Are we heading for maths resit GCSE? ,

[Thereisalwayshope81]

Latest June mock results, year 10. Grade 2

Paper 1:32/80. 7 marks from a 3. Grade 1

Paper 2: 5/80. 13 marks from a 3 according to teacher. Maybe she meant 13 marks for a 2?

DC needs 4 GCSE at 4 for next stage, or 4 GCSE at 3 for one year course.

Other GCSE are ok/passing.

Just received a very encouraging email from science teacher. DC is doing combined science and got 5,5 in last mock. He said this is a strong score and DC exceeded target grade 🙌

Did you get his mock papers back?

I think it sounds like something else went wrong - getting 32 marks on paper 1 and only 5 marks on paper 2 is a much bigger difference than usual especially when paper 2 has a calculator.

More than 5 marks would be available on paper 2 for really basic questions that he's have learned in primary school and would likely be able to do if he can get almost half of paper 1 right. It sounds like some combination of panic, low confidence and giving up, just not answering questions, etc, rather than actual inability to get more than 5 marks.

So I think that's where to start - get his paper back and actually see what went wrong, and then you can work out how to address it. Some schools just give an analysis of which questions were right/partly right/wrong, but that isn't going to help here - his might say things like he got a question on addition wrong, but you have no idea from that whether it is that he didn't try to add, didn't use a calculator, made copying errors, didn't answer it at all, etc., and you need to know that before you spend time practising adding, for example. It sounds like he needs to work on confidence, strategy, not giving up, making sure he's read the question carefully etc

The maths genie site has practice papers that are split in half, into 45 minute papers, and those can be useful for children who find the full paper overwhelming to even start.

But I'd imagine that if he can get 32 marks on the first paper, he should be able to get relatively similar on the others, and that's a very different prospect - in 2025 (edexcel), he'd have needed approximately 48/80 on each paper to get a 4 overall, and while that's still a way to go, it's not as insurmountable as his current marks might first appear.

Thanks. They did say they have the wrong/broken calculator; but also said it was very difficult and didn’t do much when they got home after that mock 🙈

I got mocks back and sent to tutor

You are spot on re panic, low confidence and giving up. If DC see something looks/seem difficult they just give up, instead of looking for things they can get scores.

I hope current tutor give them a confidence boost as they do get blocked/overwhelmed if something looks like a lot or too difficult

Wrong/broken calculator really messes up your maths in the calculator paper.

they’ll give you really hard numbers expecting you to use the calculator. If your dc didn’t have calculator access in the calculator paper I’m not surprised they only got a few marks.

most schools have a few spare to lend out during mocks (or the real thing but at my school we try very very hard to make sure they’ve got one before it gets to that point).

get her the school calculator. If she’s the sort to lose things then most maths teachers will look after it for her (it’s only normally needed in maths or science lessons) O used to have a drawer in my desk for them,

get her to write her name on it in sharpie and tip ex.

if she got a 5 in science her maths can’t be that bad.

Your child needs to realize that if they are weak in something, they need to put some effort in to change that! You are encouraging and throwing money at it but they are not doing their bit and that indicates a shoddy and immature attitude towards learning.

Says someone who was terrible at maths and worked her ass off to pass it.

Exactly. Will double check calculator next time; they had 2 in the bag but picked up the wrong one

Just to correct a misconception: apprenticeships do take those without grade 4s but 16-18 year olds then have to do Functional Skills in English/Maths alongside the apprenticeship work.

That's a very valid point. Some certainly will. But unless things have changed since I last looked in detail (admittedly a few years ago) there are also some that require a 4+. Or higher actually. So I guess I was saying that it's another reason to aim for the grade.

I agree btw @Thereisalwayshope81 that a student working at 5-5 in science should be capable of 4 in maths - so that's a real positive, suggesting it's about practice abd exam technique. And a working calculator.

Did the tutor, or you, go through the mock papers with him? It's worth lloking where the OMG marks were lost, as I used to call them, misreads, not simplifying an answer, eg 3/6 left instead of 1/2, a straight line not drawn with a ruler, graph points carelessly plotted. I'm currently marking non calc papers and I find myself muttering things at this anonymous child like bloody idiot where they've lost marks for reasons like these, in some cases it's been up to 5 on the paper.
Find out his strengths, he will have some whatever he says, then look where he seems to know what to do but gets lost part way through, they're the things to practice.
Since the removal of coursework, there are now unstructured questions and they can be very hard. Whereas long questions had part a, part b, part c leading to part d, the answer, now they're not led through at all.

Just got mocks yesterday; hopefully tutor will go through it with DC. I am also going to have a look and see what I can do.

Before you do it, let him look through himself, maybe the tutor can indicate questions where he has lost marks because of carelessness, and then see if he can see them himself. If he finds his own errors he is less likely to repeat them.

Good advice upthread re using own calculator. I invigilate maths retakes at a tertiary college. Every year I have students who do not bring a calculator and then struggle to use the one we give them.

My daughter didnt understand maths at school, I spoke to the school and in the end was quite persistent with asking for another maths teacher. She is now top of the class.

I havent read all the thread but have you spoken to school if 2 is the average in the class?

That is great.

I sent an email to Head of Maths and head of year and have not received a response yet. They have 5 sessions of maths per week. They will get lots of resits if it continues this way.

Did they even read (properly read and understand) and answer the questions to get just 5 out of 80?

I think they probably just saw wrong calculator and gave up/decided not to follow much. Who knows. Doesn’t add up.

I looked at the paper, can do the problem ones but not the diagrams

Where does that question come from, @clary? I think it’s quite hard for a question 7 on a Foundation paper. Each part is relatively easy, the complication comes from all the information being presented at once. When they get to group B the student has to go back and work out which part of group A they need, then remember which sub question they are answering, then go back to group A for the next one and so on: this can be particularly difficult for certain types of learner.

If you miss the key which says that one icon represents 4 people you’re sunk, although I hope the mark scheme allows for that.

I’d follow Octavia64’s advice. She knows what she’s talking about, not to say that others don’t but I’ve seen her write a lot of sense in the past, as does Noblegiraffe.

There is still time to improve, especially if they have a tutor.
I am not a maths tutor, but if I was, I would be asking the pupil to bring a copy of the marked paper home, and go through the questions to find out where they went wrong, go over the questions do they understood how to answer them correctly.

I would also be going through exam technique with them.

DC is year 10. Mocks were in Feb. ( we are in wales and the non calculator paper was taken in June).

We were given a lost of topics with red/orange/green against them, so both us and DC knew which areas needed work.

The school uses mathswatch, and had given a lost of topics and codes to work through. They also suggested using a website called maths diy. It is free and you can download topics booklets. The booklets contain exam style questions, sll on that topic. There is another copy of the same booklet that had the questions and answers.

I can understand what you mean about things being tought differently though. I got a B in marhs, and don't have the added complication of being thought elsewhere, but struggle with hiw they work out some things.

@IIdentifyAsAMathsTeacher it’s a random one from 2022 AQA.

Interesting that you think it is tricky and I totally see your point wrt a weaker student. I was suggesting that the op, an accountant, would be able to cope with it? The ones before it on the paper are easier . Agree that @Octavia64 has great advice.

@clary I don’t have a maths O level and I could do it. Reminded me of 11 plus questions! We do really need dc understanding maths in various modes of presentation!

If you want an idea of AQA Foundation Maths, try looking here for paper 1 and here for paper 2 for several years.

There are past papers, mark schemes and some model answers.

If you're trying to help your DC, but don't have confidence in your own Maths ability, having worked answers can be a blessing.

I've looked at 2022 and most of the questions were easier than the one upthread.

I had forgotten this site: I don't know how reliable it is but I use it for A level 😉 and haven't found any mistakes yet. They may not do the question in the way I would, but that's fine.

Thanks. It is edexel. I am encouraging DC to do little and often. I think they are capable of achieving 4 but are lacking confidence and practice. New tutor should help too.

Edexcel paper 1 and paper 2.

I agree with little and often.

It does sound like I may have to do some learning myself to support DC; as every time they start doing some practice they get stuck and give up. I won’t go as far as sitting the GCSE though.