Ways to improve grades in Edexcel Eng Lang GCSE after dire mock result

[Sl1pkn0t]

Mock result dire.

Ds fell to pieces one day and did nothing. Other paper was a 5 so 2 over all.Should be aiming for an 8. No info from school, what would be the best use of time over Christmas hols? Resources?

Work on her resilience and self confidence? If she could actually complete both papers and get 5s that would be perfectly fine, unless she's planning to study English at A Level? I would say if she's fragile (which it sounds like she is) putting needless pressure on her is not a good use of time and it would be much better for her to have a complete rest.

We need to gain ground. With a 2 he won’t be able to go anywhere post GCSEs. It’s easier to work in hols as not shattered.

Read, read and read some more. Discuss broadsheet articles that you have both read which will help with confidence. Do timed writing exercises. Google a ot generator wbi H will gi e ideas for short story titles. Find out what is on each paper from school before the hols.

But he's only got a 2 because he didn't sit one paper? Does he still have the paper? Maybe he could sit it and see "how he would have done"? he's clearly capable of producing Level 5 work under exam conditions so he just has to do that twice rather than once.

If he's just taken mocks, he's probably shattered now and needs a rest. which he won't have if you insist he works through the holiday.

It won’t kill him to do a couple of hours a day. Have emailed asking why he can’t resit it. Some info would have been helpful. Trying to get info 2 days before breaking up not helpful.

Read and write what? How do I mark it. It needs to be more focused.Are there any good resources? CPG?

I know the 2 papers are different, but can he really not do the 2nd paper, or was it exhaustion/panic?

If the latter, then think of it as a 5 overall and don't panic. A 5 will be good enough for most things, why 'should' he be aiming for an 8?

I'd spend a bit of time checking he understands what is wanted for each question, by comparing against the mark scheme. He could look at Mr Bruff on youtube.

Otherwise no suggestions as I've outsourced helping DD with English Lang.

So my DS has just sat his mocks too and was on a flight path 8 for English and also got a 5. So did many kids in his set 1 English group. He said that he has a new teacher and wondered if the old one was too generous or this one too strict. But he got an 8 in English lit and 7 grade 9’s in other subjects - so 7 x 9, 1 x 8, 1 x 7 and 1 x 5. Definitely feels like something is amiss here. Maybe it was a difficult paper. I seem to remember now many people getting lower marks in English in the summer - maybe it was a particularly difficult paper

He panicked and just sat there. Did the same for history but they let him resit it. Eng we’ve just opened the email 2 days behind break up. 🙄

English language was the weakest of DS's mocks as well. He passed, but many children in his class (top set) failed.

I've got him a tutor, who at least can see where his weaknesses are. It's a lot more technical than just reading a lot.

Can you find a tutor? I looked into online stuff, and helping myself, but it hardly makes sense to me tbh. 'Structure " is his major weakness, and I don't have a bloody clue what it is!

I would think that working on 'non panicking' would be much better value for the holidays rather than working on English.
e.g. Deep breaths, yoga, visualisation, whatever. What to think of just before going in to exam, the morning of exam, how to prepare the night before.

Are you sure you aren't making him more likely to panic? No one 'needs' an 8 for Eng Lang, do they? I mean, they are nice to have, but unless you are aiming Oxbridge then surely they aren't essential?

Don’t worry not focusing on an 8 now. 6 would be good though. 😬Hadn’t thought of yoga,wonder what else would relax.Going in unprepared doesn’t help.

Try Dr Bruff on YouTube, he’s fab! Did them for AQA, not sure about other boards.

Don’t despair, I don’t think people appreciate how hard the language paper is. It’s very dry as a subject. The joy has been sucked out of it.

There’s a technique to answering the questions. It has to be learnt. Speaking on behalf of DC that struggles with English.

I teach this exam. I'd suggest that he needs to work on the writing tasks primarily - a story/description for paper 1 and be aware of the different types of nonfiction tasks for paper 2 (letter, speech, article are the main ones). These together are worth 80 marks which is half the score for the entire 2 papers added up.

If confidence is an issue, he needs to improve his reading speed so he can start answering the paper as quickly as possible. He could also work on learning lists of terminology, plus what each of the techniques he can label actually "does" eg repetition creates emphasis and reinforces messages.

The advice above is pretty generic tbf. Edexcel specific is the qu4/qu6 "evaluate" question (he will know what this means). He needs to find several examples in the text of the question's steer word in play, quote them and say why this is effective. Helpful to Chuck in the occasional "the writer successfully..." too.

Keira that is really helpful. The kind of info I would have liked school to email me with. Do you know where there is a good terminology crib sheet? Also any good books with what you’ve suggested in?

And yy to the joy being sucked out of the subject.

CGP revision guide in English language. Very readable.
He will have been taught how to answer the questions.
He may even have an acronym to remember what structural devices to look for.
You'll find them online. X

Yy to CGP guides. Also get him to google What How Why English Language to help him structure responses to reading questions.

Sign up to TES ( times educational supplement) website, and you will find tons of resources that teachers share amongst themselves. It takes a bit of time to search through all the information but there are usually some great revision tip powerpoints that a brilliant teacher has produced. (Many thanks to all the fabulous teachers who put things up on tes - it really is a godsend).

OK op some good advice here.

No point resitting mock. Look at past papers and mark schemes, on exam website. There aren't many and he may well have done them all but it's still worth practising them to see how to improve.

Exam technique - timings for questions, key questions to get right, key language to include (simile, metaphor etc). I know AQA not edexcel but I imagine they are similar. Make sure he is picking up all the easy marks, then focus on drafting some ideas for the creative writing. Dd had a story she adapted, come to think of it so did ds2, both did well.

Yup CGP guides are good. He will need to work on his timings. No more than 45 minutes on the writing. We recommend starting with the writing and then going in reverse order of number of marks (highest to lowest) so that the higher tariff questions get done. It also gives them a break from writing.