AS maths re-takes. WTF? Any maths profs around?

[Haffdonga]

DS didn't do as well as he or his teachers expected in his AS exams across the board (no one massive failure, just a general dropping of random points in every subject). School has decreed a maximum of 3 modules to be retaken for fear of overload at A2s. Fair enough, I trust their judgement.

But we had a parents evening last night. Every one of ds's teachers wants him to retake their subject. His maths teacher is arguing strongly that he can retake the entire AS maths exam alongside his A2s (plus another 3 retakes from his science subjects). This is crazy, no?

Mr Maths argues that retaking maths is not the same workload as other subjects because each A2 module is just a more difficult version of the AS module and so wouldn't require as much additional work. He also says that when A levels all happen in one year this will be what every student is doing, so ds is just getting in early.

DS is keen as it holds out the remote chance of upping his grade by 2 levels but I'm not sure if he is really aware how much of his busy social life this will involve.

Is Mr Maths right or would this be a crazy ask of ds?

I don't know how A level maths is structured.

But a million years ago I did maths and further maths A levels.
The maths exams were a walk in the park, because I'd done much harder stuff for further maths, so that logic is right I think. It also works in a simpler way for DD1 doing GCSE. Sometimes I show her slightly harder stuff at home, so school questions seem easy by comparison.

otoh, if he hasn't grasped AS maths properly, isn't he likely to struggle with A2 maths?

Hopefully noblegiraffe will be along in a minute.

Thanks Tween . His problem wasn't so much not grasping (he'd been doing a lot of harder papers for revision). It was more a panic thing in exams and getting in a flap over easy basic stuff that he could do in seconds straight after the exam. (Not that this means he's a good candidate for the added stress of a hundred retakes though )

The core Maths papers do build on each other so it is probably the "easiest" subject to resit. When your DS has studied for C3 and C4 in year 13 then the C1 and C2 papers will seem much easier. He'll still need to do past papers and go over the content to get ready for the exam but it shouldn't be as much work as say preparing for a History resit.

Thanks Webwiz , so maybe Mr Maths has a fair point.
I don't know about DS but I'm not sure if I can stand the stress of this A level lark.

Is he sitting the second level of the applied module he took in y12 or a different applied module, like statistics then mechanics?

Yes studying A2s will make some of the AS stuff seem easy, but I'd be very concerned that underperformed by 2 grades at AS. Why does he think this was? Not only does he have to get 2 grades higher on his AS modules without any more AS teaching, but get 2 grades higher on his A2 modules than he did at AS. A2 modules are harder, and when students drop a subject for Y13, that isn't so that they can doss around the common room, but because they need the extra time for the second level of study. 1 grade higher might be realistic but I would strongly advise getting a tutor in now for help with both AS and A2 work. Something went wrong in Y12 and simply ploughing on with y13 and adding to the workload won't fix that.

Resitting all 3 modules will also mean an exceptionally busy and stressful exam period. That could also affect how he does on his A2s, especially if he is thinking of retaking his science as well. Previously when students retook AS modules they had the option of doing this in January which spread the load, and some A2 modules were also taken in January. The loss of January modules which only came in for this year 13 means that what the teacher is suggesting won't have been done in previous years. Linear courses are designed to be sat in one go and are a different kettle of fish to taking 2 years worth of modules in one sitting.

He doesn't need to be entered till March though, so he can always wait to see how this year goes before making a final decision on how many to resit.

I think I would trust the schools advice on only 3 resits and choose the papers that will be the most beneficial to your DS.

My friends DD resat 7 AS papers this summer and really regretted it as it made for a long busy exam period and what she gained on the AS's she lost on the A2's.

Hi Noble
He'll resit AS mechanics which he massively ballsed up plus possibly C1 and C2 but I'm not sure whether he does stats or more mechanics this year. I agree that it seems over-optimistic that he could up his grade so much and I'm worried that Mr Maths is just pushing his own subject to the possible detriment of the others.

Why ds did quite so much worse than expected is a bit of a mystery to us all but a kind of exam panic seems to have been what happened. It wasn't lack of understanding. His practice papers. Solomon papers and class stuff were all consistently high A.

I've suggested to ds that maybe it's too much and he's furious that I 'don't have confidence in his abilities'.

So he should have got an A and he got a C? I can see why Mr Maths is tempted to get him to retake the lot if it was a case of exam panic instead of lack of ability. However, if it was exam panic, then such a huge number of exams is only going to make it more likely to happen again. Did he have similar issues with his GCSEs? He will need to come up with some way of tackling this, relaxation techniques, highlighting key phrases in the paper, double checking etc, even if he doesn't resit so many.

I'd be very dubious about him improving his mark in mechanics if he does take statistics this year. Mechanics is quite a tough one and would need a lot of revision in June if he won't have done any since.

Yes, exactly Noble .

It happened a bit in GCSE, but it just lost him the *. If we could find a relaxation technique I think we'd crack it but it's very difficult to replicate the stress of exam conditions in practice or tutorials. I agree with you though, if he's a panicker then piling on the stress doesn't seem sensible.

Thanks really so much for your input. I may get him to read the thread because he wont listen to me

My DS did A2s in summer 2013, and resat his AS papers. We got a tutor for him too, which was a great help. He had done statistics at AS, and the tutor said he wasn't great at that, so DS sat in on Y12 AS statistics lessons in his frees. He got his C at AS up to an A at A2, but he did S1 in Jan, and C1 and C2 in the summer. He said they were so much easier after having done C3 and 4, and got full marks in one of them! Best of luck to your DS.