Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Secondary education

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

Original poster

Improving grades for Maths, physics and chemistry (year 12). How?

20 replies

severinesmith · 21/03/2023 15:27

DS (year 12) would love to go to Imperial or UCL to study engineering but his current grades for maths, physics and chemistry is around the 60% mark. He is very quiet as a person so I'm not sure if this mark is effort or ability dominated. Teacher comments are along the lines of 'able but sloppy', 'too quiet so not sure to what extent he understands', 'needs to be more confident in his abilities', 'more effort needed'. To me these comments seem extremely vague. He is quiet, non-disruptive, hands work on time, spends at least an hour a day at home with his books. Any suggestions about what usually works to support less sloppy work? Where does one usually find extra practice questions beyond exam papers and textbook? He doesn't want extra help from a tutor. not that I can afford. Any STEM teachers in this forum or parents in a similar situation?

OP posts:
TooManyPlatesInMotion · 21/03/2023 15:36

Can you sit down with him and have an honest chat, while going through one of his papers? Just encourage him to be honest with you. Eg did you get this question wrong because you simply don't understand it, or did you not revise this topic? Ask him what he would like to do to improve.

He's old enough to have a sensible discussion about it and needs to be honest with himself if he is thinking of Imperial etc.

titchy · 21/03/2023 15:43

Just to caution, without FM neither Imperial nor UCL are likely, so please do encourage him to look at alternatives, at least for undergrad.

Kefir · 21/03/2023 15:54

titchy · 21/03/2023 15:43

Just to caution, without FM neither Imperial nor UCL are likely, so please do encourage him to look at alternatives, at least for undergrad.

Imperial say FM is useful but not essential. Dds boyfriend is there and doesn't have further maths . He did get 3 x a stars though.

JussathoB · 21/03/2023 15:57

TooManyPlatesInMotion · 21/03/2023 15:36

Can you sit down with him and have an honest chat, while going through one of his papers? Just encourage him to be honest with you. Eg did you get this question wrong because you simply don't understand it, or did you not revise this topic? Ask him what he would like to do to improve.

He's old enough to have a sensible discussion about it and needs to be honest with himself if he is thinking of Imperial etc.

Spends an hour with his books at home? I would have thought about four hours of self study every day for A levels. Of course he might be doing some studying in between taught lessons at school/college

JussathoB · 21/03/2023 15:58

Sorry meant to quote OP

Harping0n · 21/03/2023 16:05

Could you make some 20 minute appointments with teachers ? Or write an email asking for specific feedback. With him. Find out more specifics about what he is doing well and what he isn’t.
Some study tips from the internet - try a new study style eg Pomodoro for 10 days. See if it helps. If not find another method and try that. There are some good websites/books with study suggestion.
With the sloppy - what does that mean exactly - untidy, missing workings out, illegible? He needs to know.
if he writes the email - you help him.
Useful questions are: what do I need to do to go from my current grade to the next grade up. What extra online resources will help me?

YearsOfStagnation · 21/03/2023 16:25

My friend’s son has just got into imperial and UCL for engineering with physics, chemistry and maths. No FM.

Swansong124 · 21/03/2023 19:48

4 hours of self-study a day?! On a normal day?!

noblegiraffe · 21/03/2023 19:56

Sounds like he's not working hard enough, unless he is also doing a whole bunch of study at school. The usual advice is students should be doing an hour of study out of lessons for every hour they're in lessons, so an hour a day and merely doing homework and not independent study on top wouldn't be enough.

If he wants to improve his maths he needs to do a shedload more practice. If he wants to get into a top uni then he should be doing all the questions in the textbook, marking as he goes along, and working on any he gets wrong till he can do them.

If he needs help, there's a YouTube channel of videos here (go to the playlists): youtube.com/@haberdashersadamsmathsdepa3347

He should also, at this point of the year, be doing past AS papers.
Excellent resources here: alevelmathsrevision.com

CatOnTheChair · 21/03/2023 20:04

My kids aren't that old yet, but my memory of Alevel maths, phys and chem are practice practice practice. Especially for the maths and physics. I didn't do masses extra (also did Biology) but I think I was looking at closer to 2 hours a night.
The sloppy could be careless mistakes in the maths leading to incorrect answers, or imprecise terminology leading to lost marks. Or something else again.

Mumski45 · 21/03/2023 20:09

My year 12 DS is doing same A levels and also want to do engineering. He is using savemyexams.co.uk there is a free version which gives you some practice question but we have paid for the basic subscription and have access to a lot more.

Advancedpie · 21/03/2023 20:10

My dc went from failing (and about to be demoted to the bottom set) to being at the top of the top set. I got a tutor who came 2hrs a week and me and the dc 'played' with maths every evening for an hour or so. There was nothing wrong with their maths ability, it's just that all the other dc had private tutors and so were pulling away faster. We had no choice but to do the same to catch up. It was worth it as it got dc the course they wanted.

TheFallenMadonna · 21/03/2023 20:16

My DS went from E in year 12 to A by year 13 mocks (Maths and Physics) by actually doing the work he had been advised to do. A couple of questions wasn't enough for him to get it any more. He had a do a lot of practice. He also did History, which was completely different and he found his feet sooner with that one.

JussathoB · 21/03/2023 20:24

Swansong124 · 21/03/2023 19:48

4 hours of self-study a day?! On a normal day?!

Yes, an hour homework/self study for every hour lesson each day

PatriciaHolm · 21/03/2023 21:18

Swansong124 · 21/03/2023 19:48

4 hours of self-study a day?! On a normal day?!

This is what DS has been told - doing 4 Alevels, (inc FM) aiming for top Unis for Engineering. An hour of self study for each hour taught in the classroom.

It's not as terrifying as it sounds if you remember they have a number of free periods at school now at A level, so if they study in those, that's a lot of it done already. They aren't doing 9-3 at school then another 4+ hours at home - or at least they shouldn't be!

Ladyface · 21/03/2023 21:33

Agree with previous posters about extra self study - it’s a recommended 3 hours a night where I work. Also, second year of a level maths gets harder not easier so worth putting in the effort now. Does his school/college have workshops/drop in sessions? What are his targets based on his gcse results?

Postapocalypticcowgirl · 21/03/2023 22:04

Swansong124 · 21/03/2023 19:48

4 hours of self-study a day?! On a normal day?!

Four hours self study per subject per week, so 12 in total- in a normal week.

At the moment, he's doing 5 or 7, depending on whether OP means school days or every day- perhaps he's doing a bit more in school. But it's very likely he's only doing about half the recommended amount of work.

For the sorts of subjects he's doing, a lot of this time should be spent doing practice questions, checking the mark scheme, seeing where he went wrong, and so on. The more a student practices, the more a student can reproduce in an exam.

A hour "spent with his books" may not be very productive self study.

Postapocalypticcowgirl · 21/03/2023 22:08

Any suggestions about what usually works to support less sloppy work? Where does one usually find extra practice questions beyond exam papers and textbook?

Sloppy suggests making silly mistakes? Does he have a good method for checking his work in an exam.

For maths style questions this could include checking whether the answer is sensible in terms of order of magnitude- e.g. if he's suggesting a yield in chemistry is less than a ml, it's not likely to be correct (just as a random example). It could also include checking the question to see if he was asked for a certain number of s.f. or to express the answer in a certain way. Has he included units and are these written in the notation he's been shown for A-level e.g. ms-1, not m/s?

There's lots of websites online with exam style questions. Does his school have a subscription to Kerboodle or similar? CGP also sell practice workbooks with answers, which are reasonably priced and worth investing in.

Original poster
severinesmith · 22/03/2023 09:07

Advancedpie · 21/03/2023 20:10

My dc went from failing (and about to be demoted to the bottom set) to being at the top of the top set. I got a tutor who came 2hrs a week and me and the dc 'played' with maths every evening for an hour or so. There was nothing wrong with their maths ability, it's just that all the other dc had private tutors and so were pulling away faster. We had no choice but to do the same to catch up. It was worth it as it got dc the course they wanted.

thanks-- two hours a week for each of the subjects? How do you find a good tutor? Sorry if this sounds very basic

OP posts:
Original poster
severinesmith · 22/03/2023 09:15

Thank you everyone. Such useful advise. Maybe he isn't putting in the hours required. Or maybe he isn't effective in his study approach.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page