Maths November re sit results day- Another 3 :(

[Onceyoupopyoushouldstop]

Hi,

So in all honesty, I'm much more disappointed for DD than I thought I would be. I'd prepared myself and was quite 50 50 on whether she'd pass or not, but what's really thrown me is she only got 5 marks over the boundary, so closer to a 2 than a 4, which is quite a big step back from her last exam.

We spent so much money on tutoring and helped her as much as we could, but she just seems to really struggle getting over that final hurdle. I don't think she understands the impact this will have on her future course applications, even when those courses won't have anything to do with maths. I feel like she's just accepted that she will always fail, although she says she's tried as hard as she could. I'm not so sure.

My main concern now is that her next re sit and A Level mocks are in the same month and I was really hoping she could just concentrate on her A Levels, without this also looming over her. I'm pretty sure the extra work she had to put into her maths GCSE last time brought down some of her other grades, so she can't afford that to be the case again.

Not sure why I'm posting really. Just looking for a bit of support and ideally some advice.

Thank you

Hi,

Reading your post, the first thing I thought was, has she been assessed for dyscalculia? Did the tutors give feedback after sessions, as they might have picked up if it was more an anxiety issue?

I would ask to recall her papers so the tutor / teacher can see the mistakes she is making. Is it timing? Is she panicking and forgetting things?

The pass mark for maths is very low so she must only be getting a small number of answers correct. Is she doing past papers?
I’m not surprised her mark is lower, in Y11 she would have been doing maths almost every school day but now with A levels etc she simply isn’t getting the regular practice. It will have to be something everyday so that she retains the information she needs. Is she taking the foundation paper?
She will get there.

@WantToChangeUsername no, no diagnosis. Yes, we got feedback each time and it was generally pretty positive. Her main problem is retention. She has actually come a long way, as she really did struggle with the very basics, so I am proud that she's come this far, I guess it's more her attitude that is concerning me.

@PSEnny She does actually qualify for extra time and says that she does use it all, but doesn't feel like she's rushing. I think it's just a case of reading the questions carefully and breaking them down and then there's the retention issue. She was doing past papers, but probably not enough tbf. It was also a different exam board this time round, which threw her a bit I think. Yes, she's taking the foundation paper.

I think she needs a tutor face to face, not online like they all seem to be now.

What a shame for her. Agree it’s a good idea to check the paper to see whether it’s silly mistakes. Does she know the work and panics on the day?

I don’t agree the pass marks are very low for maths. You needed 65% for a 4 on the summer foundation paper. The paper may be easier than the higher but that’s still 2/3rd of the marks you need to get right. Across three papers. I think that’s a challenge.

Hi I just wanted to reassure you that it isn't as ‘important’ as you think it might be? My daughter has still gone to an excellent university without her maths to study an unrelated subject and I did too.

Just a thought but have you asked her school if any extra support is available? I'm a TA based in the maths department of a large high school and take a couple of Yr 11 students out of PSHE every week for extra maths. If your DD is 6th form there should be potentially more space on her timetable for something like this.

How about her doing Functional Skills maths instead? Level 2 Functional Skills is regarded as a grade 4 pass. The papers are more straightforward and incude more day to day maths.

I know the Government want those with grade 3 to keep trying for a GCSE pass but since when has any Government actually understood what non academic children or children who find certain subjects difficult, actually need.

It might be a confidence boost for her to be able to do more of the questions and hopefully gain a qualification in maths.

@Candleabra I don't think so, no. She was reasonably calm overall. Yes, I think I will request the scripts.

@flufalump thank you 😊 I'm glad to hear you and your DD were successful, regardless of this.

@Giraffesdotty Her school actually do offer 3 sessions a week. Her teacher was more of a substitute though I think, rather than an actual maths teacher.

@Lindy2 I heard most places don't offer this. Is that not the case now?

I taught the resit class for a few years.

Most students get worse at maths when they are not doing it nearly every day.

We entered all of ours for the November exam as what we found was the longer they went without daily maths practice the worse they got.

It gets harder as the a levels go on as they also need work.

If she really needs to pass then I'd recommend a tutor.

Functional skills maths papers are much more wordy and some people find this much harder and others much easier.

@PSEnny The pass mark for Foundation tier is pretty high iirc ~55-60%.

@Onceyoupopyoushouldstop re Functional Skills. I have had a look at this as my 19yo DD hasn't passed maths yet (or Eng Lang, or anything else actually).

Anyway this is what I have learned so far:
. yes it is more wordy
. but the exams are shorter
. the more esoteric topics are omitted, so no algebra, trig, angles in a polygon etc
. some/many colleges don't offer it
. if you wait until 'y14' and you aren't at college there is a funding black hole, you can't access the adult education until the academic year you turn 20

@Octavia64 well yes, I suppose that makes complete sense really. If that's really true, regarding the functional maths, that wouldn't be good at all for DD, as the wordy ones are where she usually trips

@TeenDivided thank you for this.

Just giving this a bump