GCSE Mock Results

[FAQs]

So my daughter just received her results and failed all exams apart from one where she got an 8.

Otherwise it’s all 2/3/U she has slow processing (although I know this isn’t accepted as a real thing by many

She works hard up to the exams on revision so she is not likely to pass the real ones is she?

Does she get extra time?

I'd take the time over Christmas to regroup and ponder on the best approach going forward.

How effective do you think her revision is? DD1 (dyspraxia) couldn't revise on her own, but could do effective revision with me 1-1, even though it clearly took her longer to learn and needed more reviews than for a more able student.

If you think she knows the info, and the trouble is applying is well/ fast enough in the exam that is a different problem. There, looking through the mocks and seeing where marks were missed, learning what they are looking for etc might help.

I'd be seeing whether you should cut loose (ie drop) one or 2 content / processing heavy subjects. This could then free up revision time for other subjects and make for a lower exam load in the end.

What are her plans for after GCSEs? A BTEC? What would she need for that? It might only be 5 grade 4s (or less as often you can do a Level 2 BTEC first and then Level 3 taking 3 years over the 6th form).

DD1 dropped History after mocks (and just after the dyspraxia diagnosis), I'm sure it made the difference between just passing and failing her Eng Lang, and also I think got her over some grade boundaries in other subjects too.

What was the 8?

Hi teen thank you so much for taking the time to reply. Her 8 is in English Language.

I’ve just spoken with head of year, she does get an extra 25% in exams and the school are supposed to supply extra items such as window cards to help with her reading, but they ‘forgot’ the HOY is now panicking and putting a plan is pace and will let me know in January.

I’ve been fighting this since year 7, she was on a IEP in primary but the school dismiss these as they like to start “afresh”

I was really cross but not shouty or rude and the HOY blamed it on my daughters ability to hide it well and she gets forgotten.

I said of course she does as do many other children with learning difficulties because they adopt coping mechanisms.

She revised on her own and gets cross if I try and help, I think she is embarrassed, how do you keep your head in this and try and stay positive, I’ve been so upset this morning as I know she will be devastated.

She wants to be a midwife and can score high but it has to be repetitive learning but it’s too fast moving and she now has “learning gaps” I think it’s a good idea to drop one and I will request this at the meeting, I didn’t know it was an option, she is currently taking 10 GCSEs.

How did your daughter manage the stress, was she aware and accepting of her Dsypraxia?

My daughter won’t discuss her low processing, she gets angry tears, she needs the extra time because it takes at least three attempts to read a question and understand what they are asking, once she understands it her answers are very good. In one subject she scored a 2 whereby in the lead up, in timed she scored 7/8 and 9.

Crikey that was an essay

Scored the higher in untimed tests.

All sorts of things are options if the school is willing to be flexible.

DD1 embraced the diagnosis as it explained a lot of things that we hadn't realised were linked. She can now also say to people 'I have dyspraxia, this means that …. so you need to do this …. '. She started a new job this week and told her supervisor 'I have dyspraxia. I don't pick up on subtle language, so you need to be really direct if you want me to do something' (ie Not 'could you do this is you have a minutes?' but preferably 'please do this before noon').

Midwife presumably means she needs to pass the sciences? (Combined or triple?) Did she do Higher or Foundation papers? I'm not sure whether dropping to Foundation will help much though in the circumstances. Maths though might well be worth dropping to Foundation with simpler questions and a clear reduced syllabus. (But more to get right in the time, so I know it's a balancing act.)

Engl Lang is a great one to have secure, I guess it is technique rather than loads of learning.

Has she tried Seneca or Tasomai online for science revision? Our school provides as basic Seneca which looks good so far (DD2 is y10). Tasomai I believe reacts to your answers so it reinforces your weaker areas. Seneca at least also has stuff for other subjects, DD has already used it for Food tech, RE and a bit of Geography.

I wrote all of DD1 & DD2's revision cards. You can't look at a whole CGP guide the night before. We agreed it wasn't time effective for DDs to do their own.

If wanting to drop something (History & Geography are very content heavy), then school will need persuading:

• where will she go in those lessons (library? learning support?, wherever the 'internal exclusion' pupils go?)
• what work will she do there?
• how will it help the other grades?

They will be concerned re other pupils wanting to drop things (DD1 was asked not to advertise the fact she had dropped History). You would need to stress that the benefits to your DD are the primary issue.

Your DD shouldn't be embarrassed, certainly not at home. She is clearly bright enough from your updates. She needs to use all the help she can get to get the best grades she can. She'll still be the one sitting the exams. There's no rule that says you have to do all your revision alone.

ps. Even if school won't let her drop something, if you feel strongly enough about it you/she can just decide not to revise for it and not to turn up for the exams (though the school might charge you the entry fees).

Would a reader or a prompter help in exams at all? There may still be time to get this organised if it would.

I agree that maybe dropping a subject could be an answer, some schools will be more open to this than others - I'd also suggest picking sciences and maths to focus on as she will need these for midwifery. Doing foundation might be an option as the questions use easier language and support the students more - however this may limit her level 3 choices.

Do you have a parents evening coming up? If not would it be worth arranging meetings with individual teachers to find out what they suggest and if there is any extra support they can put in place?

If she needs 5s she can get them on Foundation for Maths & Science.
If she needs 6s she'll need to do Higher.

Good advice from Teen, yy to dropping eg history, triple science to double, MFL as can be stressful.

Yes what was the 8? That's a real outlier. Was it art cos she is super good at it and there is no written element? Music, drama? I'm assuming sthg creative.

Sorry my post didn't post and you answered my question. Amazing that she can get an 8 in English language - can you look at that in more detail, what tactics and strategies did she use to achieve so highly?

DS struggles with writing slowly (not precisely sure of underlying reason but may well also be slow processing) and has found it much easier to do well in the Foundation science papers than the higher - the questions are much shorter and you can get a 5 simply by writing shortish answers across the whole paper (at least, that's what DS did in mocks)

We are veering towards pragmatically deciding that he will "bank" a 5 in foundation papers where he doesn't want to study the subject after GCSE, rather than putting pressure on him to perform in the Higher papers (he should be capable of 6 or 7 so this is frustrating, but we daren't risk him not completing enough to get a grade).

This is all very helpful and I can’t thank you enough, you have actually levelled me from where I was this morning, I’ve got a meeting with the school now in January.

Apparently they all took the higher Maths exam, she scored U. Reading your posts and looking at the exam board criteria she is going to have to sit a lower, which would be fine.

A Level courses she wants to study require at least a 6, one of the schools recommends only 8 or 9. She wants to study Biology, Psychology and a Health and Social Care Btech level equal to two A levels apparently.

I wish she would accept the help without resistance teen, she has quite a lot of self loathing at times.

The English was a surprise and that’ll boost her confidence, she really enjoys the creative side and is very good with verbs, adverbs, spelling etc I think it was due to less intensive content such as the Geography which I agree is very content heavy.

I’m going to write revision cards for her. Her frustration comes from learning content and not being able to recall within 24 hours, we have to repeat, repeat, repeat for it to stick and once it’s there is stays. The amount of content is making this very difficult to achieve.

It’s a shame she can’t drop French as this takes up a lot of time and is a huge struggle for her.

Thank you all it’s much appreciated.

Golf that’s a good idea re banking subjects I’ll discuss this with her tonight.

A couple of things from your update

1. She could drop French if you thought that was the most suitable one to drop (if the school would let her). I only suggested History/Geog due to the content, but if French is taking most time then that could go.

2. 2 A levels plus a BTEC Diploma (2 A level equiv) could be quite a lot of work. I think keeping at the back of your mind her only doing 1 A level plus the BTEC might be an idea. (or 2 A levels plus BTEC Certificate?).

I share your/her frustrations on the retention issues, but there's no way round regular revisiting, I don't think.

What does she need for midwifery at university?

Yes Deffo ask about dropping French, if she struggles to remember things it's going to be a tough one.

There's no need to do MFL and if the school says there is they are not being honest.

I don’t think she needs to do Psychology A Level and the content seems Maths heavy so I think she will struggle. She must have A Level Biology for Midwifery, we looked at the entry levels at a few Universities and she enjoys the subject. Some options don’t consider the b tech and want A levels so it narrowed her choice a little.

Her current school recommends an 8 in GCSE Biology however the preferred school (really hard to get into) allow a mixture of Maths and English is combined they equal a minimum of 9. This was a surprise to me, she is hoping for that school but the number of applicants far exceed the places available.

She does need a 5 in Maths though to study the B tech I think the way forward is going to have to be Maths revision every night, not for a long period but repetitive.

We tried Tassomai but found it didn’t explain why she got the answer wrong, she was just ticking boxes until she got the correct one and remembered the answer but still didn’t know how to work out the answer. I’ve now looked at Seneca after the suggestion and it looks ideal, links to YouTube videos etc so it looks ideal, good shout!

She doesn’t have a plan B on career, she is very set so I’m hoping this will be be her incentive.

I've had some success with DD2 by doing 10 mins maths every day before school. Which is enough to quickly revisit a few things.

Asking for an 8 to do Biology A level smacks of trying to keep their grades high to me!

My children are at a selective school but it's very good at letting people decide what's right for them in year 11. My dd had friends who dropped a language for example after the mocks results. If she doesn't need French for her future plans then spending that lesson time revising in the library might be very helpful.
A friend of ours in a different area /different school (generally gets about 40% pass rate) got all 2-4 in her mocks despite working hard. Come the summer we were anxious for her about her results (she actually also wants to be a midwife) and she absolutely smashed it, getting the best results in the school. She did drop some subjects - can't recall exactly what - but she ended up doing 8 which is all she is ever going to need. So dropping some subjects, school support to give her what she's actually entitled to and her accepting your help for revision might result in better than you're fearing.

Just a word of warning. DD did A level biology after achieving an A* at GCSE. She found it very hard. She did do well in the end, but it was much harder than she expected.

Definitely drop French. Ds is 15 and year 11. He was diagnosed with autism in September so is having a difficult time at the moment. His mock results ranged from a 5 to 9. He is not entitled to extra time but uses a laptop and does his exams in a smaller room. He has also dropped his language gcse. Ds pretty much refuses to revise, so that is a battle we are not winning at the moment.

I would drop at least one if not two gcses. Ds does maths and English intervention in the lessons that he has dropped and they have been told that lots more pupils are joining the group after Christmas. I think that is because of their mock results. This is a selective school.

Make sure you push the Senco for the support she needs. Our experience is that we have had to constantly fight to get Ds help and we still have to continue to do so.

@ginfordinner the new GCSEs prepare students much better for harder A levels tho. I am assuming yr dds letter grade suggests she did the old one. Dd (yr 13 lastvyr) found a level French a big jump from old style GCSE.

Yes, you are correct clary. DD took her GCSEs in 2016, and A levels last year. It was quite a jump from the "easier" GCSEs to the reformed, harder A levels. It was quite a steep learning curve.

I would recommend the CGP msthsbusters. You get a log on and do it online but it takes you through learning level by level, but you can also revise topic by topic. If she did 15-30 mins a day it would really help, especially if you were able to work with her on it and make revision cards as she went along. Get the foundation one if she got a U in the mocks.