Lazy teen with GCSEs in TWO months

[blondel0216]

I have the loveliest 15/16 year old but he has his GCSEs starting on 14th May and getting him to revise is a nightmare! He needs 5 passes to get onto his further ed course but doesn't seem to grasp the importance of what he is about to undertake!! He has 25 exams over 5 weeks and I am panicking!!
Any advice greatly received!

Plenty of red wine!

I share your pain. I have one dc doing a-levels,and one doing GCSEs. They are doing some work. However, I,don’t think they realise the importance of it all.

Dc2has been predicted reasonable,grades. However, he doesn’t seem to realise he needs to put the work in to get these. He has started revising, but I don’t know how productive it is.

Is he actually headed to pass his GCSEs or are the school flagging up concerns? How panicked do you need to be?

Can he go to after school revision sessions? Could you sit with him and test him on stuff? Bribery?

We backed off with DD by then. She had anxiety and not coping with all the stress from school. The last two years was constant regurgitation of the same information. They knew it all already, just practicing answering exam questions.

She got all passes and is at college now.

School flagged concerns but said with hard work he could pass. Lots of pushing from school and home and private tutors etc.
Love to hear other parents with positive outcomes.
Thank you, there is hope amid the stress!

Make sure you have a plan B in place if he doesn't get the 5 passes.
e.g. a Level 2 course he would do whilst possibly retaking English & Maths. At least then you'll know there us a back up and doing a 3 year 6th form might help with maturity.

What results did he get on his mocks?

Does he really, really want to do his further ed course? If so, I would get him to work out what his back up option will be if he doesn't make the grades. It might make him realise that his first choice is dependant on grades.

He failed all but two mocks.
We have a backup plan in place. I know it's not the end of the world if he doesn't get the grades he needs/wants but it would be nice if he was motivated enough to try. He's quite an immature 15 year old. A lovely boy but just so lazy.

Sometimes you have to stand back a bit and let them fail. Encourage, support, but in the end a wake up call aged 15 is a lot kinder than a wake up call in 5 years time when he might not get another chance.

At some point, I think you just need to stop pushing. Easier said than done, I know.

Reading with interest. I have a lazy year 9, 14 year and old, who only does the bare minimum.

Agree with Allington. We don't let kids fail and it is not good for them. School will be doing loads as long as his targets are pass grades as they have to be able to justify the grade he gets and evidence all the intervention and extra help they put in. If you run around after him as well, what is he actually doing for himself?

Failing now (with a workable plan b in place) may well be the best thing for him. Otherwise you'll just have two more years of the same at college.

No advice but I share your pain, we went through exactly the same last year. My DS did manage to pass his exams, and has stayed on for A levels, but it is exactly the same - minimal effort.

It is just so frustrating when you know someone is capable of so much more but just 'can't be bothered'.

Although to be perfectly honest I was exactly the same at school/university .

It's a bit late now. You have done everything by the sounds of it, private tutors, supporting the school etc.

Now it is up to him, agree with drink wine.

So he needs 5 passes. I bet though he is doing more than 5 GCSEs. Maybe get him to focus on the 5 that are important to the next stage of education. He will still have to turn up to all the exams (the school will have already paid for them).

My DS has the same issue, just can't be arsed to do revision or practise long-form answers.
The only thing that seems to have got through to him was a family friend telling him that the easiest time to pass GCSEs is in a school setting. That he'd just be making life harder for himself by slacking off now as he'd have resits alongside A-levels or work, which is much, much harder than with school teachers' help. That we aren't moaning for the sake of it, but because we don't want him to have to do all that work again for resits. That he can't leave this stuff and hope it goes away.
DS went away a bit shell-shocked, but has knuckled down to serious work since then, and his grades have picked up markedly.

Exactly the same situation at chez Snew.

We've had to back off, but occasionally I can't stop my frustration bubbling over and he gets the rant.

3 months and it'll be over

Thanks again everyone, great advice. It really is good to share!

Latest round of mocks, DS is up to level 3s in English L&L (was at L1&2 before Christmas). I'm more hopeful that he can scrape passes now if he keeps his finger pulled out...