Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Saved Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Flip

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

Secondary education

Year 12 results - CCE

13 replies

manlyago · 20/06/2022 15:09

So that’s what we have. Only 2 percent off grade boundaries in 2 subjects, so close to a BCD. Lowest is Maths. He’s upset and knows he hasn’t done enough. pastoral /lockdown issues. Lazy and does the minimum. Seems to have low expectations of himself (dyslexic).

I’ve said to him that it will be his work ethic not his ability that will stop him getting good grades. It’s like he’s paralysed with fear. Doesn’t want to look at university/talk about the future as he knows he’s got these exams. But yet he buries his head in the sand.

He’s going to work on two of his subjects this summer. A weeks revision course and a tutor for the other one and it’s costing us a lot so he has been told he has to work outside of that. He’s really keen to get help and I’m hoping it will get him out of this negative rut he’s in.

With these grades, can he turn it around with help/hard work? Anyone been through this? I know there’s a lot of exam technique in maths so hopefully with practice he can significantly lift his grade.

Thanks!

ps university may not work for him and we’re open to that but he needs something positive to aim for.

OP posts:

Report

Hellocatshome · 20/06/2022 15:11

What does he want to do after A levels? if he is getting C's in 2 subjects whilst knowing he hasn't tried his hardest this is not a disaster at all.

Report

WilsonMilson · 20/06/2022 15:16

We got a weekly maths tutor for ds’s second GCSE year and that’s helped him so much, he’s gone from scraping a C to hopefully getting an A in August results I would highly recommend a good tutor.
He has a year to sort himself out, that is very doable, but he does need to get a good studying and homework regime sorted out now. You have time to fix this.

Report

manlyago · 20/06/2022 15:21

@Hellocatshome he doesn’t know and doesn’t want to really talk about it. He’s definitely capable of better than 2 Cs if he works. I think he’d like to go to university.

OP posts:

Report

Hellocatshome · 20/06/2022 15:26

@manlyago hopefully this will be the wake up call he needs, it sounds like it might be.

Report

TwoSecondsLater · 20/06/2022 18:26

The good news is he has summer, that is 8 weeks here for year 12. He could dedicate a lot of time to each subject especially his maths. The best advice is for him to see his teachers now, get them to point him to online help. Hopefully he will get back his papers and he can see where he can gain marks.

Each day he will be awake for around 16 hours so he can divide that into work and play. I would recommend going back to the start of each subject and seeing what he is confident in.

I will be honest, the higher the grades the more university choice he has. Middle grades of CCC limits where you can apply and is probably the lowest grade acceptance to uni. If he works now and catches up he could massively pull up his grades and should he decide to go to uni he will be able to. This comes down to how much you want something.

Do you want to say what the subjects are?

Report

Blubell46 · 25/06/2022 09:49

@manlyago have you had parents evening after the results?

If not I would make an appointment to see his teachers and discuss his results with the them? These maybe his results for the end of Year 12 but they may not be the grades they will predict him for the end of Year 13.

Honestly worth speaking to the teachers and raising your concerns and his huge potential.

Report

manlyago · 25/06/2022 11:57

@Blubell46 unfortunately only 1 week of term left so not possible . I have emailed his maths teacher and he said basically he just needs to keep practising questions. There’s not a shortcut! We are getting help for him in the summer.

His other teacher (C) said he could easily get a B from where he is at the moment. So hopefully an A is not impossible.

His other teacher is leaving but that was always his weakest subject and he got the best grade in it (two marks off a B)!

They seem to know that he has potential. Hopefully!

OP posts:

Report

manlyago · 25/06/2022 12:00

Plan is Maths revision course for a week and a tutor in the other one. Annoys me to spend but he needs the structure at the moment.

He's just done his grade 7 Lamda and worked so incredibly hard on it. It sounded like it went well. Fingers crossed!

OP posts:

Report

Blubell46 · 25/06/2022 12:02

@manlyago I would then speak to the Head of Year and mention what you have done and this has not helped him decide what to do or where to go?

Mention how will they be predicting the grades?

Report

manlyago · 25/06/2022 12:09

@Blubell46

Sorry I’m not sure what you mean by “and this has not helped him decide what to do or where to go”?

OP posts:

Report

Blubell46 · 25/06/2022 12:15

@manlyago those were his grasses from the exams but will they see his potential and give him higher predicted grades? Otherwise he doesn't know what Uni to look at or what courses? Or even which open days to go to? He needs a bit of motivation

Report

noblegiraffe · 25/06/2022 12:40

I know there’s a lot of exam technique in maths so hopefully with practice he can significantly lift his grade.

For kids who get v low grades in Y12 in maths it's usually not exam technique at all, it is that they have completely underestimated the amount of independent work they need to do for maths A-level and thought they could coast by doing work in lessons and a half-arsed effort at homework (if that).

He needs to be doing at least as many hours of maths work out of lessons as he is doing in lessons. This is something that many maths students fail to appreciate. Some get that kick up the arse when they do badly in Jan exams in Y12, some don't really get it till the end of Y12 when they do really poorly. They think that a bit of revision the night before will see them through as it did at GCSE.

At A-level, maths lessons are mainly focused around content delivery, to get through the syllabus. There is very little time for practice in lessons, that has to happen outside of lessons. At GCSE, lots of lesson time will have been dedicated to practice and revision, possibly the majority of Y11. And so you get students who think that they can do maths and get good results 'without doing any revision' without realising that they did do it, and they did need it, it was done in lesson time. They still need it at A-level, it doesn't happen in lesson time, they don't do it out of lesson time and then they do badly.

A one week revision course will help him go over the material that he hasn't properly mastered due to lack of practice, but he will still need to do work to practise that material at home. Doing it for a week not be enough.

And he is now behind at the start of Y13 because the Y13 material builds on Y12 content. Not only does he need to catch up the work he should have done throughout Y12, but then he needs to hit Y13 with the knowledge that he now needs to do lots of work outside of lessons to practise the new Y13 material. If he doesn't do a lot of work in the summer to start Y13 on the same level as those who performed well in Y12, he will be trying to learn Y12 work and Y13 work at the same time.

Report

manlyago · 25/06/2022 12:47

Thanks @noblegiraffe absolutely! The weeks course is just to give him a bit of structure but he knows he needs to do more. Hopefully it will help with his understanding of key concepts and some exam technique. He is dyslexic so uncoding the question can be challenging.

He’s had a real shock with his maths so hopefully will pull his finger out now!