Doesn’t seem to care about exams

[chicca]

DS is sitting GCSE mocks in Year 10. Has done very little revision on top of barely listening in class for the last year and a half (the school do 3 year GCSEs). Already hearing from teachers he is only attempting one or two questions in some of the papers. He doesn’t seem to care or think they might be important, even just passing English and Maths. We parents are at wits end and he hates us ‘interfering’ and encouraging revision.
Have lost all hope of this ever getting better…also think there could be a greater problem going on. He seems to find it all to hard to access and wonder why…Thanks for reading.

Ditto. The boy is not interested. Don't know what to do, only had boys before.

Career guidance might help… both from the POV view of motivating/ encouraging him to see the point of school/exams but also somebody offering a confidential and impartial space to talk may help get to the bottom of anything else that might be going on… see if you can get him an appointment with the school’s careers adviser?

I don't understand why they are sitting GCSE mocks in year 10 and it probably isn't helping the situation. From the minute GCSE syllabus is started it's all the DC hear about at school - Y11 and the dreaded passing of exams. End of year exams in summer term of Y10 followed by GCSE mocks in late T1/early T2 in Y11 and then the real thing in summer Y11 is fairly normal. Why do they need to be sitting mocks now?

Is this won't or can't?

It is possible for DC to get by before GCSEs and then the content and pace of GCSE years gets beyond them.
DD2 used to get into 'refusing' to do work at home, but it was because she was overwhelmed.

Won't or Can't need to be treated differently, so it is worth being sure which it is.

ps TheTeenageYears Lots of people / some schools use 'mocks' when they just mean 'exams'.

Y10 mocks will likely mean Y10 progress tests, which is very very normal.

A lot of boys do hide behind "won't" when the issue is really "can't" - it's very hard to admit you are struggling.

If you offered him a meaningful (to him) amount of money to complete every question on the papers for the remaining mocks, could he do it? If he doesn't know, ask him.

If he's very resistant to the idea or says he doesn't care that's probably a sign he can't do it.

If he can at least access every question then it's a motivation issue. If he can't then you need to dig deeper into why - which may be difficult if he is resistant.

When my SIL was that age, and refusing to knuckle down, MIL got her a job washing up in the kitchen of a local pub. SIL hated it. MIL told her that this was the kind of work she could expect to find if she didn't work for her O levels.

SIL decided to start working at school.

I agree to start thinking longer term with him. Is there anything he is interested in, that could become a future career? Then, together, look up the entry requirements for it. Do (did) you expect him to go to uni, and this is his way of showing he doesn't want to? Investigate alternatives, but show him that many of them still have minimum GCSE requirements.