Anyone else's Y11 dcs dyspraxic/dyslexic?

[Madhairday]

Just wondered how theyre coping with GCSE stress, particularly considering the new set up and lack of grade boundaries etc.

DD has use of a Chromebook for exams but missed the extra time criteria by a few marks. Senco said it was very stringent DD is panicking because her processing speed is much lower than her peers so she is barely getting the papers finished and not having time to check - because of this she is making lots of SPag errors which are losing her marks. English teacher always says the same - her ideas are excellent, but the execution sloppy. But she can't do much about poor processing being dyspraxic.

Any study tips? She is very disorganised but still working so hard. She loses a lot of bits of paper. Websites are helping a lot.

She wants to go on to do A Levels and uni and should be able to given historical grades but I am afraid this year's cohort will be used to make a political point about standards and dc like her will suffer for this. Hope I'm wrong.

My dyspraxic DD did GCSEs 2 years ago, and luckily did get extra time.

I organised her revision for her and I did a lot of it 1-1 with her too. We were lucky that I have the time and confidence to do so.

I would say that on longer written questions it is easier to get the first half of the marks than the last, so better to attempt every required question than try to do only 3/4 of them perfectly.

Possibly bullet point main points if running out of time rather than write in sentences. If she is losing the SPaG marks might as well get the content ones?

Play to strengths in maths if there is a type of question she struggles with just miss it out on the first pass.

Keep praising the effort and say that trying is the main thing?

What revolutionised my exam technique as a dyslexic was two things firstly rigid timings, never spend too long on one question the first few marks of the next question are always easier to get than the last few of the question you are on. Essay plans, spend first couple of minutes doing a bullet point plan labelled plan if you get finished put a line through it, if you don't finish leave the plan you never know you might get a mark for a bullet point also helps to organise thoughts.
Finally don't panic.

My DS is badly dyspraxic and mildly dyslexic (if you notice by my posts im dyslexic to, he got dysrpaxia from being premature) He gets 25% extra time and a reader and scribe (he gets scribe for his dyspraxia as with it he also struggles with his wrist and finger joints). He really wants to get good grades so is trying hard, but he REALLY strugles to revise, what he has foud useful is flashcards ordered by coulour for subject and topic, giant mindmaps (and i mean giant) for each topic of each subject and revison posters (for things like case studys and scince equations) The school also require them to do lots of past papers which sort of help. He struggles with his attention span and dosent revise for more than an hour or two a day. He couldnt revise in the quiet or with telly or music on as it distarcted him,what he found really helpful was revising with piano music in the background, you can find long playlists on youtube. DS likes structure though and is struggling to structure his english and maths revision due to the new systmen and how he cant aim for cerqtin marks or do proper practice essays ect. really struggling with english the most.
study maths is a great maths revison website at new course you can constantly do questions and get new ones and it tells you how to do the questions if your getting the wrong.
My GCSE science is good for videos if your DC's are visual learners, you can only do C1, B1 and P1 for free after that you have to pay, DS school payd for subscription.
Get revising is a good website for making your own and reading other peoples resources for basicly all subjects, it also has a lot of past paper
Hope this helps

Thanks all, some really helpful suggestions. DD definitely seems to learn better visually so has found some good YouTube revision channels. Will check out those other links. She favours brightly coloured revision cards too and sticks them round the house.

I am gutted about the extra time as she would be able to show what she can do so much more but was just within the limit on the test. At least she has the Chromebook as she can't write well at all with wrist problems and processing difficulties.

Looks like I need to do some closer supervision as we go into the last strait - she does get very easily distracted and having her phone in with her is not great. She likes music though, says it helps her... not convinced.

Begging DD is really struggling with English too, especially English lit - it's the unknown of it all with no past papers as you say. There are very few resources to help. She finds science and maths much easier - her brain seems to respond to the more literal/fact based subjects. Although she is great at RE so doesn't always figure.

Will be glad to get these over with. So much stress.

Mad DS exactly the same hes appalling struggles with english and other essay based subjects but is great at maths and science (and music)