Chemistry AS problems

[Muminwestlondon]

DD started AS Chemistry late in the term (after half term) as she decided on a medical related career for which she will need A's in everything. Her predicted grades based on her GCSEs are As at AS. School is a superselective.

DD is not happy with the chemistry teacher and feels she has to teach herself from the textbooks. She got a C in her first assessment but wasn't too bothered as that was two weeks in. She just got a U in her second assessment. She is absolutely devastated.

I emailed the head of year and was told that the teacher had said DD is distracted in class and hasn't got the right technique for answering questions. I don't fully believe that is the reason as DD is not the type to chat to friends in class and I don't think technique alone can account for such a crap mark. DD does not want me to complain about the teacher as she used to be her form tutor and she likes her. DD also says that many girls in her class have got tutors.

Parents evening is at the end of the month. I have contacted an agency about hiring a tutor. Is there anything else I can do to help DD? BTW she is getting A's in her other subjects, so a U in this one is bizarre.

DS had the same thing. His chemistry teacher was a bit of a bitch tbh, used to call him stupid in class as he found AS really hard (he got A* at GCSE so clearly not that thick!).

He's also at a very selective grammar school.

In the end I paid for a tutor for him but left it too late to really make any difference and he failed to get a decent mark at AS, and obv. dropped it for A2.

I'd say tutor her, every week, for a couple of months then see whether she can do fewer sessions (it's not cheap).

which exam board is she learning with? with mine, we are not allowed to give feedback on their assessments. however, there are specimen assessment papers and narkschemes on the website which give students an idea of how the questions might be asked. technique can get a crappy mark, e.g. students not obtaining accurate results, then not recording to an appropriate number of sig fig, then making a mistake on a calculation...

Mumblechum1, thank you for your comment, I need to get a tutor now rather than leave it. I have seen some tutors at £85 an hour - that or an undergraduate at £35 an hour! Crap!

Chibi, it is Edexcel. The Head of Year did mention past papers. I will speak to him and the teacher at parents evening in a couple of weeks. The teacher will speak to DD next week. Pity DD had to get the weakest teacher :(

if you are concerned, contact them now! i would never be offended or angry or whatever if a parent contacted me with concerns about their child's progress.

has she sat a modular exam in january, or will she be sitting them in june?

A lot of people find chemistry difficult - it's said to be the hardest science and the answers to the exam questions do have to be phrased right to get the marks - is this what the teacher means by technique? What are these assessments she's been doing? Are they the practical assessments (sometimes called ISAs) that count towards the coursework part of the overall exam, or are they end of topic tests that the teacher is giving to check understanding? Is it the practical side she's struggling with, the underlying calculations or did she fail to catch up the early work and is now struggling to pull it all together? I think you need to understand what the problem is and probably getting a good tutor to get her back on track is a good idea.

Looking at actual exam questions, trying to answer them and then checking the answers carefully against the markscheme is usually quite helpful in finding out where you are going wrong.