DS is in y11 and seems to have done well in all of his mocks (5,6 and 7’s) except for history where he keeps getting 2’s and 3’s and doesn’t understand what he’s doing wrong.
He’s a good, articulate writer and his subject knowledge seems ok. Timing in the papers has been an issue in the past but he’s getting on top of that more. He just doesn’t seem to have a clue how to answer the questions or what the examiner is actually looking for, and it’s making him completely demotivated to the point where he now says he hates history, never wants to hear the word ‘history’ again, and he won’t revise because he doesn’t care anymore.
I offered to help him because I did history A level (a long time ago, but I did get an A lol) so I figured I could at least help demystify some techniques for him (even though I feel the teachers should surely have been doing this for the past year and a half(!)) - but then he showed me a past paper and OMG the questions are written in such opaque language now, even I couldn’t figure it out! I remember it as being more ‘Compare and contrast…’ or ‘Show that…’ or ‘Discuss…’ but there was none of that, just gobbledygook. I told him I wasn’t surprised he was struggling.
He watched a walk-through video that the teacher had recommended and seemed more confident going into the mock but the poor soul has come out with a 3 again and he just doesn’t know why. The only feedback he got was ‘Expand your answer’ when he’d already written three pages! He really needs 5’s in everything to get his desired college place and I’m at a loss as to how to help him.
Any advice, links, hints, tips, gratefully received please. Thanks!