Refusing to revise GCSEs

[RefusingRevisionGCSE]

Any tips on how to approach this? DC is 15, states they are non-gender binary, is ASD diagnosed - Asperger's syndrome. Says they have "brain fog" and can't revise therefore does very little, Over the 2 week Christmas period admitted they did 1hour - said they could not concentrate. Gets very upset when challenged on it. Wants to see GP to ask them to fix the brain fog. Says they read a question on the exam paper 8 times but it still didn't go in.

GCSE mocks results are coming in and it's not looking good.

Now, I know forcing someone to revise isn't the answer, they need to want to do it to be able to take the info in.

What am I missing to make it better for them? Any tips/tricks?

I'm also posting on the ASD boards here for advice from the Asperger's perspective.

Sorry last bit should say posting on Secondary Education board!

No tips really sorry. Just wanted to say I feel your pain. Horse to water and all that. My ADD 17 has brain damage from FASD so an ASD presentation and ADHD. She’s in Year 11 so also about to do her exams. Today she’s got her English mock but hasn’t revised. I’m hoping that the expected poor outcome result will spur her on to revise. For topics she enjoys I’ve got her to write out revision cards, hoping that something sinks in. Oh and attend revision clubs. However at the end of the day, exams are only one measure of success and they can go on to college and do them with other things. Our eldest had dyslexia and Adhd, leaving school with 2 low GCSE’s. 2 years ago he received a 2:1 at university because he loved the topic and had matured to find his own coping remedies. So breathe deeply and metaphorically hold their hand. They have enough pressure from Teachers

Is there anything to revise for English anyway? English literature certainly but not so much for the language exam. She might be having the same feeling so perhaps be more specific in the task you want her to do e.g. you could (both) read a couple of pages from one of the exam practice guides and then you could ask her questions.

An alternative is finding some relevant YouTube video's you could watch together and talk about - there were some excellent English Literature ones that ds1 used last year.

ds2 is really struggling to do GCSE Geography this year as he does not know how to tackle any of the longer answer questions and part of her problem might be not understanding what the question is asking. ds2 is bright but somehow he can not see that if a question is awarded six marks then you need to make several points with an explanation or evidence rather than a one word answer. I think this is where his ASC really impedes his learning. His tutor is trying to work on this with him & is an area you could help too.

She might be better in short bursts of revision rather than longer sessions e.g. several ten minute sessions in a day rather than an hour or two sessions. Some people remember things better pictorially or verbally rather than by reading long lists of facts. So getting her to "say it", "draw it", "write it" can help overcome the brain fog.

Revision also only works if there is good understanding of the work in the first place. If not then she might have to go back to basics rather than trying to learn stuff she really does not understand.

@RefusingRevisionGCSE
It was once explained to me that autistic children live their lives in boxes and the home things belong to home and the school things belong to school. The problems arise when you try to put something that clearly belongs in one box (ie homework, revision) into the other box.

Our son did all his homework and revision at school in the lunchtime Homework Club.Perhaps you could ask the school to help with revision?

Mine didn’t revise at all (sat here last year) .... honestly, I’m so worn down and she’s had to struggle with so much that I figured it just wasn’t worth the battle. My view is there’s plenty time to re sit, work out what they want to do in life, get on courses they want etc. They can learn later when they’re more settled in their life. It’s never too late.

That’s just my personal view.

Frazzled we are in a similar situation at the moment. It's all been a big struggle with an autism diagnosis on top.

School not exactly stepping up and helping either. First Gcse exam 11th May

It's very hard work.

And it's all been a waste of bloody time for them anyway. Gutted for ds2 who should have done his exams last year and was just not in the correct mental state to even attempt. But this year he was doing so much better with his home tutors and might have even passed a couple which would have been so good for his self-esteem. Even if they do decide to give awards based on mock results I am not sure he would get one as he has not done formal mocks and anyway an award on this basis is not going to increase his self-esteem in the way an actual result would have done.