DS refusing a tutor

[feemcgee]

DS is 15 and will be sitting his National 5s this year (we're in Scotland, GCSE equivalents). He has just failed his maths prelim and tells me that he really struggles with the subject. I totally understand this and have found a tutor to help support him, but he is adamant he doesn't want one.
I am looking for advice on how to convince a very stubborn teenager to try it out, and why it may help. I don't expect him to get an A, I just think it will help him to understand the tricky parts.

Just in case it helps, I suspect he has ADHD and the GP has referred me to be tested for it too.

The traditional way to make a teen do something they don't want to do is bribe them.

New computer game/money/lifts etc.

Alternatively try telling him you don't care if he fails and it'll save you cash anyway 😀

Would the tutor just have an initial meeting with him to chat through how he might be able to help. He'll be used to talking to teenagers and getting over that inital hurdle of meeting them and getting a feel for how they will work with him might help. Most tutors seem to plan this as a first step anyway. Sometimes hearing it from a more neutral person rather than a parent seems to work better?

DD was the exact same.. really struggled with maths to the point that she failed her GCSE mock but was still reluctant and almost scared to have a tutor. The key is to get a really good one who can level with teens well. The first one she had was an old woman, she really didn’t get on with her and hated it but when I got her a new, younger tutor who had a bit more in common with her and was more ‘down with the kids’ she ended up getting far more out of it and was far more motivated to do well. It’s trial and error! Part of it was definitely that she didn’t want to admit how bad things were as she’d rather bury her head in the sand than ask for help. Once she got over that barrier things vastly improved

Thanks everyone for your advice, it's all really helpful.