Year 8 boy - Maths. I can't figure out whats going wrong.

[MissyB1]

Ds always struggles in maths exams/ tests. He has done since primary school. He doesnt struggle in most other subject tests - only Maths. They have just had their end of year 8 exams, in most subjects (Geography, History English etc) he got 80 - 85%, 70% for Science. Maths was 22%!!! Eeek!
I know for a fact he revised every day for Maths for weeks, we bought a revision guide, I asked his teacher for the topics in plenty of time. We set him work ourselves. This was not a lack of revision. He put in far more preperation for Maths than any other subject.
His Maths teacher says he's perfectly capable and grasps the concepts. However he frequently needs our support with Maths homework. Poor ds doesnt know what is going wrong. Any suggestions? And what do I say to the school? I'm planning an email because this can't carry on, it happens every year. He will fail the GCSE if this doesnt get tackled. I am at a loss as to what we can do.
He's had tutors in the past, they say he can do it but struggles to recall what he's been taught. This is not the case for any other subject.
Please advise.

How often does he practise/try the same sums etc? There's research which shows the best way to retrieve info is to allow a day or two (or more sometimes), to partially forget a concept, then revisit it. May be that he needs to space out the time between trying each operation and seeing how much he can recall? Sounds tough, poor thing!

My son has a very short term memory (especially for things that do not interest him!).

Repitition/consolidation of concepts plus lots of practice questions throughout the year really helped him improve his maths score

Yes I think the answer is probably a lot more repetetion. I'm going to need the school to get on board with this and help me implement a plan. I'm willing to do my bit but it will have to be a joint effort with them I think. Of course it will be a different maths teacher in September for year 9.
Is it worth me talking to the school this near the end of the year? He breaks up 8th July.

Repetition and consolidation. Need to make sure he can do the basics (adding/subtracting/times tables) or everything beyond this will be incorrect. Practice times tables in the car etc

I would be concerned that it is less of a memory issue than a lack of understanding.

The fact he does well in other exams suggests to me that he has a great memory. The problem with maths is often that children can regurgitate what they have been taught but when it comes to exams the children with the best memories are often caught out because they lack a full understanding of the concepts.

I think I would want to make sure he understands what he is being taught rather than just memorising a method. In a classroom situation or homework you often know the type of question you are being asked: eg. simultaneous equations, but when it appears on an exam paper, it often doesn't tell you how to solve the problem so you have to work that out for yourself. I therefore suggest practising exam papers at home so he learns to recognise types of questions and how to approach them.

I did 4 years of maths at uni and it’s my weakest subject by far. I’d do fine in lessons/homework, but exams would roll around and it’d be like reading Greek - I just couldn’t understand the question - not lack of ability. I just couldn’t figure out what I was being asked to calculate.

am now diagnosed autistic and I suspect adhd… ironically enough straight As for language/comprehension type subjects - I’ve just never been able to do well in maths exams. 🤷‍♀️

You can have a good memory for facts but a poor working memory. You need a good working memory for maths. I’d look up dyscalculia, there’s bound to be strategies for helping with maths learning difficulties.

Dyscalculia?

dyscalculia is a possibility, I will do some reading on that. And yes I take @Plantstrees point about the fact that he might not truly have a good understanding of what he is actually doing. Interestingly I have never really "understood" mathematics. Dh always insists that Maths is logical - well it was never logical to me!

My son was/is exactly the same. He's in 3rd year (Ireland) and is back on track after being ok in 1st year and shockingly bad in 2nd year. In hindsight the underlying issue was not fully understanding/remembering the basics from primary school and falling way behind during online learning.

He was also chronically unconfident and bad at doing tests. If he didn't know straight away what the answer was, he'd panic, not make any attempt and try the next one. He was also very stressed and upset that he was so bad at it compared to his friends.

He had a tutor for 2nd year and it didn't make any difference!

I got him to agree to do maths with me I'll as summer and I quickly realised he needed to go back to basics. I bought two Kumom books called algebra 1 and 2 and started at the beginning. Transpired he couldn't add / multiply / divide fractions for example and these books started with fractions and built up step by step in algebra.

He also then got a bit more confident and did really well in the 1st term of 3rd year, but then failed the Christmas test because of the exam panic.

But he got there in the end with more practice. Has just done his state exam and was reasonably well prepared going in and said it went pretty well.

I sympathise as it was so hard for him. His younger sister (is like me) gets it first time it's explained, consolidates it with the homework and it is then lodged in her brain. She puts in a fraction of the effort he does and gets 80%++ every time.

I would do 15-20mins a day with him in the holidays. Figure out what his issues are - start with basic addition (single digit numbers), then do double digit. Then do subtraction, then go back to addition (to see if he remembers).

it might be that he panics in exams.

It might be particular styles of questions. Perhaps he knows that 7+5 = 12, but struggles to correlate it with: James has 7 balls and Tim gave him 5 more. How many does James have now? Or maybe he doesn’t understand the 10s and 1s column etc.

But it sounds like he has worked hard for his exams - so well done to him for that! Good luck with trying different things - I hope he can find a way to improve.

I'm off all summer so happy to help him. I think we need to go back to basics like some of you have suggested. I will look online as there is lots of free work. Should I talk to the school? I really want things to improve in year 9 as it's getting close to GCSE years!

I would get a foundation level GCSE guide, and an associated workbook (ask school what board they use for maths).
Then in the holidays go through basics e.g.
Numbers

• can he add, subtract, multiple, divide


• can he do negative numbers (number lines are helpful)


• can he add subtract multiple divide fractions


• does he understand decimals, percentages, fractions and how to convert

Algebra
Units
Pie charts, Histograms, etc
And whatever the other sections are.

20mins per day for 6 weeks is a lot of maths, and he should improve rather than going backwards. There are lots of youtube videos and a good maths website I can't remember the name of but that @noblegiraffe no doubt will.

And if you don't 'get' maths perhaps you could do this together in a spirit of both of you learning?

If I can get my DD2 to cooperate, I will be doing likewise as for complicated reasons she has had 2 years with very limited maths but needs to 'resit' maths GCSE next academic year.

Have you looked at discalculia?

Might be worth considering?

I was going to suggest dyscalculia too as his performance sounds like it is quite at odds with all of his other subjects.

What about a tutor?

Are you a trained Maths teacher? If not I would advise getting someone who is qualified to come and od some tutoring sessions and advise what the issue is.

You are well meaning but you have identified a genuine issue and a stab in teh dark is not a good idea as you will mess more with his confidence.

Also - what do school say? They can't just shrug - they have to advise. Send an email to his teacher and the head of Maths now and ask for feedback before the end of term.

Yes his performance is totally different to his other subjects. Looking briefly at dyscalculia one symptom that struck a big chord is the inability to recall a method,even though he has just learned it apparently successfully!

I will ask school to recommend us a book. They also use a platform called Dr Frost I need to look at that and make sure it works for him.

I agree with this. Sometimes children are taught the concepts, and they do exercises, but when the exam comes they are required to apply their knowledge to a range of different questions. It's done to test their understanding of the underlying principal.

If he has only memorised the theory, he might not understand enough to be able to apply the concepts.

Maybe a maths tutor could help.

We would pay for a tutor - and have in the past. But we are already paying for him to be in private school, so we would be paying twice. However a tutor that could understand and help with this kind of specific difficulty would be worth it.

If you are paying for private school it is absolutely outrageous they are not doing more about this - waht the fuck are you paying for?

I could not understand the lack of response from school but now I do understand. genuinely do not mean to sound snippy but have you thought about sending him to a local state school where the teachers actually do their jobs?

I would be furious with school at their lacksadaisical attitude. Perhaps say you are goingt o sue them for breach of contract?

I think it’s common for private schools to not pick up on or address learning difficulties - that is an area where state schools perform better.
But he loves his school and gets so many opportunities in his hobbies, theatre/ drama/ sports etc
I think I’m going to go straight to the Headmaster and ask for a meeting to come up with a plan.

Personally I would not put up with a school that was so poor that there was no support for something as vital as Maths, however much drama there was.

Yes arrange a meeting. That is a shocking let down for your son. Hopefully the head will respond positively by sacking the Maths teacher.

I would get a tutor. And maybe see if you can get him quite a few sessions over the summer to help catch up. 1-1 is really effective for filling gaps like this.

some children need a lot of support in Maths. I needed help and had a maths tutor myself. I didn’t have money spent on me in to what ways but my parents saw I needed help with Maths. My kids need help in Maths and I pay a tutor to support them. Same reason. I do think it’ll make a difference.