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GCSE support

NAS65715

Hello

My son is 15 and has just had his mock GCSE grades. They are not as good as he had hoped. His main issue is going off topic in his answers. I would like to get specific coaching on this as I don't know how to help him myself. I have looked for tutors but haven't found anything suitable. His school's response is to tell him to go to extra subject sessions but it's not his knowledge that's the problem it's his interpretation of questions.

If it comes down to it I'd rather he was happy than get good grades but I'm hoping there's a way to have both!!

Has anyone had success with this problem? Should I just let it go?

I don't want to pressure him but I also don't want to let him down if I can help him.

He's very bright and articulate but finds studying hard and doesn't respond well to anyone 'interfering'.

Thanks!

Parents

  • I can completely sympathise with you here.my own teenager just recently diagnosed with autism, had a real struggle with his GCSE revision.He made it through ,with a few resits and we now face the same issues with his a levels.as you have mentioned the issue for him is the understanding/ interpretation  of the questions. fact based engineering questions no hassle, but been asked to give opinions and interpretations in geography ,English is a concept he is struggling with. he definitely struggled with us trying to help him structure his revision ,we spoke to school and he was much more willing to work on this with them..as it was suggested that he would natural feel school knew " best". we also ensured his recently diagnosed autism and particularly his difficulties around " decoding written information" was explained to the exam boards and he was given an extra 25 % time for each future exam to allow for this.he said this is helping, and it did allow him to scrape a GCSE English pass recently after 5 attempts. have you checked this out with school to see if your child has this sort of additional allowance. 

  • in reply to NAS65756

    Thank you for your reply. Sorry to hear you've had similar issues, sounds like you've done everything possible to support your son. Mine gets extra support like using a keyboard, a smaller exam room, breaks and possibly noise cancelling headphones which have all been great. His grades are ok, he'll probably pass English and maths barring any bumps in the road but his baseline grades are a lot higher than those he's getting. I'm not fixated on grades, as long as he's ok I'm happy but I know he'll be disappointed if he doesn't do as well as he can! He has a very specific issue with off-topic answers but it seems the school is not set up to address it. The bit about decoding written information is useful and a great way of explaining it, thank you.

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  • in reply to NAS65756

    Thank you for your reply. Sorry to hear you've had similar issues, sounds like you've done everything possible to support your son. Mine gets extra support like using a keyboard, a smaller exam room, breaks and possibly noise cancelling headphones which have all been great. His grades are ok, he'll probably pass English and maths barring any bumps in the road but his baseline grades are a lot higher than those he's getting. I'm not fixated on grades, as long as he's ok I'm happy but I know he'll be disappointed if he doesn't do as well as he can! He has a very specific issue with off-topic answers but it seems the school is not set up to address it. The bit about decoding written information is useful and a great way of explaining it, thank you.

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