English teachers resources recommendations/ advice on how to study alone for Eng Lang retake in Nov.

[L1vewell]

Ds is thinking he’ll need to retake his English Language GCSE in Nov. He should pass but it won’t be anywhere near the 8 he should have got and really wants.

Teacher happy to mark work up until June.

I’m just a bit worried re then until Nov as he going to be pretty much on his own and Eng is hard to mark yourself. What should we do to keep him up to speed for 4 months? Resources? Anywhere he could get things marked or are there materials with answers that would do it for him?

I'm wondering why he needs to achieve an 8, particularly? Is he planning to do A level Eng language? Is he hoping to apply to Oxford?

A grade 4 or 5 in Eng Lang is all you'll need unless you have Oxfird or Cambridge ambitions.

That said, if you look at the website for the board he sits (eg AQA) there will be past papers from 2017, 2018 and by later this year, 2019, including answers and examiners' reports, which will be helpful. Also a GCSE revision guide would be good. But I imagine you are aware of these resources?

He just wants a 7 or 8 which I get. It will be his only Eng qualification( science/ tech Alevels and degree). Will be applying for quite academic unis and he’s worried that his English will look quite basic. Had a hideous last couple of years through no fault of his own but very conscientious iykwim. Would have pulled it out of the bag in the exam which is galling. Upset re not sitting exams and doing a resit would also be closure iykwim.

We have the latter but didn’t know about the exam website so that is helpful. Thanks.

Look at the unis he wants to apply to, choose a likely course and then look at their full entry requirements (not just the A level AAA stuff) there should be a link on the page or a tab. This will tell you what he needs in English.

For example, Manchester Uni to do Computer Science needs A levels at grades A A A with the A in maths, also 5 GCSEs at grade 7 but English lang is a grade 4.

But having said that Oxford look at GCSEs as an overall indicator but it isn't the be all and end all, they want a high score in STEP or BMAT. Cambridge don't look at GCSEs but progress since starting A levels. I believe most universities don't even look at GCSEs as an overall thing just whether you meet the criteria as detailed above.

Ok well if you didn't know about past papers on websites, I also think it's worth looking at other boards if you run out of the right ones. Structure of the exam will be different, but English comp is the same everywhere.

Other boards are Edexcel, WJEC, OCR. You might run out as the new spec only goes back to 2017.