Any tips from those who’s kids got great GCSE grades?

[ILiveInSalemsLot]

What do you think helped your kids achieve good results?
My ds will be doing his in a couple of years. He’s doing ok but definitely needs to put more effort in. I’d be really grateful for any tips.
TIA

[whiteroseredrose]

Stillnotready is spot on, it's the DC's future so they have to take ownership. I said the same to my DC; they're not studying or revising for me, I've done my O levels, this is for their own future. If they choose to faff around they have to accept the consequences.

That said I provide any support requested. We've talked about revision methods, planning and organisation. I've marked past papers, tested knowledge etc too.

[maZebraltov]

find out what interests and excites him

Sadly we can only come up with eating sweets. But will keep nudging the boundaries. With molly-coddling 5s aren't too tough to get, but A-level study isn't supposed to be molly-coddled, I don't want DS to waste his time on them (if they will be a waste).

I don't know anyone who does a job that truly didn't exist 30 yrs ago. Usually more like 50 yrs ago. Even the items on this list, I know people doing a version of each one 30 yrs ago.

[leonardthelemming]

Interesting list. I wonder how many of these jobs there are. And what qualifications are needed. English and Maths? (Or Math, since it looks like an American list.)

DS2 is a Solution Architect. He had an internal promotion from Solution Designer. Next step up is apparently Enterprise Architect but the company only has one of those so it's either a case of "dead man's shoes" or move to another company. I have absolutely no idea what he actually does, other than that it's nothing to do with designing buildings and that it pays much better than teaching.

But he didn't need any special qualifications. He did eight IGCSEs and A levels in maths and physics but that was more because he found them interesting than because he had a specific career in mind.

I'm rambling. I think what I'm trying to say is to do the best you can and keep your options open.

[Finnifinola]

I didn't even read the books for English, I just watched the films, on 2x speed

@hailsatan I have just read that to dd and she has pronounced you a 'legend'

[maZebraltov]

solution architect = "project manager" in old speak, I reckon. With likely extra skills in IT and technical understanding. Similar to a friend who is a producer for MMOs.

[Isentthesignal]

Cauliflowersqueeze and maisy please teach my dd. All her teachers tell her that her notes are beautiful, stunning, immaculately presented but she spends all her time making lovely flash cards and mindmaps, decorating her bedroom walls with very densely decorated poetry and she does all this while watching Netflix’s because she is so clever she can multitask!

This is a distraction technique, she never actually learns the stuff but she feels she has worked hard and of course won’t listen to me when I tell her that her method is not effective and the teachers express surprise that she doesn’t do well in her exams when she works so hard at producing such beautiful resources!

[leonardthelemming]

she spends all her time making lovely flash cards and mindmaps

I've just watched a video by a "StudyTuber" which was - very unusually - about how she takes notes for physics!

And I was in despair. Everything she wrote down is in the textbook, neatly printed and indexed, so what on earth is the point in writing it down again? At least she had legible handwriting - some people don't.

(Yes, I have heard that some people learn by writing things down, but like I said in an earlier post, this topic isn't something you can learn - not if you expect to answer difficult questions about it. Questions that require you to think.)

Sorry - I have a bee in my bonnet about the teaching and "learning" of physics. But I have had students come back to me and say that they didn't believe me at first, but they tried it and found my methods worked.

[MaisyPops]

leonardthelemming
It depends on the rewriting front.
I give my classes a sheet of key information on a topic. They have a week to learn it and I suggest rewriting.
So it goes like this:

1. Read the material carefully (and check you understand it)
   
2. Copy the material out in the exact format (sometimes I give it in a table and give them blank tables to fill) but with the sheet in front of you
   
3. Read the first half, cover it, write it out, check and correct
   
4. Read the second half, cover it, write it out, check and correct
   
5. Read the whole sheet, turn it over, write it out, check and correct
   
6. Come back in 24 hours time, write down everything you can remember. Check and correct.
   

Do the steps until you can confidently cover the whole sheet.

My logic is that one of the things that slows students down in English literature essays is they have 45 minutes to write the answer, but if they spend 15 minutes of that time trying to remember the thing they did that lesson, you know when Mrs Pops said... and it was sort of like... then that's time not spent crafting an excellent answer. Get the knowledge secure the rest starts to follow.
Staff can't drill exam technique if the knowledge isn't there (though sadly in my subject I've seen it happen lots e.g. drilling students to do a PEE/PEA/PEAL/PETAL paragraph but they haven't got the sophisticated ideas or knowledge to access higher grades. The result is deathly boring paragraphs with little subtance)

[leonardthelemming]

@MaisyPops

Yes, I accept that it may be different for different subjects. And I'm probably biased against writing things down because that isn't the way I learn - I avoided taking notes, and never referred back to any - but I stand by what I said about physics. It's an understanding subject, and once you do understand, you don't need to learn it.

I read somewhere that the lecture, as a method of instruction, is a way to:

"Transfer the notes of the lecturer to the notes of the student, without passing through the mind of either."

I totally subscribe to that idea.

As for writing though, I hated it at school, but now I actually write quite a lot. Educational stuff - mostly commissioned - and fiction. I hope my paragraphs aren't boring - but then I'm not writing under exam conditions, so not really a fair comparison.

Essentially, students should study in the way that best suits them as individuals, rather than following a prescribed, one size fits all, formula. But, they should be willing to experiment with different methods which may prove to be more efficient. Of course, leaving the experimenting until the end of Year 11 is probably not the best idea.

[Finnifinola]

Isentthesignal

OMG I have two of these

It's frustrating

[AChickenCalledKorma]

I've always felt a bit sceptical about the whole "jobs that haven't even been invented yet" premise. Having seen that list, I'm even more so!

Virtual assistant = what used to be called a secretary/PA, but now they sit in a different building to you.

Zumba instructor = PE teacher/sports coach/dance instructor, just with a new sound track.

SEO Specialist/Chief Listening Officer/Social Media Manager = marketting person who now understands the internet as well as big colourful posters.

Drone operator = any kind of job where you had to drive a vehicle, it's just a different kind of vehicle with different rules.

And I'm tempted to say "Nutritionist" = "my mother" since she's the one that taught me to eat vegetables . (I do know there's more to it than that, and my friend's a dietitcian who I wouldn't wish to offend. But honestly, teaching people to eat healthily is hardly a new thing).

[maZebraltov]

My brother got a degree in nutrition in about 1982. It seemed pretty established discipline then.

[Satsumaeater]

I didn't even read the books for English, I just watched the films, on 2x speed

I did something similar when I was at uni. I read the English version of a German text in one sitting. When I got into the exam I looked at it in horror, I could only do 2 questions and needed to do four. I did the two questions I could do, taking an hour over each of them rather than 45 minutes and then tried damage limitation. I can't remember what the 4th question was, but i cobbled something together on this other text. I got a first. Exam technique and not panicking gets you a long way.

Remember the first 50% of the marks are the easiest to get so don't waste time if you are running behind, get on and finish the paper and then go back to the questions you know you can improve on. It's better to finish the paper and get 55% than only do 60% of the paper and get 80% on that part.

[portico]

Practise past qns, as many as you can. Think about what the examiners wants. FFS, I envy kids now - we never had this when I did O Levels.

[portico]

When I say I envy kids nowadays, I mean I envy the mark schemes they have access to. We did not with O and Levels in the early 80s.

[Finnifinola]

You need an A in biology A level to study nutrition at uni, it's hardly a made up thing!

[Isentthesignal]

When I say I envy kids nowadays, I mean I envy the mark schemes they have access to. We did not with O and Levels in the early 80s. Yep and if we did the ante would have been upped sooner. My degree requirements were CC, they are now AAB!

[Sadik]

OT, but the funny thing is I had a friend at uni who did the whole thing with fabulous revision notes & timetable = zero actual work (especially since every time he got behind he had to re-work his timetable).

He got a third - but then went on to a successful career writing (primary level) textbooks I guess his skill at mind maps / laying things out neatly / making it all look orderly & pleasing was exactly what was needed...

[portico]

Isentthesignal said

When I say I envy kids nowadays, I mean I envy the mark schemes they have access to. We did not with O and Levels in the early 80s. Yep and if we did the ante would have been upped sooner. My degree requirements were CC, they are now AAB!

Degree reqs have "upped" because more kids are applying to Uni, than they did in the 80s.

[portico]

Sadik, not sure I believe all the malarkey about revision notes, flashcards et al works. For me, it is a case of learn the questions, practice as many exam qns as possible. And then refer to the mark schemes for lessons learned.

[Sadik]

Exactly Portico - it's generally a distraction from doing any real work!

[MaisyPops]

AChickenCalledKorma
Same. 'Jobs that haven't been invented yet' is up there with '21st century skills' and other babblycrap that people come out with to sound cool and forward thinking (especially when said out the mouths of edtech advisors or education consultants who want to convince you that teaching the course to the students isn't what matters, what matters is hiring a load of tech for the day, collapsing the timetable so thry can learn 21sr century skills. After all #makingmemories is what matters.)

Call me cynical.

My advice is always - yes you could do really well without your exams, no they are not the be all and end all, but your results sure are a strong foundation to build your future. They are GENERAL certificates of secondary education and in time you will specialise, but it's good to have a stack of them in your file and your wider extracurricular interests as you move into the world.

[Isentthesignal]

Degree reqs have "upped" because more kids are applying to Uni, than they did in the 80s. Teachers have got better at teaching to test and students have likewise. I went to a Grammar school in the 80s there weren’t many kids getting AAB!

[user1461609321]

Very interesting reading

[MaisyPops]

To be honest now there is no cap on undergraduate numbers, the requirements have plummeted in some places.
Courses that only need 180/200 UCAS points as handing out unconditional.offers like bloody candy finger bums on seats.

Top courses are still tough to get onto but the rise of unconditional offer is getting worse and worse (with implications for teachong 6th form). It used to only be universities tjay struggled to recruit who'd do them, but seeing as lazy CCC candidates who could have worked to get BBB for a better course started being lured in by freebies and unconditional, now even some.higher ranking universities are offering them (because they were losing students to places offering unconditional).

I've even had studnets talk about going to a lower ranked course on the grounds that the uni has essentially told tjem theu can have 1-1 intervention before assignments are due in! That seems better than a better coirse where you actually have to think for yourself.

There's a certain cohort within the average middle ability band of students who've had intervention on a plate through GCSE and been spoon fed, then expect the same at a level, then think they are going yo university to get a degree rather than having the opportunity to get a degree and It's all about what pathway makes their life the easiest because the role of teachers and tutors and lecturers is to make it easy for them.