Maths - year 10

[KittyMcKitty]

Help! I feel I can’t really see the wood for the trees at the moment!

My ds is in year 10 at a grammar school - he is set 3 of 5 with a gcse target of 8 (I only mention it’s a GS as I don’t know if the fact that the cohort is selected has skewed my view).

Anyway he’s currently being assessed as being somewhere between a mid range grade 6 to a low grade 7 depending on topic. He does his homework and applies himself in class but that is all - he’s not one for putting in extra effort .

He and I have vague concerns about his maths - he is easily distracted and possibly doesn’t have the teacher most suited to him this year.

What should we be doing at this stage to get him on track and not make year 11 a huge slog? I was wondering about the Corbett 5 a day but was unsure what level to start on? He has access to Heggarty Maths - should he work through past topics on there?

I totally appreciate that he’s doing OK but he’s not quite where he should be so would like to give him some focus without it being too onerous iyswim.

Also he’s considering Economics at A Level but not (A level maths) - school say that’s fine unless students are planning on reading Economics at Uni. Does anyone’s dc have any experience of this and how did they find it?

^ sorry if unclear - the set 3 of 5 is for Maths - they aren’t set for other subjects.

Hi
My son is in Year 10 as well. He seems to have reasonable ability at maths - but my younger son- Year 9 is struggling (level 6 currently). We have purchased mymaths - online (think it was £49) - they assess the level and give exercises and tests to that level - I think u can also buy a package that guarantees a GCSE pass (not sure how)!!!
Good luck - I find it so stressful that everything they do now impacts their future and they are really still to young to understand how important it all is 😫

Thank you I think they may have MyMaths at school will look into it.

If your year 9 son is Grade 6 now he’s doing really well!!

What should we be doing at this stage to get him on track

First thing is to nail the being easily distracted on the head - he needs to be maximising the impact of lessons regardless of whether he likes the teacher or not. Can he ask to be moved to the front/away from his mates/away from the window?

Second, he should review all the tests he has done in Y10 and identify where his weak areas are. Once he’s spotted that he’s crap at solving quadratics or can’t remember his angle rules, then focused revision on that topic is a must. He needs to watch videos, do practice questions, mark his answers and then review any he got wrong and try again.

He should have Y10 exams coming up, so using those as a focus/deadline for his revision will be useful and he should see some impact on his results.
Hegartymaths is a brilliant place to start, another 5 million possible resources for maths revision are here: mrbartonmaths.com/students/gcse/

I would save corbett 5-a-day for Y11 when he needs to keep things regularly ticking over.

Thanks Nobel really appreciate you taking the time to reply.

Yes I will get him to ask re seating plan (he sits in front of the teacher in most lessons and has recognised himself that that’s where he needs to be - yes he is one of those annoying, distracted, fiddly students).

Thank you re reviewing weak areas - as I say I can’t see the wood for the trees at the moment! Thanks also for comments re 5 a day - I was flitting between thinking we should do now and too much too soon.

His year 10 exams are after May half term so I need to get him to draw up a proper revision timetable for all his subjects- should he be starting revision now?

What grade should a student aim to finish year 10 on to be on track for an 8?

Sorry another question- he is doing Edexcel Maths - is there an easy to decipher list of all the topics (with approx grade mapping) available?

[Very] approximate list of topics v grade here

mathsgenie.co.uk/gcse.html

Take any list of topics with grades with an extreme pinch of salt. The new GCSE has attempted to move away completely from graded topics. The questions will get harder as the paper goes on, but the hardest question could be a ‘hard’ version of an ‘easier’ topic - like a really nasty Venn diagrams question, for example.

If your DS is aiming for a grade 8, then he should be covering the full syllabus anyway so he just needs to work his way through whatever he has already covered and leave topics that they haven’t been taught yet for Y11.

The Edexcel syllabus is here: qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/GCSE/mathematics/2015/specification-and-sample-assesment/gcse-maths-2015-specification.pdf
Anything in normal type needs to be known by all students. Stuff underlined needs to be known by students aiming for a 4/5 and above (so harder foundation, easier higher), and stuff in bold needs to be known by higher tier students only (so grade 6+, these topics shouldn’t appear at the start of the higher paper).

Thank you both - really appreciate it. Yes they are doing the whole syllabus- not quite sure how close they are to finishing it (I know set 1 have / nearly have as they are moving on to Aditional Maths stuff).

I think he and I are both overwhelmed slightly by the amount of stuff in Maths (especially when added to his 9 other GCSEs all of which he’s targeted 8’s for) - I’m sure if we can work out a strategic approach it’ll all come good - he has the ability but is also a disorganised, distracted 15 year old

My ds is also year 10 and 15 and I'm worried about how quickly the year is going in terms of school. This time next year we will be a month away from the exams.

My ds is sitting two GCSE's next month and I'm petrified. He has AS and has a knack of not revising but doing ok.

I've told him that if he actually applied himself and revised then he would do so bloody well.
He seems to prefer Fortnite at the moment.

Watching with interest as we need to work out a revision plan which doesn't start with a couple of months to go. I'm aiming for the summer holidays to be the starting point for revision for all subjects, even for an hour a day, just to get him in the mindset.

My dd is targeted an 8 and can do a lot of the 5 a day questions but hasn't finished the syllabus so skips questions on stuff that she hasn't learned like vectors. The foundation questions don't cover stuff she knows like the sine rule so she doesn't do those.

jaimelannistersgoldenhand just a tip for your daughter, I went on a 'Gaining A/A at GCSE a few years back. It was run by an examiner for one of the main exam boards. One of the things they had picked up on analysis of papers and grades achieved were that lots getting B/A instead of the A/A was not due to missing marks on tough questions but making mistakes on the really simple stuff early on in the paper.

Having taught a number of top sets, practicing the foundation stuff really helped them - simple things they hadn't revised since Year 9 were very rusty.

I would recommend doing some of the foundation stuff as well.

I agree, part of doing well in mathematics exams is being really solid on basics, so you can work steadily through the paper and have a bit of thinking time for the more challenging problems. I'm encouraging my children to be confident they can work fast enough to complete papers in time, so that they can then slow down slightly for accuracy - at the very top level removing silly errors is more pertinent than learning how to do it.

Zoflorabore why wait for summer? Ds is year 10, his school spent part of a PSHE day teaching them how to create a revision timetable. Just 20 minutes per subject with regular breaks. Obviously they can do 2 or 3 a night and more during holidays.

As they have already covered topics in all subjects for GCSE they are told to make revision notes now whilst this stuff is still fresh in their heads.

Ds has spent this Easter going over everything, watching GCSE pods as recommended by school and doing MyMaths which school pay for.

He is in the 7-9 grade maths group so they are expected to be doing maths daily. He is planning to take further maths at A level.

Thank you, maybe I am being too soft on him, will speak to ds tomorrow about creating a revision timetable.

I went out yesterday and bought some revision cards, he's going to struggle with revision I think but will do so much better if he tries harder.

Ds is in set 3/8 so won't be in the high grades level, I think he's targeted a 5 but he could do better. He's top of his maths class according to recent parents evening.

I find it scary that my baby is now into GCSE territory... I did revise a lot for mine and did well ( back in the olden days of 1994 ) I want him to get into a good sixth form or college as his school only goes to year 11.