AS results and disillusionment

[Becky2810]

My son has not received the grades needed for his 4 AS subjects. The units for the exams were ok A - D and he wants to retake to obtain the A grades he needs to get into medicine. The problem is the practical lab exams which he has got very poor results in (a couple of Us and an E), he aims to retake these too. My son states that he lost his passion for studying during his intense revision for his GCSEs (he obtained A grades) and although he feels that medicine is his chosen career he doesn't know how to get his motivation back. Unfortunately, his new Sixth Form science teachers have not been very supportive of his goal to become a GP. How can I help him achieve the necessary grades and get back the motivation he used to have? I have tried private tutors and the usual revision books. Sorry for the length of this question!

There was another thread on here recently about poor AS results and a pupil wanting to do medicine so you could have a look at that. It contained a lot of up to date and accurate advice on for example, which med schools will not accept resits etc.

I think a few kids "go off the boil" in AS year- my DD did a bit, but I think the motivation this year has to come from the fact that this is their last year at school and that if they get this right it opens up so many opportunities for their futures- it is only 9 months of work, exams in June and then its gone! This is certainly incentivising my DD who went back yesterday full of ambition for this year!

My DD does Chemistry and had a B and a D in the written papers but an A in the practical and full UMS points for that. When I praised her for that she said it was no big deal as surely every one would have done that. Her school do regular practice sessions of the typical experiments which come up in the practical skills test, are given opportunities and feedback on how the write ups are supposed to be done etc so I would question the school as to how he got such poor marks.

My DD said that they did about 5 or 6 across the year in "exam style" conditions and that after the first two a few people were "spoken" to about the fact that they needed to "up their game" on the way they were writing up as clearly the staff can see they are not making the grade. To get a U in a practical would almost suggest he wasn't there or didn't complete the experiment??

Will medicine accept resits? Especially so many. It's possible he might need to start thinking about alternatives.

Do his teachers think medicine is an achievable goal for him? It is difficult sometimes to be both realistic and supportive. I have 3 students in my A level biology class who want to do medicine. One is in with a shout. The others simply are not. It's not a matter of working harder unfortunately. And yes, when that realisation comes, it is demotivating. And now, we need to do some serious work finding out what else they would like to do to get their mojo back for year 13.

Basically you need to find out more about the practical exam requirements as this is not well covered by revision guides or tutors.
For Chemistry for quantitative work you need to always remember to include units, have results with correct no. of decimal places, have suitably accurate results, process results correctly e.g. not including anomalous results in the average etc. Your score will be limited if you do any of these incorrectly. Also graphs and results need to be included. You lose a lot of marks for not having a table of results at all!
For qualitative work you need accurate descriptions of colour changes, tests for gases given off etc.
To get a U or E grade something may have gone wrong with the experiment e.g. added the wrong solution or similar or not followed the instructions. Reading the instruction carefully is very important.
It is possible to obtain a place a medical school if you resit one or two AS levels (some of my students have done it recently) but they do not accept A2 resits. However it could be that his teacher is being unsupportive because they do not think this goal is realistic and it may be appropriate to start looking at alternatives if applying for university soon.

I would suspect that "unsupportive" tutors actually means "tutors who think it's an unrealistic goal".
I think you need to go and ask them whether they think medicine is a realistic goal, and don't come out huffing saying they don't understand your ds, if they say it's not.

If he's lost his motivation at this stage due to "extensive studying for GCSE" then I'd think he's unsuited to medicine. Does he know what an intensive course it is? And that if he graduates he'll have to continue doing exams/training throughout his career?

Thank you all very much for these helpful replies. We are going to meet with his science teachers and have a realistic conversation about his options.