Son struggling with A-Levels

Becles

missbiggles1 wrote: »

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

Law, sociology and psychology. All essay based subjects and my main worry was ending up in a position like this!

He wants to do law at uni, which again is a lot of essay writing.

Becles

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

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?

I thought his GCSE's were good but he was disappointed and thought he could have done better. School said he had no problems so he did the exams as normal.

He's in college now and they do recognise the problem and give him extra time for exams because of the dyslexia.

susancs

I wonder if your son is suffering from exam stress? My eldest DD got top grades on all past papers done at home under timed test conditions and like your son was considered at the top of her classes with top grades predicted, but did badly in her GCSE mocks. She always felt sick before exams and even threw up. Her head of year sugguested we see our G.P. as he had seen her running to the toilet to throw up before exams, staring into air and that she seemed to be hyper ventilating during exams. The G.P. recommended yoga classes for techniques to control stress, which proved to be good as she got top grades in GCSE. It started again with A level, so back to yoga classes she went and the pharmacist recommeded a product called rescue remedy to take before exams (and also before her driving test) and drinking lots of water during the exam. I don't know if it is a placebo but it seemed to help. She says something must have helped as she has calmed sown at uni without any of these things and is doing well in exams with no stress.

Jagraf

Becles wrote: »

Law, sociology and psychology. All essay based subjects and my main worry was ending up in a position like this!

He wants to do law at uni, which again is a lot of essay writing.

Have you looked through his mocks with him ?

missbiggles1

Becles wrote: »

I thought his GCSE's were good but he was disappointed and thought he could have done better. School said he had no problems so he did the exams as normal.

He's in college now and they do recognise the problem and give him extra time for exams because of the dyslexia.

Could you give some examples - has the college let him enrol for subjects in which he only has a grade C, for example?

Marmaduke123

Can you specify what exactly the problem is? Is it with organising his thoughts and structuring an essay, or is it more with the physical demands of writing under pressure of time, I.e. being slow, result being very difficult to read?

The help needed would be different in each case

goodwithsaving

This was me. Reams of A3 paper, highlighters and spider diagrams were my saviour. I remember things by connecting them, creating lead-ons and sort of, photographing them in my mind. I would remember quotes and quickly jot them all down on a spare sheet when i got into the exam room, all of them. Funnily enough, years down the line I remember all that I was taught yet at the time I really struggled to remember anything!

pollypenny

Working in essay planning, both for extended essays and exam, time-limited, essays is crucial.

My own History A-level teacher used to make us plan loads of essays and I used the same techniques with my own pupils. Use a whole page, or more of the exam book, with points well-spaced for clarity.

You could ask the school what exam techniques they teach. However, three essay-based subjects when one has difficulty with essays is a real challenge.

Skintmama

One of my children has handwriting difficulty: grips the pen, presses too hard and it is painfully slow printing rather than cursive. She also has problems getting ideas down with the pen, however this is not the case when using a keyboard where the ideas flow in a normal way. An assessment for Dyslexia (which we arranged ourselves) showed dyslexic tendencies but not Dyslexia, although Dyspraxia was not ruled out and was not part of that assessment process. There was no help whatsoever from the school other than sympathetic individual teachers.

Thankfully, the College Access course and then University gave permission for the exams to be done with a keyboard ; this followed a handwriting assessment and consultation with a doctor. There are also some problems with storage and recall of information and this is something she works hard to overcome.

I believe that it is a learning difficulty although I don't know what it is and we are considering a full and very expensive assessment for her. This would be for her information only. Like your son she is very bright, articulate and engaged with the learning.

It is good that you are trying to identify things at this point and working out how to help your son acheive his potential. My daughter's self esteem was hit very hard with this difficulty so I hope you manage to find what works for him. I know that I have taken a different tack with my post and I apologise if I have misunderstood the problem you are describing.

heuchera

I always had the opposite problem! I can write quite fluently and articulately, but my speaking skills are far from good. Practice will help a bit, but it might just be something he's not that good at. Generally, in life, speaking is more important than writing anyway!