Son struggling with A-Levels

Becles

Not sure if this is the right place to put this but there are plenty of parents on so maybe someone can help.

My 16 year old is currently doing A-Levels but struggling. He's a very bright lad and has no problems with learning things. He'll come in on an evening and tell me what he's been learning and he'll comment intelligently in general family chatting. His tutors say he is very vocal in class and can lead discussions and clearly has no trouble understanding the courses.

The problem is, he just can't put it down on a piece of paper! This has been an ongoing problem right through school and nobody has offered a solution to it.

He's been tested for special needs and has slight dyslexia but again college couldn't explain why he struggles so much to write down what he wants to say.

He's just done some mock exams and was disappointed by the results as he did work really hard and revised a lot but he struggled writing on the actual exam day. That's knocked his confidence which doesn't help either.

Has anyone got an ideas on how I can help him sort this out? He needs good grades at A-Level to get on the uni course he wants to do and he's really keen to fix it once and for all.

PeonySugar

Have you tried getting a dictaphone? I had one when I was at uni (with permission) as I struggled to pay good attention and write down the things I needed to. Having the dictaphone meant I had good practice in my own time of writing good notes. Also does he type better when listening and taking notes? Sometimes that's better too.

whitewing

What's his handwriting like? I wonder if it is too slow to get ideas down manually and that is hampering him ie his thoughts are significantly quicker.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/9667351/Have-beautiful-handwriting-by-Christmas.html

Is he reading the instructions/questions properly? You can throw away marks on that. Maybe highlighting them would help.

Could he be in a separate room with an invigilator, when he can speak the questions/answers out loud as he reads and writes?

Can he get some help from college to improve his study skills in general, in terms of tackling an exam paper?

missbiggles1

What A levels is he doing and what does he hope to study at university?

daveyjp

No idea if it is a recognisable problem, but when I did exams, especially Higher level and professional exams with detailed essays a technique I used was to spend 5-10 minutes simply writing down everything I could remember about the area I was being tested on. In a 2-3 hour exam this time is nothing and it is paid back as a structured answer is easier to write.

From this "brainstorming" session a structure can be formed, and its amazing how much further knowledge falls out once a few trigger words are remembered.

Mind mapping is a further technique which helps group words and link them to form a structure for the answer.

gettingtheresometime

Could it be the atmosphere of the exam room, along with the understanable nerves, results in 'brain freeze.'

I don't know if it would help or even if it's applicable but if he looked at mindfulness perhaps that would help

bouicca21

Has he ever had help in just planning an essay? My two were taught to plan with spider grams. I like to do it with sub heads as I need a logical sequence, and spider grams just look messy to me. The point is to find a planning outline that works for the individual concerned. Once the plan is there, filling in the details of the argument is much easier.

Maybe this might help
http://www.thestudygurus.com/files/products/ESK/%5BTSG%5D%20Essay%20Plan%20Template.pdf

Savvy_Sue

What were his GCSE grades like, and did he have any extra time or anything for them? Is he in the same school or has he moved on?

It may be that the mild dyslexia needs more support now than it did, or it may be that there are other problems which haven't been formally identified - dyslexia is more than reading and spelling and the thoughts about essay planning and organisation may be a big part of the problem.

Either way, if he's in a new environment, it may mean you jumping up and down to the SENCO or whoever's responsible for Special Needs until they work out what's needed.

If the main problem is exams, and he can type faster / more fluently than he can write by hand, see if you can get permission for him to type exams.

Kynthia

It's a skill that needs learning and developing just like any other. Practice makes perfect so get past exam questions/papers and practice them to time in exam conditions again and again and again. Then go through and see how the answer could have been improved, whether there were any quick wins that would have resulted in more points, whether too long is spent on the first questions so there's not enough time for the later questions, whether the answers could do with better planning and more time should be spent planning the structure of the answer or making notes so that things aren't forgotten to be included, whether his writing is too slow and needs to practice getting faster or just practice on how to get his point across in writing, etc. Then do the question/exam paper again with what has been learnt to practice the improvement.

Exam technique is something I studied almost as much as the subjects themselves. It my last qualification it was important divide the total marks by the total exam time and only spend the time on each question that the marks justified, as you get the most marks in the first few minutes spent on each question. Therefore it could be better to leave a few questions unfinished but have attempted them all, rather than run out of time to start the last ones, and you can always go back at the end if you have time and have left room. Plus on the papers that required long written answers were were recomended to spend a quarter of the answer time planning the answer (these were complex answers that required a detailed analysis and conclusion) as this resulted in better written answers, and not to cross out this planning (which could be a mind map or spider chart) after as the examiner could use it to grant you a couple of extra marks if you weren't able to finish or get your point across well but your plan showed additional info, knowledge and/or understanding.

Jagraf

I feel your pain! My daughter has just started her a levels, taken her mocks, and got disappointing grades. Please bear in mind that A levels are a completely different animal from gcses. My daughter got all As and A* in her gcses and her mocks results are the other end of the alphabet nearly!

After lots of talks, here are a few of the problems she has.

Not spending time each evening recapping on the things shes learnt that day

Thinking she can get good grades with just a text book and teacher input (without researching lots of sources)

Too slow to answer questions (in one maths paper she got all the questions right but only answered the first half before she ran out of time)

Thinking she could use her short term memory / last minute cram technique

Not using her "free" study periods effectively

Not questioning the teachers on what she didn't understand


I could probably list ten more.

A levels are a massive shock to the system for some so my advice would be to list all the things your son is personally struggling with and deal with each one. Get a routine going, timetable homework, look at on line resources, see if any of the teachers offer after school support etc.

Good luck xxxx

Becles

whitewing wrote: »

What's his handwriting like? I wonder if it is too slow to get ideas down manually and that is hampering him ie his thoughts are significantly quicker.

That's been poor right through school as well. That's something we worked really hard on going right back to infant school copying out each letter multiple times so his GCSE's would be readable for the exam marker.