GCSE Revision (SEN)

[Mummadeze]

Finding it very hard to get my DD (autistic with OCD and anxiety) to revise at all. Exams are three weeks away. If I try to suggest or push her to do it on her own or with my help, she get anxious, upset, sulky, down or very stressed. She is intelligent but struggles with confidence and focus and failed nearly all her mocks. She does engage with her tutors (I have booked in sessions 2-3 times a week to help her since her mocks) but that is it really. School are helping them prep. Do I just give up and leave it to fate to try to make sure she isn’t too stressed about the exams or do I keep trying to get her to study? She needs to pass 3 to get into the colleges she likes, so that is my only goal for her. Anyone else in this situation?

My DD (with trauma, anxiety disorder, dyslexia & dyspraxia) is resitting maths. I am not currently attempting to get her to do any maths out of college except tutoring. I have worked out that on balance it is counter productive. From next weekend I will try some 15mins here and there but will back off if it stresses her.

Will her preferred college accept her with fewer passes onto a similar lower level course (eg a level 2 not level 3, or level 1 not level 2)? With the SEN it might be best to have an easier first year anyway.

If you do encourage her to do some I would definitely only focus on max 4 subjects if not just 1 or 2.

Does she have a tutor for Maths and English? Do they set homework? If so, I’d leave her to it.

I have similar - ADHD, Dyslexic and stubborn as a mule. Targets of 8, but failed most of her Nov mocks and scrapped passes in March. I will be ecstatic if she gets 6 or above at this point. She's good at English but without the spell check and editing software she's going to lose best part of 20% for language before she even starts.

I've got tutors for Maths, English and Geography and she is engaging with them.

School don't have study leave thank goodness so I suspect they will get her to focus more and seem to be setting lots of additional timed exam papers in next few weeks.

She has downloaded some app called Simple Study and is raving about it. Generally this enthusiasm will last about a week, but I'll take that if it means she's not doing displacement activities to avoid!

Took her to see Macbeth this weekend which may have helped (although I blame the Globe if she writes about the MacDuffs being a lesbian couple in the exam...)

Otherwise I am bribing heavily for any kind of engagement with books and past papers.

Did find some really good flashcards with nice pictures for English Lit - flipscocards.com/

School are being amazing and setting her small chunks of work to do and teachers are marking whatever she hands in.

Mainly I am repeating like a mantra that all you need are 5 including English and Maths and hoping we get through the next couple of months.

Thank you for the advice and links. Will check them out. Much appreciated. I also took her to see Macbeth and Jeckyl and Hyde revision theatre tour with her school friend but still not sure it helped, although she did enjoy it. Tutors are a godsend. She has English lit, English language, maths and chemistry tutoring. Lower level next year is good advice too. She has to change schools as she didn’t get a place at her current school sixth form so dreading that as change is very hard for her.