ds crushed - tutor did not teach him correct GCSE syllabus!

[lainiekazan]

Ds learns Latin independently and with a tutor, who costs an arm and two legs. He went into the exam today and realised straightaway that he had only covered half the syllabus. Ds was hoping for a very good grade and to go on and do it at A Level and possibly beyond. But now he clearly is starting this paper at only 50%.

I don't know what to say to the tutor. He is very good and ds likes him, but this is a blow.

He isn't 'very good'. This is inexcusable in a teacher.

Find out when resits are - poss Nov, poss Jan - and perhaps speak to school / college explaining situation BEFORE results come out and they may allow him to start A Level, subject to passing at resit...

are the resits in Nov/Jan the same syllabus? Can you resit one paper? Ds thinks he has done well in the papers so far, but has clearly not done very well in this latest one.

You also need to have a chat with the tutor. That is disgraceful, he has ripped you off completely!

The tutor isn't 'very good' - he hasn't done the job which you paid him an arm and two legs for adequately.

I would be asking for a 50% refund tbh, and finding another tutor for the autumn resit.

I'm pretty sure that you have to resit the whole exam - you can't carry marks forward from a previous paper.

Don't know, I'm afraid. You can get individual analysis of results/papers, so 6th form MAY accept him on the basis of the marks he gets on the papers he HAD studied for, iyswim, so contact them now rather than later and explain the situation.

There are no resits of individual modules from now on. Maths and English Language have a resit (whole qualification) series in November, but all other subjects are only in the June series from now on.

You need to find out what had happened and then get it put right and the correct tutoring provided, for free, for the resit. If it is correct the full syllabus hasn't been covered.

I hope your DS hasn't done what mine did.
For his syllabus there were two texts, text A and text B. The teacher chose which text to study and there was an exam at the end of the year. The exam consisted of: either answer one Q on text A or answer one Q on text B. DS didn't read the rubric properly and answered both questions; as you can imagine, one answer was an awful lot better than the other! He got a poor grade in the paper but still got a B grade overall.

What has happened exactly, has he studied the wrong text? I have done a few languages in my time and it's only the literature element where you could actually study the wrong thing. I think.

Was it OCR? Past paper showing the instruction to "answer either section A or section B" but which then continues "answer all the questions".

Like Boulevard I'm assuming he studied the wrong piece(s) of "set text". This is a terrible error on the tutors part and I can imagine will have a significant impact on the grade as this "seen" part of Latin exams requires considerable preparation and I believe is usually worth 50% of the overall mark. Have you spoken to the tutor? How did this arise? From what I understand the required pieces of set text for each years exams are clearly stated on exam bodies website (our certainly was) how on earth did this mistake arise?

What terrible luck and I agree about the tutor. The set texts are published clearly on the website and he should have checked and double checked. Did your ds not download any past papers, or has the syllabus changed?

I would contact the school he wants to do A levels at, and the board. If the school will accept him on the basis of the language and half the lit (which they will be able to guess at because I agree if he has not studied it, he is likely to get very few marks for that section), then I would ask them about whether it is worth him retaking next summer. The language would be easy for him by then, I assume, if he has done AS, but it would mean learning two set texts alongside his AS ones. Or whether he can explain what has happened on his UCAS personal statement, or they can in his reference.

What are the rules on declaring exams sat privately - as I assume this one was? Does he have to put it on his UCAS form?

I would also contact a university classics department, explain what has happened and ask them how they would view him if he decides to apply after A2.

Has the tutor not asked how it went ? The buck stops with him and I'd have completely lost confidence in his professionalism if he can overlook so much of the syllabus. who made the exam entry ?

When you get the grade can you find out what mark he got on the unseen? This would at least give someone an idea of how good his Latin actually is?
My DS has to learn three if not four and the Virgil was very long although I suspect it depends on which examining board set the exam my DS did not sit his on Friday
"Did your ds not download any past papers, or has the syllabus changed?"
I think the syllabus changes in a regular basis if not yearly.

ds was aiming for an A*. This would scupper his chances of that grade.

It is a real blow as he felt he had done pretty well in the other papers and it is not his fault. If he'd found the paper difficult or hadn't done enough preparation, then fair enough, but to fall down because of this is difficult to stomach.

There were two pages of the second text, but the tutor had obviously only thought there was one page, so ds had a bit of a shock when he saw another whole raft of Latin for which he had not prepared. He tried to translate it himself but had none of the vocabulary so had make wild guesses and write any old thing.

Would it be worth the tutor contacting the examining board? I suppose they'd just say tough cheese. But I suppose they could see the standard of ds's other papers.

I don't understand your faith in this tutor tbh. If he failed to teach your son adequately, why would you put your faith in him to contact the examining board.

I can't imagine they'd take any notice of any communications made anyway.

I don't understand your faith either, in your shoes I would be bloody furious, asking for all my money back and threatening to take him to court. I can't understand why you are not livid!

Doesn't sound as bad as this story.

Was the tutor employed to actually teach the whole syllabus or was he just employed to teach him Latin. Who decided which exam board would be sat and when? Do you have a contract?

As far as I know, there is only one board for Latin, OCR, and the texts do not change every year. So really there is no excuse for the tutor to teach the wrong text and only discover it at this late date.

I think you now need to focus on getting his 6th form place sorted, and doing what you can about the impact this will have on university applications. I would go to the horses' mouths for this - get proper detailed advice from people reply in the know, and get what has happened documented now.

WJEC used to do Latin as well but as tired says, focus on whether you can apply for consideration and which sixth form/college he hopes to go to.

There is no point contacting any university, all that you will be told is to mention it in your personal statement (and preferably get you reference to confirm also).

There is not only one board for Latin my DS has just sat Cambeidge IGCSE Latin the set text does change on a regular basis maybe even every year. But I would have thought if your tutor was teaching other students IGCSE/GCSE then he/she would know what's on the syllabus, know how many pieces of set text are required to be learnt and the format of the exam.

Yes, sorry everyone. I did not mean to confuse - I was was interpreting the OP very strictly as a GCSE not iGCSE or the WEJC certificated equivalent.

OP, do you mean that, say, the set text was lines 1-100 and your ds had only been taught lines 1-50?

There is no possibility I take it - clutching at straw - that the two pages were either/or?

It just seems such an incredibly odd mistake for the tutor to make - presumably the volume is similar from year to year, it is specified in this spec www.ocr.org.uk/Images/71466-specification.pdf (2009-2011 I think, assume that others will therefore do this?), and the lines to be studied are really clearly set out on the website too - it would make more sense if he had studied the wrong text altogether!

Assuming not, good luck with sorting things out with his sixth form. I am sure you will work around it.

Yes, that's exactly it - he studied lines 1-50, say, instead of 1-100. I spoke to tutor. He was mortified and is speaking to ds's school and examining board tomorrow to see if anything can be done. I don't suppose it can, or else everyone would be claiming they hadn't been taught this, that or the other.

Isn't there still one Latin paper to go--the poetry? So have you/he/the tutor checked he has covered all the poetry? He might be able to make up ground a bit if he gets a very good mark.