Year 12 mocks disaster

[Delphigirl]

Don’t know what to do about DS. He is doing Geography Chemistry Biology having dropped his 4th subject, Physics, early on. I’ve been told since he was younger that he is a great geographer, he is v interested, wants to do geography or marine science or geoscience at uni and so Chem/bio fit well. I have encouraged him to look at courses with high fieldwork content (and realistic entry requirements) as that will suit his learning style - He has processing issues and gets full extra time in exams and doesn’t find lecture/book learning easy.
I have spent ages this term telling him how important the 12 exams are for predictions, possibly for CAGs if those are needed next year etc but he really hasn’t revised, brushed it all off. He came back from his exams pale, quiet and shellshocked and has been studying 3-4 hours a day on top of school ever since, so I was not expecting great things of the results.

I’ve just found out he got C in Geog, E in Chem and U in biology.

So, what now? He has asked to resit Chem and Bio and those are happening this week. I’m not sure how much improvement we are likely to see given the original exams were only about 2 weeks ago.

What is the best case scenario here? I really do not want him to repeat a year as he is a Sept birthday so old for his year anyway, and the school learning environment is really not the best for him. I think he is capable of getting good-enough A levels to do what he wants at uni -Bbb or BBC - but I’m concerned he is now too far behind. He doesn’t have any particular difficulties with the courses though - he understands them and follows them in class, so his teachers were a bit stunned by the E and U. If he gets into uni I think he will do well at the practical courses he has chosen as his most likely options.

Tutoring over the summer? Any other things he can do? Forget about uni until we have grades in hand? My instinct is that he needs SOMETHINGto aim fit to motivate him. Help.

The school will let him. We are paying them enough. Not feeling like money well spent at the moment. They say his understanding is good and he can cope fine intellectually, he just is not getting the exam technique and hasn’t adequately revised his knowledge. I 100% accept the inadequate revision point, but wonder how you can have good knowledge and understanding and still get a U. Twice.

I’m really depressed about it.

We are not allowed to predict U grades for UCAS so it’s likely his application grades would be BDE if it was at our college. As we predict one grade above the mock grade of year one (unless the mock grade is the target grade or higher) as their skills are not usually as effective at this point.

I teach A level geography, geology and environmental science. Do they do E sci at his school? It’s like biology but lacks the human element and is not as hard?

What did he get for his mock GCSEs in the sciences?
I'm a bit concerned that August next year he'll get eg BDE as poster above suggested, and then what?

A tutor between now and September should give him a chance to catch up / give you an independent view on what is going wrong.
Will school hold you to fees if you withdraw him before y13 starts?

At GCSE a tutor really helped dd to focus in on exam technique as well as plugging gaps. Hopefully the support over the summer will be enough.

In mock GCSEs he got 8s for Physics and Electronics and 7s for Biology and Chemistry, but was told they were confident he would get 8s and 9s for all. But then they just gave him his mock grades for GCSE results anyway.
Different school BTW, he moved for sixth form.

I don’t know about environmental science @shadowboy, that’s a good question. I will find out. Is that an A level he could do in a year with a year of Biology under his belt do you think?

No environmental science 😢

Oh that’s a shame. We offer the A level in a year as the second year doesn’t need to be done after the first; each unit can be done in any order. I love teaching it. Fab A level.

If he’s determined then there’s no reason why the results can’t improve. Do they offer workshops or support sessions?

It sounds great. What board do you do? Does it have the same rigid mark scheme as biology? So you do the whole A level in a year?
As you can see i’m quite excited about the idea. If he could drop Biology and insert Env Science in a year instead, that might be possible. I would have to get the school to agree to teach it but I can be persuasive…

AQA is the only exam board that offers it as AMA A level. Mark scheme is generally fair. There are some sample papers online if you want to have a look?
It’s a 2 year a level but we allow students to do it in a year over two blocks- so they attend both 1st year and second year lessons

Op this will sound harsh... it's not a good idea to get a student who has struggled with yr 12 of two familiar subjects to try to do yr 12 and 13 of a new subject in one year, alongside two other yr 13 subjects. Plus if the school doesn't offer it, they won't offer it for one student. They may not even have anyone who is familiar with the syllabus.

What I would do is this:

Speak to ds about what he wants to do post 18 and where. I am more and more convinced that uni is not for everyone, just because, like dd and some of her friends, you can achieve BCC at A level.
Speak to the school for a realistic assessment of what he might actually get next year. A state school would probably not let him continue into yr 13, so if your private school does, why abd on what basis?
Look at some alternative options. College to start a BTEC in Sept fir instance. It doesn't matter that he is old in the year, he can get funding till the year he turns 19.

Best of luck to you and him. It may be that the world of work suits him better than the learning environment of uni.

Coming at this somewhat sideways, would a more practical course such as www.sparsholt.ac.uk/courses/land-and-wildlife-management-level-3/ be of interest? It leads in to related degree courses.

What were his GCSE results and exam technique like? What are the issues he gets extra time for? Have staff overlooked his actual needs and just given him extra time rather than techniques and meeting his learning needs? Have you seen a good educational psychologist? My dh jumped into an apprenticeship after one year of A Levels and then did his degree sponsored by his employer after that. DEFRA do an apprenticeship scheme I think but I am not sure whether its post 16 or post A levels.

My DS repeated a year of 6th form. I was worried like you OP because he is a November birthday. There was a group of them re- taking, so he wasn't alone. It was the best decision we made. He got the grades he needed to study the course he wanted at uni. In his group at uni there is a mixture of those who were in his original year group and those in the year he group he finished 6th form in. My DS has said he wouldn't of been ready for uni had he gone in the correct year. I wouldn't rule out repeating a year or swapping to a different course.

There's no point repeating a year doing the same subjects unless you can clearly identify where he's gone wrong and what needs to be done to change. If he doesn't get the exam technique after tutoring in next 2 months, then will he get it at all?

Dd did an extra year - two new subjects and took the one she wasn't too bad at at the normal time. Worth saying she got a D in As History, so dropped it for another subject. The History teacher said she would have got a B with a year of exam technique honing, so that was a bit annoying (told us this after decision made). Her issue was most definitely exam technique and huge amounts of waffle.