DD struggles to answer exam equations

[tridento]

Hi all, I could post this in SEN but I thought I would possibly get more suggestions here.
My 17 yr old DD is dyslexic and has recently been diagnosed with ADHD. She is rather late in adhd diagnosis because frankly you wouldn't have picked her as having it. She's socially very able, reads people well, doesn't struggle with being organised
She does zone out however and gets overwhelmed and finds it hard to stay focussed but this has only become obvious as work has become more challenging and requiring of these skills. Prior to this she didn't really need to focus or study much to do decently well.

The problem is now in year 12 she struggles to answer questions the way she needs to in order to get the marks. Teachers say it's obvious she knows the topics but she answers poorly or in ways that get across her knowledge but not using the key phrases and key words markers will mark for.

Do people have knowledge of this problem and suggestions of how they or their dc overcame this issue?

Bumpity bump

Which subjects specifically?

Thanks for replying, psychology and economics

Not my subjects - but the teachers need to give her a recipe to follow. It makes answers really stilted to begin with but also means that she'll hit the criteria

I recommend focusing on studying the marking scheme and working backwards. This is because you don't get the marks in an exam for providing the "right answer", but the answer that "matches the marking scheme".

Beyond this, consider reading the end of the question first - this is the part that details what you are expected to answer. After reading the end, you can read the beginning to identify scenario details that are to be incorporated into the answer.

@Leonab thank you. Good suggestions

Surely they don't ask the same questions though. Learning mark schemes -how dies that help for future exams?

I've been told by students that this has been done in computing; I wouldn't be surprised if they have done so for other subjects too.

Either way, the specifics of the question isn't important. The exam boards have their own style of questions that are the same every year. So while they shouldn't have the same questions repeated, the questions are going to be the same but with different scenarios. Learning to identify the style of question gives you a big advantage to identify what answer is expected.

Also, studying the marking scheme reveals what they give the marks for. An example - a 12 mark question in computing asked "describe how data is stored with optical media". This confused me in a lesson because I had the knowledge but didn't know what they were looking for to give 12 marks. It turned out that marks were given for:

• Disk spins - 1 mark for mention and 1 mark for description.
• Uses a laser - 1 mark for mention and 1 mark for description.
• Laser moves backwards and forwards - 1 mark for mention and 1 mark for description.
• Data is represented using microscopic holes - 1 mark for mention and 1 mark for description.
• Plus two other obscure points...

So while I knew thew, I would have only got 2 out of 12 in the exam because I didn't think to write the obscure points like "the disk spins". This is the difference between understanding the subject and knowing what gets the marks in an exam.

Maths is a lot like computing - you could get all of the final answers wrong and still score a grade 7 or 8 if all of the working out is right. You would only get a grade 3 or 4 if only presenting the final answers.

@Leonab it's mental isn't it that you could have had a much more in depth understanding but without writing some base answers that are so obvious it wouldn't occur to you to state them, you would have failed to get marks. What has education come to.

Dyslexia is a processing problem. You may know the answer but may not answer correctly because you are not understanding what is being asked.

She needs some support in understanding what is being asked for.

Her teachers should be able to give her pointers in terms of key words in questions and what sort of response they require - I don’t teach those subjects but things like ‘explain’ or ‘describe’ or ‘state’?

Familiarity with mark schemes definitely helps.

Exam Access Arrangements - British Dyslexia Association (bdadyslexia.org.uk)

It genuinely does cause issues for very bright students. I once tutored a pupil who wrote GCSE essays to uni standard. And they'd have failed. I had to explain how plodding their answers needed to be to pick up the marks.

OP If you work backwards from mark schemes, you learn (for example) that Qu1 scores 4 marks, Qu2 scores 8. Essays each score max of 24. So out of 60 marks, to gain a safe pass, they don't want to spend too long on Qu 1 or go into too much detail.

With essay qus, I used to advise they try to pick up at least 3 marks per para. Reread the question at the end of each paragraph to ensure you stay on track. Parrot back the question in some form. Use PETER paragraphing technique to stay on track too. But that's only for essays. Can't help with anything else.