I am the one who seems most stressed about DS's GCSE mocks

[Pebbles574]

That's about it really.

He starts his mocks next week and I am feeling sick with worry for him.
He has dyslexia and finds remembering anything really hard. Progress is slow. He hasn't really found a way of revising which seems to work for him.
I have spent so much time over the holidays helping him organise notes, find past papers, structure his revision, making lists of relevant quizzes online to test him.
He HAS been spending time 'revising' but it is a laborious process.
Left to his own devices he seems to 'drift off' and get distracted, so we've been agreeing specific revision 'tasks' with him e.g. for English make a character mind map with 10 relevant quotes.
Often at the end of an hour he will literally have nothing to show for it .
I am at my wits end. He has done some past papers and when we've marked them they have all been about 45%/50%.

These exams are going to be a disaster and I feel sick with worry for him. Meanwhile he just seems resigned to his fate.

I ended up doing an awful lot of my DD's revision 1-1 with her, it was the only way with her dyspraxia to help her focus. She too would have spent an hour doing a character mind map. So instead we sat together. Luckily I had the time and just about enough knowledge.

Is his 45/50% due to lack of knowledge, or slow writing, or not understanding the questions? If you know what is going wrong you'll perhaps be able to help better?

Sounds dreadful. So exhausting.

I actually think these exams are now so hard that it’s off putting to the vast majority of kids.

I do feel for you. I spent an hour once explaining exothermic and endothermic reactions to DD. And then 3 months later another whole hour.

Another couple of things to think about, maybe after mocks.

Is there any subject that he is really struggling with, with maybe high content to learn e.g. history or geography? Would cutting that loose help free up more time to spend on the other subjects?

Think very hard about plans for 6th form. If he cannot manage revision then a non a level route may be best.

Thanks for the replies.

TeenTimesTwo - "Is his 45/50% due to lack of knowledge, or slow writing, or not understanding the questions?" Yes, to all of them

His dyslexia diagnosis was late (Year 10) and although his underlying ability is very high he'd been 'just managing' below the radar. There are lots of subjects where he can't remember/never properly understood the topic in the first place (especially sciences) so we are having to 'start again' with some subjects.
His writing IS slow, but only just below average. He doesn't want to type, as has not yet learned to touch type and it's now too late for this cycle.

Good point about dropping a subject. It would be history. I can't believe the volume required! Also it's a new board/syllabus and there are so few resources for it.

We've also had the same thoughts about 6th form and he is heading towards or creative subjects which still have a continuous assessment element.

I've had similar.

Try not to stress. Do a realistic amount (minus a bit) with him in the time left.

With the results in make a priority list.

The priority which I imposed was maths and English to give options later.

Check necessary qualifications for apprenticeships with him, generally they want a certain number including maths and English

DD's dyspraxia assessment came through Dec y11.
Does he get extra time? If not then chase that ASAP to see if he qualifies.

DD dropped History after mocks, she couldn't answer the questions (even with an open book) and yes there was tonnes to learn. It definitely helped free up revision time for other things.

I agree with Windy . Be realistic for these mocks and then prioritise for the real things when you see the results. Much better to get 6 passes at grade 4/5 including English and Maths, than 9 near misses at grade 3.

At the end of the day, he can only do his best, and you'll need to work with that, whatever the results. So if he is trying, try to keep your stressed feelings under wraps.

Yes, he gets 25% extra time, thankfully, and also takes his exam in a smaller room, which helps him as he found the huge hall made him very anxious.

He is doing 10 GCSEs, so definitely worth thinking about dropping History. I also wonder if the school will suggest him dropping down to double science (currently doing triple).

The problem is that he's at an academic independent school and they are still predicting him all grades 7-9 but it just makes me wonder if they are seeing the same child?

I'd suggest to them that scaling back a little bit - 8 GCSEs instead of 10 is perfectly fine! - and having better grades would be better for them and for him.
I do feel for you - this is exhausting. The best thing about the mocks is that he'll get a chance to practise sitting the exams so don't stress too much about the results at this stage.
A friend of mine went through this with her DS1 but his dyslexia wasn't diagnosed until Y12. Her strategy was basically to make him revise with her and friends she roped in to help and keep going over and over and over everything until enough sank in. He did OK although I think she still refers to them as 'her' GCSEs after all the effort she put in!

Yes, this 1-to-1 approach is what DH & I have been trying to do - we've divided the subjects between us and have been working with him on each of 'our' subjects.
He's a highly visual learner, so we've been trying to find teaching videos for everything and then reducing it into 'bite-sized' memorable chunks which we can then test and retest him with.
We're also trying a lot of Quizlet (with pictures) and also Tassomai for sciences.
I am completely exhausted! I swear I could now sit the GCSEs in the arts/humanities subjects I am working with him on (would probably do better than I did in my 'O' levels too )

We did the same and yes it's exhausting. It's not sustainable and longer term these young people need to find a route that suits them.

So, see how the mocks go.
If he bombs out, that gives you ammunition to go to the school to discuss dropping something.
If he does fine, you know not to worry.
Win-win.

Are thee any taped revision versions about that he could listen to? Subliminal in the background?

Has he tried speech to text or ClaroPDF to read for him?

Have you tried visual calendars?

Does he get a scribe

As a parent who went through this last year, I wanted to remind you to keep things in perspective. If he completely bombs, and fails everything - he’s failed one attempt. It’s not one strike and you’re out, he can retake next year. Please don’t pile pressure on both of you thinking that it’s the be-all and end-all; it will be nice if he passes but it’s not the end of the world if he doesn’t.

Just to follow on from that, my DS didn’t get the predicted grades - but did pass most of them, which was enough. He’s now doing an extended Btec in science at college which, with the continual assessment, works far better for him. HTH.

Thanks - those are all great suggestions.

We are trying audio versions of e.g. his English texts, but to be honest his memory isn't great for audio alone and he likes to watch films with the subtitles on, for example, as it helps him to process the speech better.
He doesn't have a scribe, and said he doesn't want one - I think he'd find it quite difficult and instrusive. His writing isn't very slow - just below average, so he should be OK. Between GCSEs and A levels I want him to learn to touch type.

We're still trying to 'catch up' with what might help really - I'll have a look at text to speech. He needs a bit of convincing to try new things.

It seems that we've automatically done things to adapt to his style even before we knew about his dyslexia - having colour-coded files and timetables for example. His visual processing and abilities are fantastic, so we just need to play to that strength as much as possible.

Good luck to him long term.

Perhaps not so much in the mocks?! Doing badly was a useful spur to mine tbh.

Between mocks and exams past paper questions helped. We were able to give feedback from model answers on line, do you have access to something similar?

Have the mock papers been copied in to yellow paper?

I've handed out exams papers at schools recently and it's just occurred to me that non were yellow

GreenTulips - there's been no mention of this, but then again it's not something that seems to be an issue for DS (coloured overlay tests didn't show any difference in his assessment).

Yes, we have past papers and questions for most of the subjects.
History is a bugbear as it is a new syllabus (AQA) and there is hardly anything. The more I think about it, the more I think he should drop this!

I would echo advice you've been given. In a similar situation with bright dyslexic DS. Its so hard to know how hard to push so he reaches his potential according to his ability or just accept that good enough is enough. His intelligence will get him the passes he needs and may be we need to accept that 50% is enough to get to the next stage. Definitely drop a subject - 9 gcse s is plenty and be wary of putting too much pressure on him or yourself. My DS finds talking easier so I test him while he walks around and kitchen. Although I have found that working for these mocks he has taken control of his work for the first time and has a more mature attitude and is doing past papers willingly - I do think children with specific learning difficulties mature later and reach their potential later so may be we just need to get then through until they find subjects they love and methods that work for them - and without putting them off with too much pressure in the meantime. Greater maturity will be the biggest help if we can help them through until then.

It sounds like you are doing all the right things, it is thought, the year my DS1 did GCSEs I was exhausted and he hated me!

Just on the history - there should be some exemplar matrrial available ; all exams apart from maths and English are totally new spec for 2018 so if you have sample questions for MFL or geography etc they will be available for history too. Maybe ask his teacher?

clary - thanks, yes, there are some sample materials on the exam board websites etc, but I guess I meant more of the 'extra' materials that end up being developed by teachers for sites such as Quizlet, TES, YouTube etc.
DS finds it very hard to process page after page of textbook and responds best to a mix of video learning/quizzes/ interactive tests. Not much has been developed yet for the new History syllabus and piecing it together from other boards runs the risk of getting the wrong content.

Ah yes I see what you mean.

It's proper bobbins to be doing new exams for the first time :(. I guess the variety of history syllabi from different boards is causing the lack of material. For MFL for example, there can't be that much variation in what you need to learn; plus some boards are not even offering it now (eg OCR, which DD had last year) so that's narrowed it down too.

I agree with others, ask about dropping it; be prepared for them to say no, tho, especially as it's a key Progress 8 subject.