GCSE maths revision advice

[popperpete]

Hello

My son has struggled with maths for a long time, and I'm considering paying for some private maths tuition for him now that he is entering his final GCSE year. There're lots of options online, but I wondered if anyone here has been down this route before and if so, could offer any advice or recommendations.

I think he simply needs some additional support as when I've sat down with him 1-2-1 - he grasps basic arithmetic much better. But, unfortunately, I don't feel comfortable helping him with things like Algebra.

Any suggestions/support would be really appreciated.

Thanks for your time.
PP

Hi

This website www.myowntutor.org.uk is excellent.

If you use the promo code 1023, you get at least 2 weeks totally free.

You are better to get a private tutor by personal recommendation if you can as there are lots of tutors around that may not be a great fit with your son. I don't advertise anymore as I get plenty through personal recommendation and I much prefer it that way. So ask friends, ask the school, private tuition is more common than you think!
You will have to decide how you prefer the tuition (in your own home or at theirs or somewhere else like the library), how often (I often have students once a fortnight increasing to once or twice a week when the exams are close) and how much you're prepared to pay (not sure where you live but here £25-30 ph is usual).

The tutor should do an assessment of your son to find out the gaps in his knowledge usually with a GCSE paper and should then have a good idea of what to work on with him.

If you live close to a Kip McGrath centre they specialise in GCSE Maths. I have seen students working at GCSE level in one of these centres and they spend plenty of time reinforcing concepts and give students plenty of practice as well. They also do initial assessments to identify problem areas and focus on those.

Private tuition - preferably one to one with an experienced teacher and lots of practice.

Where are you in the country. I am a maths tutor in marlborough area which is probably not near you. I work on first tutors and uk tutors and you can see feedback from other students. The best advice I can give is not to go for the cheapest! Dont agree to a set length of time as a condition. I always tell parents that tutoring is personality based and if there child doesnt think I am the right person, they should feel free to say so. They can then look for someone else. Quite a few of my students have started with someone else and not got on with them and have then looked aroung again!
I have one parent demand to see proof of teaching qualifications, degree certificate, CRB check as well as references. Whilst I was happy to do this, I feel they were missing the point!

There's a brand new online home tutor maths programme that looks excellent.
It's called GetMathsFit.com and they have something like 3,000 lessons or more of about 2 to 5 minutes.
It teaches in such a steady way that it allows you to learn right form the beginning of the maths subjects like algebra and move as slowly as you need to without any big jumps. You know the ones that leave us maths mortals floundering! We like it because its very straight forward and precise and moves seamlessly over a lot of ground.

To be honest it's hard to believe they can produce so much good teaching for that price.

The website www.myowntutor.org.uk I mentioned also includes Maths and English video lessons. They also have thousands of revision questions and GCSE and SATS past papers in most NC subjects, including things like Law and Sociology. If these do not help, you also have access to fully qualified CRB-checked teachers, who give one-to-one Maths or English tutoring via an interactive white board. I think this particular service is excellent - because they only use UK qualified teachers who currently work in UK schools, so there are always many levels of accountability.

Many thanks for everyone's help and advice and suggestions. I've seen various online tutor businesses and I may re-visit these in the future. Thanks for the advice on www.myowntutor.org.uk/ and I've also been made aware of www.itutormaths.co.uk.

Following some advice from another source, I'm going to try the range of revision books from CGP first - which I hope will be engaging - and I think I'll be able to sit with him and go through these having looked at their website's example pages: www.cgpbooks.co.uk/pages/pageFlip.asp?c=MAFR45

At least the cost isn't a great waste if it doesn't prove successful - I may be back again.

Thanks again - very grateful for all your comments - a great help.

Sophisty at £158 for a years subscription I hardly call it cheap! Perhaps when you priced it you should have looked at other much cheaper but very similar Maths courses.

Do Practice papers, practice papers and more practice papers!

I've found some algebra workbooklets and answers on www.GCSEreviseMATHS.com

DFD has just gone from an F in maths to hope of a C in a matter of weeks (she's in year 11). She must have done almost every exercise in her text book, multiple practice papers we found on the exam board website (some of them more than once!) mymaths questions, CGP practice questions etc. We were advised that the best way to revise maths is to do it- it's working for her so far.

there is no way around it ...maths is practice practice practice....

try www.stuckonmathshomework...think it's about 50£ pa

sorry that should be www.stuckonhomework.com

Video lessons ...good value if you actually use it but still no substitute for doing lots of practice..I would combine it with lots of practice papers and if you really need one a tutor for the difficult parts just to boost

Zombie thread

Lots of questions with fully worked model answers - try gcsemathematics4u.

You could also try Easter Revision courses... I know it's a bit late now but something to bear in mind.

A lot of private schools run them and they are a really good way of students brushing up just before the summer exams (particularly if they are not very strong independent workers)!

My daughter really struggled last year with maths revision especially Pythagoras. I found a good website which helped her understand it through music. It's called LearnThruMusic.
I'm definitely going to use their products for my son too, he's in year 9 at the moment tho.
Hope this helps you out!

My son has never really gotten on with maths despite trying different tutors etc. He's just coming up to his summer exams for year 10 and is really struggling and thought that something new like this could maybe help him understand.

I just googled learnthrumusic and looked at some of the videos.
Do you know where I can download the full versions from?