Tips to get DD to pass her GCSE

[EnglishbreakfastSunday]

DD going into year 11; doing a reduced number of GCSE. English, Maths, Science and 2 more subjects. She is doing Foundation maths and combined science.

Not much revision going on yet. Predicted grades are on the low passing end, but maths is a 3.

How do we encourage, motivate and support her? she is doing a vocational course and does not need much but needs to pass core subjects.

I don’t think I have the skills, patience or knowledge to teach her or revise with her.

I’m presuming the child has 12 months to work on this. I think she’s going into year 11 in September.

Most jobs require a basic passing maths and English these days. Her future will be very limited if she doesn’t work to pass these exams.

Yes, we still got a year.

I am getting a bit concerned now. We are going to have to throw all the money in tutors and time needed to get her to pass English and Maths.

My apologies

Good habits now will pay dividends later. Just a half an hour here and an hour there. I got DS a subscription for save my exams as well.

is that the case? You continue doing maths until you pass it?

Yes, all the time you are at college. The son of a friend of mine had to retake GCSE maths several times while he was at college. He has dyslexia and never passed it. He is now 20 and has never been able to secure a job.

I agree that doing past papers helps massively. DD did a past paper nearly every day for two weeks before her maths exam. It not only drummed in the exam technique and type of questions, it gave her loads of confidence. When she sat the exams she finished early both times.

I've used revisionmaths.com for Maths past papers and revisionworld.com for English papers - make sure you know the type of of exam board she'll be taking eg. AQQ, edexcel. Personally I've found savemyexams good for English poetry revision (you need to pay for it after a week so I just got what I needed from it before paying) and Bbc Bitesize (free) good for maths revision. We would go through the papers and if a topic was difficult we'd look at it on Bitesize. I made condensed notes for her regarding the texts she was doing (play, novel, poetry) for Literature and on writing techniques for English Language (you're testing on reading and writing). The young person I was helping has come a long way over the past year doing it this way. She is almost finished her exams and is feeling happy so far. Last maths paper next week. I think it's a good approach but obviously the young person needs to be motivated too. In my experience becoming really familiar with the exam papers is key, especially if someone has been trying to pass the exams over a number of years. That's just one approach but may be helpful in your scenario.

That is sad and strange about your friend’s son unable to get any jobs.

Surely there are lots of jobs which don't require qualifications. A friend’s child is doing deliveries with Pedalme, also catering with the High Society.

What about Supermarkets, teaching Assistants, coffee shops, shops, restaurants, etc. I know someone whose English isn’t great as not native English Speaker and is working as a Teacher Assistant,

Thank you. I have no idea about the exam board 😔 will ask

It seems like her future depends on passing these GCSEs.

I am seriously considering taking a few months off from work to support her next year. Even quitting my job and getting a new one after exams.