Maths grade 2 needs to get to a 6/7 grade over the 2 years of GCSE

[SoTiredNeedHoliday]

Hi,
I need to help my DS to improve his maths out of sight. Has anyone had their child successfully move from a 2 to a 6/7 in maths through the GCSE course. How did you do it? What help can I put in place?
thx

DS1 did the easier, old-style GCSE but doubled his Maths grade in six months.
End of Y10: 33% (C)
Mid Y11 mock: 72% (A)

He did this by practising questions on every topic, and going over all the questions he got wrong.

During study leave just before GCSEs, the teacher offered optional revision sessions. DS1 was often the only pupil to turn up, so the teacher went through practice papers DS1 had done, showing him how he could have got more marks. This was really valuable.

He got an A in the actual exam.

Following

I suppose part of it will be why he is a grade 2 now?
Also what year is he in?

Does he really struggle with maths?
Has he had no teacher/poor teacher?
Does he do his homework?
Is he lazy?

A private tutor might help wit the first 2.

Practise, practice.... going over everything at home to make sure he understands as he goes along.

Got my son a tutor (a uni student doing maths and science) to help him. Yet to see results but we’re just aiming for a 5. (4 in mocks).

Not with maths but we have hopefully done it to a certain extent with English. In Year 9 his on track for Grade was a Grade 2. We got hinm a tutor and in his recent Year 10 exams he got a 4 and a 5. His tutor thinks he can get that to a 6 by next year.

We would be very happy with 4/5 though as thats what he needs to get onto the next stage. Would trying to get to a 5 be more realistic?

@comefrom if his tutor has said he can get a 6 by next yr and DS has already shown he can do this by improving from a grade 2 to a 5, then why are you going backwards by wanting him to aim for a 5? .

Well thats on a good day , if he works and doesn't have a meltdown. if you put ds under too much pressure he crumbles. We are ecstatic that he got 4 and 5 this year but that was based on year 10 mocks that didn;t include the whole syllabus and without the pressure of the actual exams.

If he's willing to work, I'd suggest you go backwards and get him to do past papers/revision guides/workbooks at a lower level to improve his confidence and fill any gaps in his knowledge/ability.

Maths is a subject that progresses at quite a pace, so if he's struggling with the basics, he's going to struggle as the course progresses, not just getting further behind, but also knocking his confidence.

It would be good if you/he could drag him up in the next few months, to improve his basic maths skills ready for the new school year in September so that he can hit the ground running and hopefully keep up during lessons, so that he doesn't fall further behind.

There are lots of free resources online. Have a look at CorbettMaths which have plenty of worksheets but also online tutorials showing how to do things. There are usually also loads of used books on ebay and even plenty of relatively cheap new workbooks on Amazon.

If you start now, you're willing to sit with him and help him/make sure he does it, and he's willing to do the worksheets etc., then, yes, every chance he can improve by several grades.

@Comefrom I get what you’re saying. To be honest, there’s very little difference in revising for a 5 or a 6, so I’d just be optimistic and aim for a 6 (get that into his psyche) that way if things don’t go to plan then he’ll More likely end up with 5 rather than a 4 which is what you suspected might be the result all along.

I'm a maths tutor. It really depends why he is a grade 2 at present. Getting a grade 7 is not trivial and in my opinion, much harder than getting an A on the old style papers.
Is he secure on the basics? Tables; fractions, decimals, percentages; paper methods for X+-÷ including 2 or more digits and decimals; basic shape, angles, coordinates; BODMAS and early algebra;
If not, he would really need to concentrate on these first.
If he is secure on these then I'd recommend getting CGP foundation level Maths busters and really blitzing this from now until September. It has teaching videos, revision pages, practice questions, and tests all in the same app
If my student are aiming for a 6/7, I'd really like them to be a 4/5 by the end of year 9.
So why is he at level 2. Is it because he finds maths really hard to understand and grasp or because he's not bothered with trying. Even if it's the former, he could still make great inroads in 2 years but he'd need loads of practice and dedication and good clear teaching. He'd have to be willing to slog at it step by step ( I tell my students it is like climbing a high mountain. You have to aim for the top but you can only get there by taking a step at a time).

I assume that your child is y9 in September. Personally I think that it's not hard to go from 2 to 6 in 2 years as during that he will learn 3-9 material. (I'm assuming that he'd be in the higher class)

I think it's weird that you got a GCSE number grade in y8. My son is the same age and would be fine with some foundation questions- say fractions but doesn't know enough maths to make an informed prediction about end of y11 performance. My dd is in y11 and at the beginning of y9 there was no way to predict how'd she would take to grade 9 questions on vectors, trigonometry etc but is on course for a 8.

It depends on how the school report grades. Some schools use what they think is the students actual grade level at the time, other schools (like ds's) in Year 9 gave on track for grade predictions.

Pika - the OP says her ds has 2 years of GCSe course so I would assume he is Year 9 now going into Year 10 in September.

in his recent Year 10 exams he got a 4 and a 5.
Our school gives a foundation paper at the end of y10 which has a maximum score of 5. Could this be the case at your school in which case your son might be much higher already?

Pika - there is no tiering for English. His Year 10 exams were based on GCSE questions from last years sample papers but only on half of the content eg, poetry anthology and Inspector Calls, not Romeo & Juliet or Christmas Carol.

In maths ds's school uses an exam board provided Year 10 paper based on content they should have covered and in Science they use Paper 1 (foundation or higher depending which set they are in)

That seems like a lot of pressure to go from a 'grade 2' end y9 to grade 6/7 end y11.

Personally, whilst supporting improvement, I'd also be looking at Plan B and Plan C for after GCSEs, to find schools/colleges/courses that don't require such a high score in maths.

Round here a DC can go on to do A levels in non science subjects with a 4 in maths. But we have vast 6th forms that cover everyone, not small 6th forms trying to keep results high by unnecessary barriers on entering.

Which is pretty much what we have done with ds Teen.

I agree, it does seem like a lot of pressure. However the OP hasn't given any context as to whether this is reasonable or not. What are they like academically in other subjects such as science? If the child is academically able but has an spld, or has missed school due to illness, or has been subject to very poor teaching and that is the reason for the low grades, thats very different to just being an all round mid to low academic ability who styruggles to grasp the concepts.

I'd be checking with school he's doing the higher paper.

Students on a grade 2 at the end of year 9 would be sitting foundation at the end of year 11 as it is extremely unlikely they will be getting anything above a 5.

Get the gcse revision guides and workbooks and bribe if necessary over the summer hols. Once school starts back see how he's doing and consider a tutor starting in maybe January. But he will improve a lot in 2 years

Crikey that’s a big ask. As pp have said, it depends what that 2 represents. If it’s a student genuinely working around primary school level despite years of excellent maths teaching, then I think you’re probably out of luck.

If he is normally an average student who just bombed an exam due to not taking it seriously, then it’s more doable but will require tutoring and significant effort.

Has he got a tutor?

He is getting a 2 because he has alway felt he is not good at maths, he has low confidence and is afraid of getting things wrong so doesn't always try his hardest. He had a hard time with the basics but has been working on them soundly. He also gets anxious in the exams.

He has the end of this year (yr9), the summer where I really want to make some inroads and then year 10 & 11.

I have lined up a tutor for the start of year 10 but getting him improving over the summer will be key I think. The holidays is too long a break fro him to not look at maths.

Ideally I'd like to find a catch up clinic / day camp that he could go to but I haven't found anything as yet..........

His current maths teacher says he should be aiming at a 6 so I think he has the ability he just needs to keep practicing, work on exam technique, and gain confidence in maths

Why does he need a 6/7 tho op? 4 or maybe 5 is fine for post 16 (assuming he's not planning a level maths)

Is his predicted grade a 2 or did he sit a gcse paper and get a 2? If the latter that would be explained by the fact he hasnt covered half the content.

Why do you feel he needs to get a 6 a 7? A 6 is a high B equivalent and a 7 an A equivalent iirc? If maths isn't his strong point why would you think he needs such a high grade? Because I'm assuming he isn't looking at doing maths A level?

But yes a tutor should make a massive difference. Dd got a 2 and a 3 in her English language and lit mocks in year 11. We immediately got her a tutor for 1 hour a week and she got 8s for both. I suspect they may have marked the mocks harshly....her tutor seemed to think so when she saw the papers (and she marks for the exam board, she reckoned they were more of a level 5/6). But she still improved with tutoring.

If he is happy to do some practice over the summer holidays between Y9 and Y10, this can only improve his confidence and will help him to hit the ground running in September.