Has anybody got positive stories of gcse results after woeful mocks?

[Noth1ngtoseehere]

It’s going to be a loooooong 6 months otherwise.😩

Ds v anxious. Screwed up his revision and ended up covering very little, had a meltdown midweek. Supposed to get 8s/9s but got a range from 3 to 7.

We could both do with some positivity.😬

DD a few years ago got a G grade in her mock. She came out on results day with a solid A.
Sometimes teachers mark mocks several grades lower in order to ‘scare’ students into not getting complacent. We’re not meant to tell them that though!

Do his subject teachers not provide revision booklets so he knows what he needs to revise? It does sound like he's not had that much support from the school if they haven't taught him how to revise.

A couple did, not the sciences.

My nephew had terrible mock results. My SIL decided they were too important for him to fail, so supervised his revision every single evening.from end Nov to exams.

If there was no homework set by school, she helped him make revision cards and worked through CGP guides.

Hard work but she said it was worth it as he did much better in actual exams.

DS mocks were mediocre at best. Didn't put the effort it.
Did put the effort in in Year 11 and came out this year with a couple of 7's and the rest 8's and 9's. Overachieved in at least four subjects.
Past papers were his best friend, plus every revision class going.

Remember mocks don’t count for anything in real life. Mocks are used as a tool to highlight what went well/ went wrong with revision and what topics to focus on/ less focus on. I suggest moving forwards you print off all the past papers and do them as they help with revision. If his notes are so bad I’d suggest he start re writing them now/ over the Xmas holiday so they are solid for the actual GCSE exams. I can’t remember using any text books for revision at GCSE just my notes and got all A’s. Equally I did treat my mocks on many occasions at A level as a way to test my knowledge without revision and got C/D and when it came to the exams got all A’s and As and went onto study for a lucrative 5 year degree. Tell him he now knows what not to do to study and I suggest he makes a weekly timetable for his study so he can fit everything in. E.g one morning is one subject , afternoon is another and late afternoon/ early evening is another. My revision cut of was always around 9-9:30 and then would chill for a bit!

What is the best way to do is papers?

Past

Da got 4-6s in his mocks, I know it's bad parenting but I offered him impressive financial rewards and he got 7s and 8s in the exams

OK. Unless he is aiming at Oxbridge, all he needs is whatever his chosen 6th Form or College want- which is probably 6 or 7 6s. So take the pressure for 8s and 9s off, focus on his mental health, help him get what he needs for the next stage, and do everything you can to help him move on as healthy, happy and robust as possible.

He is probably not going to go from a 3 to a 9, but he should certainly expect to go up a grade (most common) or more (if the mocks really don’t represent his ability)

If he was sitting down with textbooks expecting to relearn the entire course then it’s no wonder he was overwhelmed and crashed. Get him some revision guides for each subject - they are much more concise. The point is that he is reminding himself of stuff he should already know, not learning from scratch.

He needs to look at his mocks and figure out what his strengths and weaknesses are, then come up with a plan to address his weaknesses, while refreshing the memory of his strengths. His teachers should help him with this.

Maths - he needs to practise lots of questions. Focus on his weak topics first, before starting on past papers. corbettmaths.com/ has everything he could possibly need.

Other subjects - what facts does he need to know? Flashcards might help. Self-testing is an excellent way to help knowledge stick.
Representing things visually, like a timeline for history might help.

Sitting and reading notes is the worst way to revise. Highlighting is also not great.

Lots of info about how to revise effectively here: www.learningscientists.org/faq

Noth1ngtoseehere

Ds has just finished his mocks. He did 3 or 4 weeks of revision and felt frustrated that he didn't feel adequately prepared in some subjects. He's a bit lazy, but at the same time he does want to do well. I've been telling him "Start early, and do little and often" , and currently he is agreeing that he will begin revision for the 'real' GCSEs on the 1st January - but this will be typically 30 minutes per weekday evening, with Wednesday evening off for football training and Friday off because its Friday! Then an hour per day at weekends. So small, manageable chunks which will build incrementally as the exams loom nearer.

If he isn't great at revision techniques has you considered Tassomai for the sciences? Examination board specific multiple choice questions on your pc by sub topic

I have two positive stories to share with you.

1. My best friend at school got a U in her mock for one subject (this was before the numerical system!) and in the real one she not only got an A but the highest mark in the school.

1. I am on the interview panel for a university and today during an interview I remarked on the impressive high grades of a candidate, and the candidate very honestly told me that they had failed all of their mocks but it was the kick they needed to really work hard and she credits that with the reason that ultimately her grades were so high.

I would tell your son- it is better to get low grades in the mocks as a warning sign and work hard in time for the real exams than to get very high grades in the mocks, become complacent and slack and then the final grades suffer!

Any mock grades he was unhappy with, he has time to turn around if he is prepared to put the work in! Best of luck to him

Long time to exams!
What worked for ds1;
Doing Past papers
Going to every revision class after and during school that he could
Going to the revsion days during the holidays
CGP revision guides
Ds1 is a visual learner - your ds might be the same? He finds mind mapping incredibly helpful.
Tbh your ds should have already got some revision notes from year 10??
Ds1 got a 3 in January mocks for maths.
Got a 6 in his gcse :)
Don't despair! And DON'T let ds see you panic.
He can start over the xmas hols by figuring out what he struggled with and what he feels he hasn't covered.
Good luck x

That's reminded me - when I was at school I was moved down from the O level set for Maths (yes, that's how old I am) to the double entry set (each student would sit O level and CSE in case they didn't cut it at O level) because I got an ungraded in my O level mock. Ultimately I got a B grade in Maths O level (and a CSE grade 1) - lots of self testing and working through a Letts Maths GCE book

My dn got mostly 4s for mocks last year and then got 6s and 7s mostly for the real thing.
Get the course specification for the board and go through it all then do some past questions. There are some sites that were helpful like save my exams.
There’s so much on YouTube too. Very helpful for the tricky stuff.

"Unless he is aiming at Oxbridge, all he needs is whatever his chosen 6th Form or College want- which is probably 6 or 7 6s"

True Bertrand - but to add to this, if he wants to do Medicine, Veterinary Science or Dentistry he will need a clutch of 8s and 9s at GCSE. Otherwise 6's and 7's are fine

DialsMavis - people are sniffy about that, but whatever works!

Lots of time to make big changes so long as dc get their heads down and study effectively. Needs a good revision plan, with time marked on for time out too. And breaking down the subjects to manageable blocks. Lots of online revision videos can be very good - most schools have recommended sites, and lots and lots of practise questions and papers.

We also had a tutor for one subject once a week too. Dd went from just scrapping a grade 4 to a high grade 7 in this subject between January and May. Infact her last maths grade in a test in April was a 4.

Her sciences went from 3-3 to 5-6 with effective revision too. None of her grades went down and all went up at least a grade if not more.

My own best 'up grade' was a level. February mock was an E and in the real one, 3 months later, I got an A.

Not gcse but a levels. Got a d in the January exam. Resat it along with the July exam and got A's in both. For me the D was a wakeup call that I needed to do more.

@LimitIsUp - you’re right.i should added those subjects. It upsets me so much to see parents fretting about 8s and 9a for a student who has obviously had a hard time rather than taking the pressure off and aiming at what they need.

Op, my daughter found the best way was past papers and to learn the mark schemes. So knowing what got marks basically. Also a solid revision time table, split into manageable bites.

I'd go through it with him, check progress nightly and then also review his plan with the teachers.

I seem to recall, DS got G in the mock English literature. January of yr11. Yes really. Zero revisions & hadn't paid attention to how to answer Eng-Lit questions.

Bit of intensive work (by his standards, actually very little work by objective standards) he pulled out an A in the end.

Try not to despair.

Hi OP, yep I had this experience! I got E grades for my mock Biology, Chemistry and Maths exams. My actual grades were B, B, and C (I did minimal revision for Maths ).

What really helped me were the CGP guides; I really don't think I'd have done as well without them. (That link is their website, but you can probably get them cheaper on Amazon.)

I'm with you on that one Bertrand