Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

A Level Maths and Chemistry help

11 replies

HelplessMum17 · 18/11/2021 09:23

DD2 has got her mock results back and she is not where she wants to be in Maths and Chemistry.
She has used Up learn for Chemistry but while they have the year 12 content, the year 13 was sparse when she last looked four weeks ago.
Can anyone recommend any sites to help?
Shout out to @nobelgiraffe but would love a bit of advice.
It was horrible last night when she said she was trying but it didn't seem to be working and I am worried it is getting her down.
The teachers won't show them their papers for some reason.
Feeling helpless.

OP posts:
BananaPB · 18/11/2021 12:47

Was it a past exam paper?
You can download the paper on the exam board website and watch a teacher on YouTube explain the solution.

BananaPB · 18/11/2021 12:48

Has she worked out if it's exam technique or knowledge that's the problem?
My dd did Biology rather than Chemistry but mentioned that the exam technique is vital and extremely rigid.

HelplessMum17 · 18/11/2021 13:50

Thanks @BananaPB
I think it is knowledge so I was hoping someone could suggest an online learning site that would help her catch up.
It was a teacher made paper as I understand it. I am going to try and talk to the teachers too for guidance.
She was really down yesterday and I felt powerless really.

OP posts:
noblegiraffe · 18/11/2021 16:52

Not being shown the paper is weird, how are they supposed to improve if they can't see where they went wrong? (Are they perhaps being held back until all stragglers have sat the exam?)

There is quite a big step up from Y12 maths content to Y13 content and quite a few struggle - was there any trig on the mock, that's a particularly normal area of issue.

With maths, she needs to be proactively spotting things that she doesn't understand and then taking it upon herself to work on them independently.

Useful websites: youtube.com/channel/UCyyRmnmtgVy5Sm7_UiCLFgQ is a channel of worked examples, particularly useful if she has the Edexcel textbook as it works through it, so it can ' top up' her lessons, but still good if doing another exam board.

alevelmathsrevision.com/maths-categorised-exam-questions/ has questions by topic, with answers and videos

As does www.mathsgenie.co.uk/newalevel.html

So there are loads of resources. What she needs to do is pick a topic, watch a video (but not passively, she needs to have pen and paper and actively try to do the question and unpause to see if she's correct), then try a question, mark it, fix it if she gets it wrong, try another question and do way more questions than she thinks is necessary, to make the methods automatic. A lot of students think that doing a couple of questions and getting them right is enough and it's not.

HelplessMum17 · 19/11/2021 11:04

Thank you so much @noblegiraffe
I have passed on all the information to her and indeed her teacher said the same about doing multiple questions to ensure it all sticks.
They can see and indeed photograph the paper next week which will help.
Ashamed to admit that when she told me how she feels so down I cried which is not helpful. I'm not well at the moment so more emotional but it is not ideal.
Really appreciate your assistance - you are a star as always.

OP posts:
WingwingChan · 21/11/2021 06:55

Memorising some basic chemistry knowledge (ionic chemical formulas, atomic number, symbols, how to calculate mole number etc) is a must, and after that you can go on the next step
youtube.com/user/tdewitt451
The teaching of this man is quite clear hope it can help

PiggyPokkyFool · 18/08/2022 09:04

Hi @noblegiraffe just thought I would say a massive thank you.
Her grade prediction was a D when I first typed and she used the resources you suggested. She got it up to a C in her Feb Mocks and in the final mocks not far off a B.
Put in a real spurt of effort - her whiteboard was never far from her in those last 6 weeks - doing question after question and got an A today.
We are stunned - so once again thank you very much.
p.s. of course her teachers have to take credit too 🙃

Mumski45 · 18/08/2022 14:02

@PiggyPokkyFool well done to your DD that is a fantastic achievement for her.

PiggyPokkyFool · 18/08/2022 14:11

Aaw that is so kind @Mumski45
@noblegiraffe is a bit of a guru 'round these parts and her great advice helped my DD1 in the past too at GCSE level so I felt she deserved a special mention as I know she will be giving her all to her students out there today.

noblegiraffe · 18/08/2022 16:38

Ah that's brilliant to hear, a huge improvement and a fantastic result! It sounds like she worked really hard, you must be very proud! 😃

MahnoorS · 19/08/2022 11:23

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page