If your DC needs to resit maths, please read!

[noblegiraffe]

If your DC got a D in maths GCSE then they will need to resit GCSE maths. If they got below a D, then they can take functional skills instead, but not all schools offer this.

The pass rate for 17 year olds resitting GCSE maths is a dismal 35.8%

The first chance to resit is in November, with results in January. If they fail in November, then the next chance is June. If they pass in November, that frees up the rest of the year to concentrate on other subjects. If not, it means maths lessons, maths homework and preparing for exams in June when they have other exams going on.

If they fail in June, then they need to continue resitting in Y13.

Students should try as hard as they can to pass in November. Unfortunately, I've taught a lot of resit classes and this is unusual. They forget a lot of maths over the summer. Then they spend time settling into their sixth form courses. Then November comes around really quickly and they suddenly start thinking about maths but it's too late.

If your DC needs to resit maths, I would suggest that they start preparing for November now, in order to counter the backwards slide over the summer.

There are some very useful websites here:

corbettmaths.com/5-a-day/
www.hegartymaths.com
www.mrbartonmaths.com/gcse.htm

I know a lot of students will see their other courses as their priority, but I know my resit class this year spent a lot of time wishing they'd got it out of the way in November.

It may be possible for your ds to take iGCSE in addition to the standard GCSE Cafe but you would have to enter him as a private candidate and may need to use a different centre.

Thanks catslife - that's interesting - I'll definitely look into it. As a matter of interest, do you know if iGCSE maths has one or two tiers? And how the content compares with the new 9-1 maths exams?

Sorry if I've missed this but can you tell me the percentage needed for a 4 and 5 for edexcel foundation in maths? My son is sitting it next year and is very borderline at the moment. Thanks.

You needed 122/240 for a 4 and 158/240 for a 5 on Edexcel Foundation.

I'm afraid I know nothing about Igcses! You're not allowed to sit Foundation and higher GCSE for different exam boards though.

Thanks noble and catslife for all the information. I'm going to have a think about this over the next week or so, and have a look at the iGCSE maths content and past papers with DS. If it looks more his 'style' (he finds wordy questions with lots of components difficult to untangle, but is good at the straightforward stuff) I may get him tutored for iGCSE in November and forget AQA. I realise he'll be starting at 6th form college in a few weeks and will be in the throws of 3 new A Levels, but perhaps one more push at this stage will be enough to get him a 'good pass'....

Cafe iGCSE doesn't have a November resit. It does have 2 tiers though!
There is a "final" sitting of the old A*-G iGCSE in January 2018 - I don't know whether that's open to new candidates or just resits. The first sitting of the new 9-1 iGCSE is June 2018.
Because it's an international exam some of the questions are less wordy and written more clearly to allow for the fact that many candidates don't have English as their first language. I would have a look at the Edexcel iGCSE see link and see if it may suit his style qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-international-gcses-and-edexcel-certificates/international-gcse-mathematics-a-2016.html as more schools are already Edexcel centres this should be OK.

catslife you're a star. Will do my research this week and post my findings (incase anyone else wants to join the maths iGCSE journey with me). Many thanks everyone for all your input

Thanks Noble.

Thanks Noble. Dd has just enrolled at college and has been put into the foundation group (she got 95 in her retake earlier this year, so a 3) and is doing a full year to retake in May/June as her mark was too low for November resit. She is happy with that, so am l.

Does anyone know what happens if your DC was in hospital and unable to sit the maths GCSE.

Obviously she got ungraded. Can't enrole in college as she is still in hospital. But is well enough to revise and take a resit in November.

Can this be arranged without college registration?

Sofa if you phone the school she is registered at (or was registered at) you can phone the exams officer and ask if she can sit it as an external candidate. If she doesn't want to or can't sit it at her old school you could phone local sixth forms and ask the same question.

sofa would suggest contacting the local hospital education service. They may be able to provide tutors and/or revision materials. They may be able to liase with her old school about exam arrangements on your behalf. I understand that the hospital education service can either provide an invigilator to enable your dd to sit the exams at home or have a room at the hospital where she can sit the exam if she would prefer not to return to her old school.

oh even better advice from catslife - ignore mine!

Shes already having tutoring from the hospital school. And did all her other exams in hospital. Unfortunately a couple of surgeries and an infection meant she miss all 3 maths papers.

But they seem to think she can't take the November resit. Seems a shame to have it hanging over her for a whole year.

I wonder if it is because it's not counted as a resit as she didn't sit any of the original papers. Have you looked into whether she could take the IGCSE in January?

The January IGCSE can only be taken as a resit.

I'm pretty sure she can take the November exam because she will have been 16 or over at the end of August.
The resit only rule is to stop kids being entered early, not to restrict entry only to those who sat it in June.

Yep, here you go:

"In respect of an assessment for a GCSE Mathematics qualification which it makes available an awarding organisation must take all reasonable steps to ensure that each Learner who takes an Assessment by Examination during the month of November has reached at least the age of 16 on or before 31 August in the same calendar year as the assessment"

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/592159/GCSE_Subject_Level_Conditions_for_Mathematics_Feb_17.pdf

Do you think that would apply to IGCSE Noble or is Jeanne sadly correct?

This is the link for AQA resits.
For the 9-1 GCSE Maths they are accepting new entries for pupils aged 16 years or older as well as resits.
www.aqa.org.uk/news/resit-opportunities-in-gcse-mathematics

Don't know about IGCSE, but like I said, resit rules were introduced to stop early entry. Generally anyone who is past the age of GCSEs can sit whichever exams they like. Wouldn't be good for people needing to pass qualifications for jobs if they were excluded from certain sittings!