DS thinks he might fail his AS Maths. What are his options pls?

[WilfSell]

DS is worried he might fail his AS Maths because he thinks he did really badly in his second paper. I'm cautioning him to wait and see but if this is the case, do you know what his options are.

He is convinced he will simply not progress onto A2. However, I thought the Maths A level was linear now? So if so, won't the teachers have some discretion?

And are there resits for AS/A levels these days? College very uncommunicative and DS won't ever ask for advice (hence not doing as well as he should...!)

Also, he's really not a "push-able" young man so I need your best strategies for caring about doing well without alienating him. He's a committed sportsman and this is taking up a lot of his time. however he has time to study, he just doesn't seem to be doing as much as I think is enough!

Wait till he gets his results.

What other subjects is he doing? If he is still doing 3 others then he probably needs to drop one anyway. Maths does get harder at A2 but I wouldn't 't start panicking yet until he has got his grades as he might have done better than he thought.
Yes you can retake papers at the end of year 13.

A lot resit Maths and science papers in y13, even with a reasonable AS grade. Understanding can develop over the second year and improve ums totals.

I got a D at AS due to very poor teaching. I did a few resits and ended up with a high A (over 90% overall). All is not lost!

Maths A-level isn't linear, however progression to A2 is usually conditional on having achieved a reasonable grade at AS (my school sets this at a D). The reason for this is that the AS is worth 50% of your overall grade. A2 modules are harder than AS and grades for these are usually lower, so a low grade at AS would normally mean a poor grade/fail at AS.

If he has just bodged one module but did well on the other two, he will be able to resit the bodged one next June alongside the 3 A2 modules.

Poor/fail grade at A2 that should say.

Thanks all. Really helpful to know the AS can be resat, and that it may not affect A level. Yes, his college sets progression at a D. And he does think he's done ok in the other papers. It just all depends on the result I guess...

But he seems to have written himself off. I pointed out he'd had some major anxiety issues just before and even during the exams (he threw up just before a History paper and the college sent him home saying they'd adjust his marks). But he's adamant that he doesn't want to go down the extenuating circumstances route if he's asked to drop it.

He's doing 4 AS and Maths is his one STEM subject which I'm really keen for him - as was he - to continue because it keeps lots of other options open later. But he's got it into his head that if he gets less than a D overall it is curtains. The other subjects are graphic design, history and business studies (yes, ALL over the place) but this was his choice despite my HOURS of lecturing advice.

His Art GCSE took up all his time during revision periods, so I'm not mad keen on GD unless he is clear he wants to work in that field, but it is not my choice!

Honestly, it's depressing. He's gone from being a kid who got 100% in his maths SATS and then didn't get his predicted A* for GCSE maths, and I think he's got this 'failure' mentality in his head - because he got an A, FFS. That, and being all teenagery, can't be arsed, far more interested in sport and music. He swears the college classes haven't been 'set' but I am fairly sure they have (informally). He's been in a group with the mathematicians who didn't do as well at GCSE so they don't really focus.

I'm at a loss really. I don't want to see him limit his options when he's so unclear what to do next, but I don't want to force my opinions, experience down his throat as he's 17 and needs to take adult decisions a bit more.

It is now crunch time (AS results tomorrow) so am reviving this thread, because college has said he needs to make selection choices THERE AND THEN tomorrow - ie. if he doesn't get threshold grade, he may need to choose something else.

This seems VERY rushed to me - he won't let us go in with him so we're a bit about how to help him. Not that he wants our help but that's the problem: he seems to think if he's blown this one module, he obviously isn't good enough to carry on. The reality is that it isn't as black and white as this, and he needs to think through what he really wants before making a decision - he has no idea what he wants to do next, so I don't want him to make decisions too quickly.

Argh. Teenagers.

Has he seen the grade boundaries for the maths modules? He might then be able to get some sort of idea of how he has done before he goes in and gets his results.