Year 9 SAT's - very stressed DD

[sdr]

My DD is sitting her Y9 SAT's next week and is doing very well with English, ok with Science but is very worried about Maths. It is not her strong subject and has been revising but going in one ear and out the other.

She is getting very wound up and was crying for hours last night. The school has put a lot of pressure on to do well and she also is someone who likes to do well, but feels frustrated with herself. We're trying to remind her exams aren't everything, just do your best etc. Any help with what to say or do to calm her down and refocus her would be much appreciated.

as a teacher - although not of a SATs subject - please tell your dd not to worry. The teachers will probably take far more notice of what your dd is like in lessons and her potential rather than 'how good she is at exams' in year 9, I think it's awful that the school puts pressure on them.

Surely they won't use her SATs results to 'set' for GCSEs? is that what she is worried about?

How is she getting on with the Bitesize website? there is some fun stuff on there.

I really feel for her - do you have something special planned for end of SATs?

Sadly, she's been told the SAT's results will be used to set for GCSE. But we did point out that this won't affect her GCSE result, especially as we'll be getting her a tutor to help. We have some rewards for her (depending on results - but all are really good), I hadn't thought to remind her of them.

surely the sat result will just put her into the right form for gcse, which will be at her pace. she can still can an A in it can't she?

son has them too next week, a whole week of them, find them pretty pointless really as he's already picked options.

Tell her the SATs are testing the teachers and not her. They only tell us how she does on a given day and as Lucycat says, most teachers will ignore them. I taught a non-SAT subject, and I looked at what I knew about the student and how they'd performed in lessons, rather than at anything else.

has she done mock papers sdr?
This has eased the worry for lots of kids in maths at ds1s school

don't make her rewards dependent on results then!

Greensleeves, we did the same for her Y6 SAT's as shes very results orientated. Sadly it has backfired on us a bit this time. I think SAT's have become too big an issue at school - I thought they were to test the school, not the kids!

Think my best bet at this stage may be getting her to relax. She did say for Bank holiday Monday she wanted to go out for the day and just relax.

You shouldn't give rewards based on results. I have two DSs, one clever but lazy, the other less academic but who puts in a decent amount of work. Rewards based on results would have meant that DS1, the straight As boy, would have got all the rewards without too much effort and poor DS2 would have got far less despite trying so hard.
She has GCSEs/AS/A2/Degree/Professional exams ahead of her, all of which will be more stressful and will appear on her CV etc for years, so it is important that she can cope with the possiblility of not getting the results she would want.

Your two sound like my two. So we've based the rewards on the degree of effort involved, iygwim. Her issue though is she feels she's gone backwards in Maths (which we agree with) and therefore no point in trying. Asked school for support last Sept but they had teacher supply issues, so no consistency.

Now just need to do urgent recovery of situation before exams start next Tuesday as she is ready to give up trying, which is not like her.

sdr, which are you worrying about, her wellbeing/stress level, or her exam results? I can't quite make it out in your posts.

If you are as concerned as you say about her being too stressed and placing too much importance on exams, then you are contradicting yourself by giving her results-based rewards. You're reinforcing her belief that exam results are of towering importance.

If you are more concerned about her happiness and helping her to have a balanced view and not get herself into a terrible state about exams, then you need to take all the pressure off (even if you don't think there is any pressure coming from you, you may be sending out a message that it's important to you - children are like sharks at detecting parental expectations/disappointment). Stop rewarding good results with prizes and support her with non-judgemental encouragement instead.

I'm worried about her stress levels. You may be right about the rewards, problem is it worked in the past for her, but perhaps we've been a bit blind to how much more full-on secondary is and the approach should be different. That's why I posted here as it is so easy to get caught up in the middle of a problem and not see things properly. Thanks for your insights.

Re the maths - DS2 had problems at school because there was a shortage of maths teachers and his group ended up with loads of supply teachers. We remedied this by getting him some sympathetic tutoring for a year - the tutor went over everything and DS2's results shot up.

We use the results to set for GCSE - we need to know how students will do in an exam situation so we can put them into the right group and the right course. We do take teacher's views into consideration but it's usually only for the borderline kids.

A big part of exams is exam technique - sit down with some past papers and go through the types of questions that come up and how to tackle them. Look for questions that are similar so she has an idea of where to start with that type of question and then practise answering those questions.

Break down the revision into chunks and set a time limit - after that do something else.

Plan something fun/treat for the end of sat week to celebrate getting through them

And reassure her that the world won't end if she doesn't get a level whatever... she'll end up in the maths group that will be right for her

We use the results to set for GCSE - we need to know how students will do in an exam situation so we can put them into the right group and the right course. We do take teacher's views into consideration but it's usually only for the borderline kids.

A big part of exams is exam technique - sit down with some past papers and go through the types of questions that come up and how to tackle them. Look for questions that are similar so she has an idea of where to start with that type of question and then practise answering those questions.

Break down the revision into chunks and set a time limit - after that do something else.

Plan something fun/treat for the end of sat week to celebrate getting through them

And reassure her that the world won't end if she doesn't get a level whatever... she'll end up in the maths group that will be right for her

Thanks bluesushicat, I think also by concentrating on exam technique, it gives some control back to my DD over the situation, which is important for her. You've all been most helpful.

Your DD is not alone in stressing over next weeks SATS. My DD was in tears last night. I've found though that the secondary school havent been pushing as much as the junior school did 3 years ago.

I've told her to do some revision this weekend and not to worry as these results are not for them but the school. Told her to save her stresses for 2 year time . She is like your DD and wants to do well and is worried they will put her in lower sets for GCSE. They better not.

Anyway we are going for a meal next saturday night to celebrate the end of them.

DH and I reward our children for the effort they make not the actual results. Rewarding a child for the results they get just puts more pressure on them.

DH and I reward our children for the effort they make not the actual results. Rewarding a child for the results they get just puts more pressure on them.

By year 9 they know your DD well, they are not going to put her in the wrong GCSE set based on her SATs result. The result is not important to her, no one in future years is going to ask what she got.