My son underperforms in exams

[Towcester]

My son, Y9 just got his latest assesment scores back in Spanish (60%) Geography 25 out of 47).

These are lower than he got last time. During parents evening the teachers commented that he was doing well and they were a bit surprised at his exam scores being so low.

With GCSEs coming up I want to address this.

He has a poor memory. He can learn something, understand it but if you ask him about it a few days later it can be gone or really need to heavily jog his memory. How can we get stuff to stick in his brain? Even learning the night before, he seems to lose a lot the next day.

Any advice?

From my university days I tried to show him how to write out a brainstorm/mind map where in the centre you have 'Geography' and then lines going out to bubbles with key words/triggers/themes so, for revision, you can just look at this one piece of paper and then have the key points which should be enough for you to expand on. We will try that going forward but that is all i have.

I don't want him to get GCSE grades below his ability so looking for ways to get him to perform well in exams.

Thanks

Sorry @TeenDivided you are correct, just looked at my son's options book as he's also yr 9 and I'm shocked at the lack of coursework.
I sort of just leave him to it, as he's at grammar and he's had positive feedback, so my head is in the sand.

What has your son picked for options OP? I'm sure he will be fine, my son took some assessment papers, they used old gcse papers, so were difficult. Also a lot of children in my son's class struggled with the Spanish paper. If the school hasn't voiced concerns then I wouldn't stress because they will know the averages of the year group. Maybe get him to ask his peers their scores as a benchmark

Yes. I was shocked to learn how little coursework matters in the new GCSEs which added to my panic.

Along with the compulsory ones he is doing advanced maths, music and business studies. It was a tough call, i wanted him to do computer science really since it goes very well wih maths which he is good at but he really wanted to do business studies. Trouble is he has never had a business studies class in y7 to 9 except for the taster lesson (where they saw an episode if Dragons Den) so i think there is a novelty factor.

Ok, we will have to look at the revision techniques and if that doesnt help look at getting assessed.

We tutored quite heavily in y5 and 6 (hoping for a grammar place but he missed out by a few marks). I have kind of been hands off really and wanted him to enjoy his school life after that and to learn more independently but maybe i need to help him revise more or maybe get a tutor again though i hadnt planned to to be honest. Trouble is some subjects i would struggle at gcse like science and maths. Maybe i can help him with some though.

Learning another language is proven to help children so that is not necessarily to blame. Also learning an instrument is beneficial. Revise frequently, use colour, put list it's or cards up on the wall. I had a mini blackboard in my room which I used for french verbs etc. Quizlet might help too. Writing things out will help, something about writing not just underlining or highlighting other people's.

There's a free course on Coursera called learning how to learn or something like that which covers the best ways...

gb.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn

When it comes to revision for GCSE courses it almost gets easier to help them revise, at least for science.

The CGP revision books contain everything needed, and nothing more. They are well laid out, so it is easy for you to see the key points of eg 'the theory of evolution' or 'properties of metals'.

School will probably sell you the CGP books at reduced price, but maybe not until y11, you could ask when they do it, and if needed get them early, but take advice on which ones (varies for board, higher/foundation tier, and also combined or triple science). I picked up quite a lot from our Oxfam books.

Similarly the maths guide has all necessary maths, but you need other things for practicing question.

Your school might also subscribe to Seneca which is online across a range of boards/subjects and is good for basic revision.

ps You don't need CS GCSE to do it at A level, or even A level to do it at uni.

Have a real bash at revision for end y9 tests, and go from there.

My son was similar. He was also very musical. We finally determined that he was not a visual learner, but an auditory learner, he learnt best by hearing. So we bought him a small voice recorder so that he could make aural voice notes. Sitting trying to revise by reading his notes always lead to underperformance as he just couldn’t retain the information. Look up different learning styles, it helped our son.

Have they gone over revision techniques yet? Ask Tutor or HoY.

Thanks@FreshsatsumaforDd will try that.

Got his exams this week. He seems determined to do himself justice this time but equally nervous.

The voice recorder is a brilliant suggestion. For kids like your son, the best thing isn't just lots of repetition but also teaching someone the content. Even if it's just teaching it to his voice recorder. Once he's in GCSE years you have past papers to work from and it's a bit easier than revising for Y9 content as it's linear and your know what he's learning.
Lots of lots of practise papers is the best thing. He will know that he freezes and unless he's in exam conditions lots of times, that won't stop.
I'm not sure I would continue the language that far into GCSEs. I think you're underestimating the amount of exams he'll have. Supposedly by now he is quite fluent?

Also, they're expensive but oaka books revision guides are brilliant.

DD was like this. High achiever in class. Lower in exams. Just found out in year 12 that she’s dyslexic and needs extra time. Wish it had been picked up earlier but she masked/hid it well.