Failing Further Maths - sit the papers or not?

[Liesmorelies]

I don't know what to do about this and obviously it's pretty late in the day as ds is Y11 and the exam is on Thursday. He is good at maths - got 8 in the Y10 mocks and most recent one so it didn't concern me when he signed up for further maths which is taught one hour per fortnight after school in Y11 only. There is never any communication home about it and Ds never said much about it other than it was 'ok.' Last week he said he wants to drop it but the school won't allow it unless I pay £150. He says he is likely to fail and just doesn't understand any of it. I can believe this as my other ds got a 9 in maths and a 6 in FM and he is very driven, which ds2 is not!

My worry is that, unlike ds1, ds2 is considering Stem subjects for uni and therefore I'm worried a very low grade or a U in the midst of (hopefully, based on mocks and predictions) 7s or higher would be a problem. I know it would have to be declared for UCAS. I'm a bit cross that school let the kids 'have a go,' without stressing the potential implications but I do blame myself as well and feel I took my eye off the ball here.

Should I/we:

• pay the £150
• risk it and hope unis he applies to don't mind
• Not turn up for the exam - would it still have to be declared if he didn't actually sit it and how likely are the school to make me pay?
• Something else

Any advice would be great. He wants to just sit it as it would be 'funny' to have a low grade, while I think he might deeply regret that if he's stuck with it on his UCAS form.

Let him sit it. Won’t make a blind bit of different sitting on a UCAS form.

If he wants to apply to uni for a STEM subject, it might make a difference. Depends how competitive the course is. I’d want to speak to his FM teacher asap and would withdraw him if he’s really likely to do badly. I’m not sure what happens re grade if he just doesn’t do the exam. Worth finding out.

It really won’t.

Thanks for the replies. @titchy I kind of hope you're right as definitely the easiest option is for him to just sit it, but if it does come back to bite him it will be such a shame.

@Liesmorelies if he doesn't turn up, he'll get a grade U, and the school may still expect you to pay. You'd be better off paying up front.

@titchy is absolutely correct - it makes no difference .

You don't even have to include in on your UCAS application as it is usually an extra GCSE. I am a UCAS advisor as part of my job.

It's just everything on Google suggests it does have to be declared. Ds1 looked into this as he had all 9s except FM at a 6 and was told and found that it had to be declared. He's doing history though so it was just his pride at stake!

Have a read of this thread op had a similar issue www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4794151-dropping-non-core-subject-include-on-ucas-do-unis-see-actual-gcse-score

You’re right you should really include it and the school might not sign it off if it’s not included. Some schools are strict others. But unless applying for maths not likely to make much difference

If he doesn't turn up for the exam he won't get a U he will get an X which doesn't have to be declared on UCAS.

I think the exam entry fee for Further Maths (if AQA certificate) is £52 so you might as what the £150 is for, but morally you should pay if he doesn't sit an exam the school have paid for him to enter.

However, if he is considering STEM subjects for uni then why doesn't he understand any of it? He really ought to be giving it his best shot rather than thinking it's funny he's going to do badly. Maybe he just needs to crack his books open and actually get on with some solid work? There'll be videos on YouTube he can watch for help.

What did you decide @Liesmorelies ?

I reckon his teacher would have reached out if he were anywhere near failing it. Ours were only put in for the exam if they did ok in the mock.

Further maths will be such a bright cohort though, especially as anyone struggling can usually just drop it I would be interested to see the grade distribution. ETA I've just looked it up. 72% got a 6 or above last year, so there's a sizeable chunk who didn't. Interesting. If your son did the paper, OP, I hope he found it ok.

Coming late to this but @noblegiraffe exam boards impose a penalty fee on late withdrawals, which is often 2 or 3x the exam fee. I have no idea how they can justify this, but that's another thread.

I manage EPQ and doing the exam entry is akin to herding cats. I get the entry list which I double-check with my team. The students get their individual entry forms and we then move into bargaining season where they have to decide whether or not to drop it, moving through a convoluted school process, then parents moaning about a lack of support/too much support.... you get the gist. This year I put out a message telling all of them and their parents that unless I had it in writing that they were dropping the subject by deadline X (a week before the penalty fees were issued), they were liable for the £140. It focused the minds.

Yes, but is it necessary to actually go to the bother of withdrawing the pupil versus the pupil simply not sitting the exam?

Interesting! What did your son do?
To late for you, @Liesmorelies , but maybe useful for someone coming across this thread next year:
DS asked us if it was OK to withdraw from FM, but it was before the deadline to make changes. We agreed with him - put the effort into his other subjects rather than the hours that would have been needed to get the FM upto scratch.
Antidotidly, it's a choice all of top set maths made, leaving set 2 sitting FM. I wonder how much of that was top set not used to seeing a maths paper they didn't stand a chance of obtaining full marks on!
DS is happily accepted to do A level maths &FM next year - infact the maths department opened the conversation about alevel choices with "I hope you are here to discover about FM next year"

Well, he sat paper 1 on Thursday, which he said was 'ok' and looking up the mark scheme like they do these days he thinks he will have passed. His best friend sat it too - had she decided not to it may have been a different story, but, perhaps luckily her dm was apparently adamant that she would sit it, while I was more undecided. Ds had said he would not drop out and leave her to sit it alone, which was honourable but misguided I feel and would not have been reciprocated, but it's done now - apart from paper 2, but obviously they're committed to that now.

School has annoyed me a bit - they do this casually after school once a fortnight in Y11. I assume it's open to top set only but there is absolutely no parent communication, apart from a brief comment from his maths teacher at parents' evening in Feb that he was turning up and doing 'fab'. I only had his word to go on and it was only a couple of weeks ago he started making noises about dropping it. I do think a bit of parental communication would have been useful but I also think I should have looked into it more, but with him being a conscientious student who is good at maths I never envisaged it being a problem.

Interested in this issue - DD due to sit OCR Add Maths on Tuesday, failed mock just before Easter so we said “see how you feel closer to the actual exam” - but I thought she wouldn’t have to disclose it if she failed. She now wants to do it even tho she hasn’t done much revision. She’s not doing STEM A levels - but as pp said - pride-wise she would be upset to have a fail mark on record for Uni. And would wish she hadn’t done it.
Add Maths content wasn’t taught properly - we only found out 2 days before Easter hols. She chose to focus on her core subjects rather than dilute them by catching up on Add Maths.

Here are a couple of best guess paper 2s for Wednesday, focusing on topics that didn't appear in paper 1.

https://x.com/mrmattock/status/1933518489693614448?s=61&t=U9XrcF693-JpMxeIueYG7g
https://x.com/mrmattock/status/1933518489693614448?s=61&t=U9XrcF693-JpMxeIueYG7g

Probably too late for you now, but DD was in a similar situation when she sat her GCSEs with FMQ as an after school add on. She got a D for further maths, against very high numbered grades for the rest. She took maths A level, but not FM A level and ended up at Oxford graduating in a maths related subject. No impact at all.

Thanks @noblegiraffe - I'll show that to him.

Thanks also from me for those @noblegiraffe .

Fingers crossed for not too many curve balls on paper 2. My DC's flagging and just needs them over now.