into the forces, IYSWIM. The rest of his grades are C or above.

He certainly can resit all the science ocr exam in jan 2011 - i've just had a little look at the timetable to doublecheck. FWIW i would suggest only doing eg science, instead of both science and additional science which was probably what he did to start with. (I think the forces might need/expect a science qual) and would def suggest foundation as the papers are much easier. There is a coursework element as well but it doesn't take too long and presumably he could join an existing class to do the write up (write up must be done under controlled conditions ie in class)

sorry didn't read your op properly - did he do all three sciences seperately? we usually only let the top two sets do that would be very surprised to get two D's - does he think he did better than that? ie should he ask for a remark. He could still do foundation level science in jan tho' - he'd probably find it ludicrously easy after triple higher.
The only revision classes we run for resits are after school just before the exams, everything else is independent study.

mummyflood,

Yes it can be done. If the examinations officer is stroppy however, then it may be a fight.

Not all modules are offered at each sitting, but most are.

A caveat about resitting on his own - this doesn't always lead to a higher grade. It is really helpful to have more teaching.

The other thing is to go through each of his module marks and strategically pick one or two to resit, not the whole specification.

By resitting at the Foundation Tier the highest grade he can achieve is a C

Hi guys sorry been a bit busy.

Well thanks for all that, very interesting.

Loshad - yes, he did do all three sciences separately. There was quite a lot of confusion over whether he was in one of the top sets or not, bizarre as it may sound we never DID get to the bottom of it, as the teachers were reluctant to tell the kids/parents which set they were in what I do know is that the school had initially streamed him incorrectly for Year 10, and found out after testing that he was actually more capable than they thought, resulting in him being given the wrong pathway of subjects, but that's another thread. As far as the GCSE's are concerned, he says he found the chemistry easier than he was expecting, and the other two quite difficult. He was pleased with the C in physics, but yes, quite surprised with the D in chemistry. So he has actually got the C in one of the sciences which the forces wanted (he has checked with them and this is OK.

MmeRedWhiteandBlueberry - I would be up for a fight! There's been so much other stuff over the last two years that I've let go, see above, that if a) he really wants this, which he does, and b) it would be possible to enter him in November or January if the school can do their bit, then I am prepared to push for it, as is he. The school is also a specialist science college (laughable given both DS's experiences with the teaching in this area, long story!) so I would hope that they would be willing to accommodate him on this if at all possible. I am certainly going to ask again for a marks breakdown - they provided this with modules in other subjects over yrs 10 and 11, and he was able to make the decision to re-sit some of his Eng. Lang, improving his mark from a C to a B, for him!!

happilyconfused - he would settle for a C!.