How much did GCSE Maths/English tutoring help your DC?

[goldangel]

and how did they do in GCSE?

Also interested to know when they started the tuition, for how long and any other tips etc.

Thanks

DD1, didn't have an external maths tutor, but had me. She narrowly missed an A. Without my ongoing intervention she would have got a C at best from where she started secondary.

DD2, currently y9 has an English tutor. I'll let you know in August 2021 whether it was worth it. Seriously though, the tutor is giving her 1-1 help, at her pace, in an engaging way. He is providing skills building input that I would not be capable of. I'm viewing this as long term, not a sprint. I'm aiming to give her the best chance of a passing grade at GCSE.

I think you need to know why you want the tutor. e.g. To get over a particular tricky spot (so short term only?), to get a particular GCSE grade(so all the way to end y11?), to increase general confidence (so not necessarily focussing on GCSE specific stuff). Or because you just think you should? If for a particular GCSE grade is there a reason why you want that grade (e.g. to access a particular course?)

Also you need to think whether your finances run to tutoring for years, or whether they are more limited and if so when the best time would be.

Thanks Teen very helpful.

DS starts year 9 is September, so would start then, we are looking long term for him. He has a few weaker areas in Maths so the aim is he doesn’t struggle and passes comfortably.

Is once a week and school holidays off ok?

Thanks

Once a week in term time is what we do.

My Ds is in year 7 and sees a math tutor for an hour per week, he got a letter home saying he had fallen behind in his flight path for maths. Hoping it will help.

Did has no confidence in maths at all and has several dyslexic type tendencies. No idea why the confidence issues were there as it didn't come from us or school - everyone tried to build her up, but she was like it from being small regarding maths. It was always 'I can't' when maths was concerned. Her results were never really bad but quite borderline.

In winter y10 we got a maths tutor and he was fabulous. She saw him for an hour each week, usually term time apart from just before GCSEs. She went over her test papers when she got them back, plus lots of exam prep - not just past papers but techniques, etc.

Her final mock was about a 4 iirr in the January, and test scores about 4/5 with the odd 6 after.

Real thing and she got a 7. She cried when she saw it! We knew she could do it, her tutor knew she could do it - she just needed to believe it. And she did :)

Thanks Teen

Aragog what a lovely story, thanks for sharing.

Hope the tutor helps your DS vicki

We are using an English tutor for DS. We started with her since the beginning of last summer (DS is in Year 11). Thing is, DS has got a conditional offer at a very selective sixth form, but as well as a minimum of six 8s (or A*) he has to get a minimum of 7 for English language. He is strong in the maths/sciences (which is what he will do for A level) but English has always been his weakest subject, and once we applied for the sixth form, we felt we probably needed to something about the English, if it was not going to let him down (the exams he sat for entrance to the sixth form were all in the subjects he wants to take for A Levels, ie his strengths, NOT English).
The real advantage of a tutor is that you get to pick somebody that really gells with your DC (we got her via the internet, but it was one of these sites where the prospective tutors described their approach, and I reviewed what she had written with DS, and we felt she sounded right. She was also reasonably local, but then we are in London, with options) A tutor sits with your DC 1-to -1, so can help focus on their particular weaknesses. DS is a confusing mixture - very strong in creative writing, very weak in the "PEE" type analysis - tendency to desperately over-complicate and go off topic, while not giving the basics. His results vary tremendously from piece to piece and he has never been able to have any sense of how he has done. The tutor has told him that he is her most complex student.

He managed to just, just scrape the 7 he needs for sixth form in his mock in December, but that was much better than he had been doing, and he feels he has improved since then. We know we are just going to have to take the hit on spelling, he has never been able to spell, and I spent many, many years trying to help him before we decided it is just not possible. He spells like a dyslexic, but isn't according to all the other measures. But having a tutor is who is able to really break down for him what it is that the examiners are looking for, and go over everything he does and point out where he gets it right and where he gets it wrong is so useful. No teacher who has 30 kids in the class is going to have the time to give that level of individual attention, and he is clearly just too quirky for them to have a hope of trying.
So hopefully it will pay off. We will see come August.

DS1 took higher paper GCSE maths, he passed says he wouldn’t have had without the tutors help.

DS2, severely dyslexic, taking foundation GCSE maths, same tutor, working hard, but even with the tutors help, not sure if he will pass.

Depends on the child, they all have different skills.

Received a letter informing us that DD(Year 10) is falling behind in chemistry and physics. personally we cant fund a tutor for both at the minute so have recently signed up to Tassomai at 45 a month. I know they also do a maths program for 30 a month. I don't know if this would be of interest to you

Hogswarts2004 £45 per hour! Ouch! We've been using an online tutoring service for my daughter which I first read about here a couple of years ago. The tutors vary in price with her maths tutor being the cheapest at £18 per hour and history the most expensive at £24 per hour. We've found the tutors there to be really flexible and my daughter has been booking additional sessions with additional tutors based on what she has struggled with in her mocks. At the moment she's having french weekly, maths weekly and alternating between history and english on alternate weeks. It's not cheap, but using the online service keeps it down and it's only for a short period of time that. Looking forwad to the end of GCSE's and having some money again!! I've put my referral link below - if you register via this link, I get £10 in credit which will certainly help

www.mytutor.co.uk/signup.html?rc=ADWSEC

Got a pass (maths) when such was frankly unthinkable a year before. The tutor took a completely different tack and bolstered confidence. Worth every bloody penny!

Placemarking!

Van What did the tutor do? (Amateur interest)

DD had a rubbish maths teacher in year 11, so I sent her to a tutor. She took iGCSE maths early, in the January, and achieved a good A*.

teentimestwo he cast a magic spell (or something) 😉

She said that he explained things in a (different) way that she could understand and, crucially, was fantastically patient which took away the stress of thinking she wasn’t keeping up. She was diagnosed discalculic and took the foundation paper. Lucky for her it was the year the syllabus changed so the pass mark was about 18%. Massive sighs of relief all round that no retakes required!

Dd has a Maths tutor, right through her GCSE, she'll sit it this year. We did it for confidence building but It's been a relief because her Maths teacher isn't very good for all sorts of reasons and the tutor has helped plug the gaps and has taken a lot of the stress out having a poor teacher. Half her class have a tutor!

Dd had no tutors. But the English department at her school is fantastic, the school is non selective academically but every single child got at least a Grade 4 in English Language (dd got a Grade 9).

In maths I signed her up to Tassomai following slightly disapointing mocks. I reckon it raised her grade from 6/7 to an 8 (and in science it raised her from 5/6 to 7/8.

Ds, however is at a differnet school and really struggles with English. Despite his targets being a Grade 6 he was only on track to get a Grade 2 so I started to send him to an English tutor once a week in term time. It was slow progress at first but school now way he is on track for a Grade 4 but they know he is capable of more, however they struggle to get more out of him and he is languishinh in bottom set with children who struggle with basic spelling and grammar and don't understand the content of the texts they are reading. Ds understands stuff, but finds organising his thoughts in a piece of writing incredible difficult. The tutor, however is persevering and just recently she says he has been producing work of a Grade 5-7 standard so she is hopeful (he is in Year 10).

Belo - Tassomai is £45 PER MONTH which covers all three sciences, not per hour. I really reccomend it. Igf anyone wants a refer a freiend code that expires tomorrow I think PM me.