Can a current maths level 2 reach GCSE grade 4 in a year?

[Clearsunnysky]

As per the tittle. Is it s GCSE of 4 achievable from a current level of 2? In a year?

Should we get DS in a maths camp. Intense maths tutoring for a year?

YES! 🙏🤞 🍀

My DS ( ASD/ADHD) went from a grade 2 in Yr10, got 3/4 in mocks to get a grade 4 GCSE in Maths. He went from group tutoring to 1-2-1 once a week with a tutor he gelled with, and absolute relief to pass! He was only 9 off a grade 4 English, which was a massive achievement for him, so we are in resit hell awaiting results for that!

I wish him ( and you!!!) every positive thought there is in getting the holy grail of a 4!

Good Luck!! 🌟

Yes! What a blessed relief, I remember! 🌟🌟🌟

If DS has not improved or learned anything since year 10 after 5 years of education and 3 years of tutoring then I think something must be wrong with the teaching.

He wasn’t great a science but is now achieving at 5 with the help of a good tutor, English predicted grades are 4/5. He can write essays and read so not sure why he can’t get s pass in maths.

There is not discalculia

Ex-tutor here. It is possible (and I have helped pupils achieve it) but you need to get a tutor who can assess and systematically work through any areas of weakness starting from the basics of Foundation number and place value and moving on from there when each concept is grasped. Your child also has to be motivated!

I meant he has not learned or improved since year 5 after 5 more years of education and private tutoring

Thank you

We found a face to face tutor. I have faith it will make a difference.

Thank you for the link; that is useful

Summer holiday could be spend doing maths daily plus tutoring more than once a week, we knew a family that did put DS focus on maths who was getting 3 in Y10 and willing to get on with it over summer. They got a 8 last year. It was a case of bad teaching over the years and gaps in certain area of maths. Their tutor need to identify the gaps or weakness and focus on those areas.

I cried!! It was such a relief.

There is time - I know a lot of kids go up a few grades from Yr10.

There is also the chance to resit. It is annoying but all not lost if he doesn’t get the pass first time.

DD stumbled across this guy on YouTube when revising for her yr 10 exams. She really clicked with his style and it helped her grasp some concepts she has been struggling with in school.

She's also not doing as well with her current teacher as previous ones...

https://youtube.com/@sasmallmath?si=-KykXrganlODPftE

Possible , find a good tutor

my son has a maths tutor, one hour a week, up to four in the class and it’s £25 a week

he’s has some mild learning difficulties, memory retention is the biggest problem, he is quite compliant though and generally willing to work so hopefully over the next year we can get it. His maths tutor is hopeful that he can just scrape it 🤞

hoping for a three in his mocks next week

he’s really good tutor and managed to help my eldest pass her maths. She got a 2 in June mocks, 3 in jan mocks and 4 in the exam

they will resit at college so it’s not the end of the world

My dd struggles with maths. She gets 6/7 in other subjects but got only 2 marks on one year 10 mock, and I mean 2 marks not a grade 2!! They moved her into foundation and her teacher this year has been great, she got a 5 on the Easter mock and has just sat the real ones 🤞so yes it's not too late in some cases.

I will say that English teachers (I was a data manager at a school, where my son did not attend, so they didnt know him, sorry long caveat) always said that the Maths grades were often linked totally to the English grades. And I must be frank your son's English grades are not great. 5 at science isnt great either. Possibly A levels and uni arent going to be his future. But cracking solidarity for another career. What does he like doing?

Results are good for what he wants to do next, except for maths and there is still a year to improve; but I will be over the moon if he gets what he get the passes he need,

You would get on line for less than £50 an hour as the tutor doesn't need to be in London. I'm in the northwest and online would be £30 to £35. Small group 20 to £25. A grade 2 to 4 is possible. I think I'm person and not group would be better. I've got students up by 2 grades in one year, also from a 1 to a 4. They have to want it to, it's also about the student and tutor working well together. Most schools won't allow functional skills. I teach both and whilst FS has less content it's very shape based which many students struggle with, it's also wordy and based on adult concepts which teens struggle with. It requires practice like any maths. Past papers are great as long as they go over the topics they are struggling with and practice those. Good luck.

Thank you. Is this link edexcel board?

I think that perhaps you’re in denial here I’m afraid. Firstly, how do you know it’s down to poor teaching? You’re not sat in his lessons are you? Your DS has had years of schooling alongside 4 years of private tutors and is still struggling. That’s not due to ‘poor teaching’.

OP are you absolutely sure there is no dyscalculia?

Pleased to see Functional Skills mentioned so positively here. My DS1 couldn’t pass GCSE maths and tbh should never have been put in for it. He was at a special school and even they were very reluctant to go down the Functional Skills route. I insisted they entered him for it and he failed that too (I hadn’t realised that the format is very different to the GCSE format). He then went to a specialist college for FE and at the same time we started using a tutor. She wasn’t a maths teacher, she was an SEN professional with specialist maths teaching knowledge. Between her and the college, DS went through the FS levels and passed Level 2 in a few months. Specialist SEN teaching was what he needed rather than mainstream maths teaching.

He had assessments in primary school

The college DS is looking at requires Maths and English GCSE at 4

Honestly when I was in year 10/11 I kept getting 1s in English every time we did a mock. I was convinced I’d fail.
Then when it came to the actual exam I got a 5 in English language and a 6 in literature.

To this day I think the teacher just had a problem with me

DS said maths is very bad at his school and they use videos often

Well done.

I do think having the right teacher you connect with helps a lot.

I believe she was marking me way too harshly.

Im not sure what her problem was no one else who got consistent 1s in their practice papers went on to get a 5 and a 6 in their actual exams. She’d also give me hour long detentions for slight misdemeanours like my skirt being a cm too short or forgetting to bring my pencil case.

Meanwhile there was a boy who never stopped talking and insulting the teacher (masked as a joke) who never got in trouble.

Teachers can unfortunately take dislikings to certain children and treat them differently

I agree with this. Maths is like building a wall - each block builds on the ones beneath. If there is some failure to fully grasp some basic concepts then they are never going to manage more complex ones because they just won’t make sense to him - he might try to follow the pattern but won’t be able to move forward because the basic understanding is missing.

I remember working with my yr5 SEN DC in lockdown and realising he was really missing the basics of how numbers ‘worked’ so we did some focused work on that and suddenly the rest of his maths ‘clicked’. The school had moved on beyond basic number work without him gaining a good understanding and without that the rest was just gobbledegook.

Which may actually indicate an issue with teaching in yr 5 that no one has identified and gone back to cover.