Are you able to teach your children maths GCSE?

[Fallinginlovewithmaths]

DD is in year 11 and doing foundation maths; she has a tutor but I am sitting down to practice with her/ do the tutor homework every day.

I mostly let her get on with it but I am realising I need to get more involved. The problem is I didn’t do GCSE and not even native English, didn’t grow up in the UK.

I am looking at conversions for instance. I learned this with a rule of 3; but the methodology they use here is different.

Are you able to support your child? I don’t want to confuse her 😬

How do I help her? She works well with the tutor but seems to get a bit stuck at home.

No much help from school unfortunately; they are struggling in the maths department.

Tutor has been setting homework/advising on daily practice

Sounds traumatic 😂

I have a maths degree and no I couldn’t, because (a) I’ve forgotten it all (b) I could very quickly remind myself of it but then I’d explain it the wrong way and confuse my child even more

I couldn’t support my dd in GCSE maths, I just threw money at it and paid for extra tuition!

They're now doing an A level in my subject. The horror is real.

Dc 2 is steering well clear and deliberately choosing things I have no knowledge/ interest in.

Ex maths teacher.

the example you give has at least six different methods of solving it and different education systems use different ones.

it is very likely you’ll confuse her if you use methods she doesn’t know.

students who struggle with maths often have this where they have been for example shown two different ways of adding fractions and use a mixture of what they can remember… which usually doesn’t work.

on calculator papers the method is use the calculator. Every time. The calculator is a lot more likely to get it right than a student at this level.

maths gcse has 2 calculator papers 1 non calc.

My daughter has health issues, so I ended up teaching her GCSE maths and 5 other subjects. She did well, so it is possible.

ChatGPT is your friend, as are maths websites, workbooks and exam papers. Have a look at Maths Genie, Corbettmaths and BBC Bitesize. There are lots of good maths videos online, so you could pick a topic, watch a video together, then practice on a website with instant feedback.

I've got an A level and did some maths in my degree. I'm almost useless when DD in year 11 asks for help. I might have more of a chance at being able to solve foundation level questions, but at much higher risk of confusing a child who has learnt a specific method at school.

I tend to just as AI if DD has bits she can't solve herself. I did solve one question myself recently and was extraordinarily pleased with myself.

I tutor maths. What I think is the hardest thing for many teenagers to grasp is “decoding” the question, I.e recognising which bit of maths it is. The two most important pieces of advice I keep giving are:

The very first sentence of the question often contains a vital clue. For example, it might be “ABCD is a square.” That might seem obvious at first glance, but the key that a square has equal sides, so you have to use this in some way. If one side is labelled 2x and another is labelled 3x - 1, you set them equal to each other: 2x = 3x - 1. Things like this can be hard to spot.

The other piece of advice is always to try to do something with the information provided, even if you don’t see how to answer the question: many easy marks can be gained from trying to put the numbers together.

We are also throwing money at it.

Anyway. I feel sorry for kids who struggle with maths. There is quite a bit to cover even for foundation maths.

I just hope she passes it. She has the capacity if she believes in herself and put in the practice.

I would be glad to see the back of it. It is a bit painful; and realistically there are many topics I have no idea about it so I don’t think

I got an A in maths GCSE and recently got a distinction in my non maths masters, so I’m not dumb… I can’t do gcse maths now. Dtds are year 11 and have a tutor plus BBC bitesize which has videos they can watch etc. Out of all the subjects, I can do nothing to help maths.

If she's getting Grade 1 / 2 in year 11 she's struggling badly and you should have been made aware in year 10 that she was unlikely to achieve a Grade 4

She needs to go right back to basics. At this stage I'd focus on
*terminology- does she understand factors, multiples, primes etc?

• FDP conversions
• Fractions, percentages and ratio

I did suggested chat gpt today when doinf areas of circles, etc. she said she is not going to have chatpgt on the exam.

I feel sorry for kids who struggle with maths.

Cultivating a 'mathy' mind from early years makes all the difference. While not every child will become a mathematician, early exposure to sound mathematical thinking makes passing GCSEs child's play. Leaving it until age 15—only to realize you’ve fallen behind—is far too stressful.

Who said we left it until 15? She had maths tutoring in the past; apart from the pandemic. It doesn’t come naturally to many people.

I could not cultivate a creative/artistic mind; it just doesn’t come naturally to me

These children did maths at school every day in primary school. It's not for want of exposure to maths and mathematical thinking that children struggle with GCSE.

Whilst we regularly talk about maths at home and play with numbers, I am not foolish enough to think that this is why my DC are good at maths. I could pat myself on the back and take credit for it, but that would be delusional.

No I can’t remember my GCSE maths 😂 DH can probably help as he was better at maths but I doubt either of us remembers the methods

God no, I can’t even help my year 7 son and I got a B in GCSE maths! I pay £50 an hour for a tutor to support my GCSE child!

Academics doesn’t come naturally to her which means she has to work harder. DH is an engineer and I am an Accountant; but DD is more creative, has other wonderful qualities and her artistic part of the brain more developed. Not everyone is the same; not matter how much you try to cultivate a mathy mind 😅 some kids just don’t get it.

My youngest son is exactly the same. I will throw as much money and support at him to hopefully get him to a 5, but will be very happy with ‘just’ a 5.

I got an A in GCSE here, 20 plus years ago, and no way could I teach it!

It sounds like you are suggesting that a child who excels in other subjects is somehow unteachable in maths. I'm not here to argue—you know your child best as the parent—but that view is the exact opposite of what I believe, as well as what most mathematicians and educators advocate.

When dd was y11 we worked on past papers - over and over again. It meant I had the mark scheme so could see how they worked it out/marks are awarded.

I’m a private maths tutor and I’ve tutored all of my dc. It’s not been fun. I’ve given up one of my student slots for ds3 (y11) and the only way we can get through it is for me to remind him (and me) frequently that we leave the mother/son relationship at the door, that it’s costing us money to do this and that if he won’t engage (or I can’t keep my patience), we will send him to a tutor.
its going better than it did with the others so far but he’s still my least favourite student 🥴😬

No. They teach it differently now and it was just too confusing for both of us. Also what they learn at GCSE level is different to what I learned. We had separate classes for geometry and algebra, for example, and I was not good at the latter! I didn’t go to school in this country either.