GCSE Revision is hard work!

[Deleted User]

Well I'm sorry, but my older son has aspergers so there were all sorts of issues with studying. I was quite hard on him, I'd allow him breaks but only if he was trying or had worked. If he didn't work, his pc and phone were removed. And yes he did scream blue murder at the time (not now, he's 19).

He got 7 GCSE's .., some of which he wasn't expected to get by the school. At college he was one of very few that didn't have to retake Maths and English.

There were lots of motivational talks about his goals and did he really want to go on to further ed. At times he claimed that he didn't, but he usually had a think and decided otherwise.

He worked his socks off though. In between the screams of agony.

missbiggles1

bylromarha wrote: »

I think the stakes are so much higher now.

To get to uni I needed CD. I got CCE. The same course today is AAB. If there really has been no change in the A level standard, then I'd have needed a heck of a lot of pushing to have achieved AAB. As it was, I did what I needed to do rather than achieve my full potential.

I think that's unusual.

My year group went to university in 1969 and our offers were in the range of A and 2 Bs and 2Bs and a C. In fact, we were told to put a Welsh university as our last choice as they gave lower offers (I was offered 2 Cs from Bangor). Also, we weren't allowed to take an A level unless we had (the equivalent of today's) an A or top B grade at O level.

However, I think that the mindset was that this was for us to do with the school's preparation and our parents' support and this seems to have changed. On a recent TV programme we saw a very (over?) motivated teacher say several times "I'm going to get him/her a grade C if it kills me" and this attitude was never questioned, either by the school or the programme makers, although I was shocked by it.

missbiggles1

NewShadow wrote: »

Sorry if I'm a bit late to this, but...can I just check:

School until 5.30, then work at home for an hour Monday to Thurs.

Plus, 5 hours on a Sunday.

And you're intending to ramp it up closer to the exam date?

Personally I can see why he might be a bit fed up. Sounds like he's got no 'escape' from it all - especially if he's the type of kid that's scared of giving the wrong answer - meaning he's likely fairly nervous about it.

Is this really normal for kids nowadays?

Could just be me being soft, but it sounds like a recipe for academic burnout.

We had 2 hours homework every day in the week and 6 hours to do over the weekend from the age of 14 so it seems normal to me. This was in the 60s and we virtually all had a Saturday job from the age of 15 as well.

NewShadow

missbiggles1 wrote: »

We had 2 hours homework every day in the week and 6 hours to do over the weekend from the age of 14 so it seems normal to me. This was in the 60s and we virtually all had a Saturday job from the age of 15 as well.

Me too (I actually worked for my parents business from 14 in 1999 if it's worth anything as a comparator), but I wasn't in school until 5.30 beforehand.

missbiggles1

NewShadow wrote: »

Me too (I actually worked for my parents business from 14 in 1999 if it's worth anything as a comparator), but I wasn't in school until 5.30 beforehand.

I certainly didn't get home until nearly 6 most nights, although that was because of sports practices, play rehearsals and school societies rather than "enrichment".

SingleSue

Person_one wrote: »

:rotfl:

I bet that'd be a lot more effective than nagging and creating timetables.

Worked brilliantly with mine, albeit at far lower amounts.

ibizafan_2

This takes me back to my youngest son, who was incredibly lazy at school. Nothing worked with him, nagging, cajoling or bribing. Fast forward to today. He has a 2:1 degree, masters degree and is an accountant in Australia. Why on earth did I worry? I do think that because he went to a grammar school, he was surrounded by motivated boys, and perhaps he did see sense in the end. Not that he would ever have admitted it to me!

FBaby

Why are we trying to put every student in the same bag when it comes to learning when ultimately, they will all become very different adults with different ambitions, different attitudes to work, money, work-life balance etc...

Some children are hard working, but not ambitious, some are ambitious, but lazy or immature, some enjoy the buzz or pressure whilst it is some pupils worse nightmare. Some will benefit from 'pushy' parents, some will be harm by it.

Some do need to get top grades to have a chance to achieve their ambition when they happened to already know what they want to do, some would benefit more developing different skills.

Yet somehow, we love to debate what is best for ALL pupils. It's never going to work.

NewShadow

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I certainly didn't get home until nearly 6 most nights, although that was because of sports practices, play rehearsals and school societies rather than "enrichment".

I actually don't have any problem with that, but I think it's different than with the situation described by the OP.

School until 3 or 4, then a non-adademic activity (for me it was working in the kitchen for my parents, for you a sport or social club) until 6ish, followed by homework.

We're both describing a change in activity, where I was expressing concern that academia, followed by academia, and a side order of academia is a recipe for academic burnout.

As the old phrase says: 'A change is a good as a rest.'

elisebutt65

He does guitar and computer club as part of enrichment so it's not all study, study, study.
Also, I should have mentioned earlier, that he has asked me to push him. He's quite self aware for a teenage boy and acknowledges that he can be a lazy so & so unless he's nudged.
He wants to do Physics or Computer Science at Warwick so he knows that he needs to excel. The school won't let him do A level maths unless he gets an A or A*' which he needs to do physics.
I'm not making him do masses of work. On Sunday evening I got him to read a short article in the Guardian and to do a basic summary. Tonight for Biology he is doing 'colouring in' in his Human Anatomy colouring book.
He's just brought his books down voluntarily whilst I get dinner ready. I didn't even have to say a word.