Help! Y10 getting 1s in GCSE mocks

[MegaCityOne]

All advice welcome:

DS in in Y10, going into Y11 in September. He has autism and has slow processing speed so has extra time in exams. He isn’t dyslexic and doesn’t have dyspraxia. He is a solid average and has trarger grades of 4 and 5 for all subjects. Currently working at 3 or 4, some subjects a 2.

We were sent his Y10 mock result report on the last day of term, so no one in school to ask over the summer holidays. He has got 1s in 6 out of 9 reports and 2s in the rest. He says he hasn’t got a clue what the exam papers were asking.

He has struggled over the last 18 months with much of the online learning. The mocks may have given a fair reflection on the day, but don’t reflect his overall level. If he was always going to be a grade 1 we would’ve selected BTECs over GCSEs more. I can’t afford a tutor, money is tight enough as it is for food.

The report has not given any strengths or weaknesses, which the DfE says must be in a Y10 report, so i don’t know over the next 6 weeks where to start.

If he is willing to work with you, I would begin with the language of exam questions.

You can check whether he understands the difference between describe/explain/compare/discuss type questions. There is a good resource here on page 25 which puts these terms into easier to understand versions

This is the oral language modifier handbook. I think it is actually vital reading for anyone working with an autistic teen. Autism is primarily a difference in communication and whilst many autistic people are brilliant at knowledge and recall they struggle much more with application and adjusting how to present their knowledge to fit the emphasis of a question. Bloom's taxonomy (also in this document) shows how exam questions deliberately stray into higher order reasoning tasks that many autistics find hard because of the communication load involved.

The report has not given any strengths or weaknesses, which the DfE says must be in a Y10 report, so i don’t know over the next 6 weeks where to start.

First a comment on this. Unless this is a very new requirement, that doesn't sound correct to me. We only ever got 'numbers' for DD (just finished y11).

This sounds like exam technique. You think he knew the work well enough, he just didn't know what was expected to be written. I can well understand that as it isn't spelled out. If he had trouble with online learning that will have exacerbated things.

It may be that it can be resolved relatively easily provided he is willing/able to listen to guidance and not just argue 'it doesn't say that, that's stupid'.

Some of his revising in future should be 'how to answer this type of question'. e.g. 6 mark question in science. Put down 6 individual points using scientific language. If you only have 3 then put down the next most relevant info or the 'obvious' info.

English Language has very specific things. DD did RE and I know she had to do things like 'points in favour, points against, reference religious texts and give your ow reasons'.

Where to start? Pull out a past paper from online and the mark scheme. Ask him what he understands from the question and the type of info to include. Then look at the mark scheme and see what they really wanted?

www.batod.org.uk › ol...PDF
Oral Language Modifier Guidance Examples - BATOD

Sorry, copied in something else I had bookmarked instead of the oral language modifier.

<a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.batod.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/olm_guidance_examples.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwj4uqeSjfnxAhWKFMAKHeO8DYIQFjACegQIGxAC&usg=AOvVaw3FZY9X8f3d2XXlHWGwyYtc" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.batod.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/olm_guidance_examples.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwj4uqeSjfnxAhWKFMAKHeO8DYIQFjACegQIGxAC&usg=AOvVaw3FZY9X8f3d2XXlHWGwyYtc

I hadn't realised that the strengths and weaknesses was a thing from 20/21. My child's report didn't have this either so maybe there has been a delay in implementing it?

Yes what Teen says - look at past papers and mark schemes.

What subjects is he doing OP? There is a lot of expertise on this board and I am sure someone will be able to help on specific subjects if you are happy to name them.

All excellent advice thank you.

Yes that makes sense about it being exam technique. He has great recall, but must be struggling with the questions.

He is doing:
Double science
German
English literature
English language
Geography
Maths
Computer science

The info from the DfE is here
www.gov.uk/guidance/school-reports-on-pupil-performance-guide-for-headteachers#providing-reports-in-2020-to-2021

I can help with German, is it AQA and is he doing Foundation? I can put together some top tips to get a 4/5 in MFL, will come back to the thread in a bit.

Make sure you know what exam boards he is doing especially for English and Maths but second working with exam papers and mark schemes.

Thank you so much @clary Yes it is. AQA Foundation level. Target grade 4, currently working at 2.

Have a look at past exam papers along with their markschemes (should be available online on the exam boards website) to look at the language used in exams and what the questions are actually looking for.

Hi

Really sorry but there is no requirement to give you strengths a weaknesses - they recommend you in include details but a lot of schools don’t.

How much prep did he do for his mocks? Do the school use knowledge organisers (sheets with summaries of key information) that he could do some learning with over the holidays?

Completely agree about looking at the past papers, especially those he has just sat if you have them.

If you can get two screens ie a computer and a laptop next to each other have the paper on one screen and the mark scheme on the other. That way you can see how they expect the question to be answered. It will help you too to understand and then you can help your son. Go through it one question at a time.

Then later (a day, a week, whatever) he can try just verbally answering the same paper and see how well he remembers what the mark scheme wants including key terms. Exam technique is a thing to learn, some schools are better than others at teaching it and also subject by subject. Don't let those grades get him down, let it be a motivator to know where he is starting from.

Summer holidays provide a huge amount of time in the day to study and still feel like you are in summer holidays.

Get the revision workbooks that go through examples of a good, fair and poor answer. Get him looking at the difference. In September contact school subject teachers and ask for a good response to a few questions so he can see what gains credit.

I would suggest speaking to the school about reducing the number of subjects. The grades he is working on do not suggest that 9 subjects is the correct path for him. 5 grade 4 GCSEs is so much better that 9 grade 1/2.

What does he want to do?
If he doesn't need a language or Geography, I'd get them dropped to free up time to focus on the other subjects. Geography has a lot of content and a lot of people find it very hard. Languages are often used to get good grades unless you've got a natural aptitude.

Talk to the school. They will probably still be picking up emails because of results day, but if you don't get a reply until September at least you've started the ball rolling.

Languages are often hard to get good grades that should say.

@Workingmum34

Hi

Really sorry but there is no requirement to give you strengths a weaknesses - they recommend you in include details but a lot of schools don’t.

How much prep did he do for his mocks? Do the school use knowledge organisers (sheets with summaries of key information) that he could do some learning with over the holidays?

@Workingmum34 New DfE guidance for this year says basic info on strengths and weaknesses must be included in the reports. I haven’t been given it.

Thanks everyone, we have are going to go through past papers and set up a meeting with school as soon as is possible in September. He isn’t a grade 1 child at all, and chose to do German because he was top of his class, so this is a significant drop in his ability levels or his exam technique is way off.

That’s a new bit. Is the school an academy?

Did he do much revision for them? A lot of students don’t do very well in y10. It’s usually the first time they have sat full papers. As well looking at past papers it might be worth looking at something like GCSE pod - the school might have access to it.

Hi OP, sorry not to post again before this. Some thoughts about the AQA paper:
The key factors are understanding of basic vocab and secure verbs, especially present and past tense.
Speaking paper – was not going to happen last year but don’t know yet about 2022. So maybe focus on the rest of the exam for the summer at least.
Writing paper – picture task – four sentences. It is perfectly OK to say “es gibt” and then name something in the picture, or er/sie ist and say something about the person – er ist ein Lehrer, sie ist eine Mutter, sie sind glucklich. Get him to practise with some random images – there are only a few past papers but speaking cards have pictures which would work.
First essay – 40 words – four bullet points. 16 marks here no worries, no need to use past or future, so the 2019 exam was about hobbies – just need to cover all four bullet points, so learn some useful phrases with opinions and reasons. Try to get word order correct, try to use a weil clause (check he knows what they means).
Second essay is the crossover one, 90 words, need past and future tense so work on that, use ich habe (eg gespielt) and ich bin (eg gegangen). Make sure you include something for each bullet point. Don’t write too much as there is no benefit and the quality will most likely fall (but all will be marked).
I think the mark scheme for the writing paper is tricky to negotiate if you don’t have a good knowledge of German (do you by chance?).
Reading and listening – these are all about practice. Do past papers, look at other boards as well and legacy papers as it can only help. Look at the answer and see where you went wrong (this is easier to see as there is a right or wrong answer). Watch out for negatives (especially “kein”). Often in a multiple choice all the possible answers will be in the text but only one is right so read the question and the text carefully.
You say he didn’t know what the exam papers were asking – did this apply to German or was it more for English lang, say, or science? You also say he was top of his class in German so I agree, that’s a big drop. Try getting him to do some past papers and see if you can pick up where he is going wrong. I do see that this will be difficult especially with the writing one if you don’t have knowledge, but his German teacher may well be willing to look at some work in September. HTH please ask if there are any questions, I am happy to help if I can.

hah sorry should proof! Sorry for typos.

When I say "crossover essay" I mean the task that is common to higher and foundation papers - so the hardest task on the F paper (and the easiest on the H paper).

I also mean to say that the questions get harder on the L and R papers - and yet a mark is a mark. Three marks for the easy first question counts as much as three marks for the difficult last question. So make sure you get the easier ones right. A 4 on foundation in 2019 was 149 out of 240 so he needs to try to gain two thirds of the marks.

Did they not go over it in class?

My ds is y10 bombed history which is usually one of his strongest subjects because he confused the source names so he was calling source A, Source B etc

I also looked through some of his other subjects and can see it's his exam technique. He didn't read the question properly in a lot of cases so lost silly marks. Does he know the difference between Explain/Describe/Contrast etc?

More importantly did he revise so he had the knowledge? My ds is blissfully unaware how quickly y11 is going to pass.

My dd sat German a couple of years ago and said that her writing scores improved a lot when she focused on learning conjunctions (however, unfortunately, because...) and worked on tenses.

Just to ask - was it his report or his mock results. At my school these are separate things. On the written report which go out at different times throughout the year for each year group would include strength and weaknesses, our mock results report would be just that, the results.

Aqa books are really quite good for languages.
I got A* in spanish a few years ago.

Also duolingo is good practice.