Son struggling with A-Levels

Mrs_pbradley936

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Just to point out, the vast majority of Law graduates don't go on to work in the legal area anyway.

Law is very hard to get into because after the degree you have to be "articled" to be a solicitor - to be a barrister is even harder. It means working under someone's wing for years without pay.

My first job after A levels and before university was in a law firm.

Semple

Has he ever been taught anything on exam planning/strategy - specifically with timing.

Just going on a couple of posts you mention, he worries a lot about running out of time.

I don't remember too much on A-level standards, but any theoretical exams i did at uni (comp sci) were very flexible in terms of topics. I.e. 5 topics had 4 questions, of which you had to choose 3 topics and answer all questions.

As part of strategizing you were taught to firstly read all topics to determine which you felt most comfortable with. Then to understand how the marks were awarded for each question - it's very rare that all questions carry the same weighting. So Q1 may have 3 marks, but Q4 may have had 15 marks, this meant spending more time on Q4.

If there's been no planning involved, then it's quite likely he'll spend too much time on the low mark questions, and then end up having to rush through the higher mark questions.

Contessa

I remember a few years ago a previous neighbour of mine had a son who was severely dyslexic. He managed to just get into sixth form college and fortunately there was an excellent support team. They assessed him and provided what he needed. He had a scribe for his A levels and went on to university. Great result as he had the knowledge but couldn't write it down.

mumps

minimacka wrote: »

My son is currently at 6th form and despite revising all the time when he sits down for his exams he freezes and says his mind goes all foggy. I have suggested listening to music before hand to calm him down. I have also printed off all the past exam papers for math and physics so that he can go through them and time himself, hopefully he will be more prepared when the exams come round.

Two of mine are teachers, one teaches maths including A levels and you are doing exactly what they would recommend. She is always saying homework is not enough they must do past papers if they want high marks. She got fantastic marks in her modules, in one A2 paper she got 100% but was awful with exam nerves, for one of her exams at uni she was in a separate room with a bucket as her vomiting was not very nice for the other students. She passed and got a first so tell him not to give up, exam nerves are awful but I am sure he will get there if he does all that work. Is he AS or A2?

minimacka

mumps wrote: »

Two of mine are teachers, one teaches maths including A levels and you are doing exactly what they would recommend. She is always saying homework is not enough they must do past papers if they want high marks. She got fantastic marks in her modules, in one A2 paper she got 100% but was awful with exam nerves, for one of her exams at uni she was in a separate room with a bucket as her vomiting was not very nice for the other students. She passed and got a first so tell him not to give up, exam nerves are awful but I am sure he will get there if he does all that work. Is he AS or A2?

Many thanks for this he is A2 and is studying further maths and physics. He has got a A level B in mathematic (he is in his 3rd year at 6th form). He was gutted because he had got A/B in most of the modules but one particular module he did he got a D so that brought the overall mark down. He was extremely ill that day but still went and did the exam. He is re sitting it this year in the hope that he will get a A. He always seems to get ill before his final exams. He wants to do Maths at university and has got a offer from Newcastle and Nottingham which is where he wants to go. So he just needs to get 2 x A's and a B. He is working really hard at home.

choccymoose

You say he has mild dyslexia, has be been screened for visual stress / scotopic sensitivity / irlens syndrome ? Many children and adults with dyslexia also suffer problems related to the above which can impact progress

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

He could try working with Sharpies and A3 paper - it might make it easier to write neatly if he's not restricted to little A4 lined sheets and scratchy Biros for a while, which could give him a chance to get used to letting his thoughts flow; using additional colours might also help him fix an image of the topic in his mind as well - which can be useful for going blank with words in exams, as sometimes an image will come.

(yes, I know I frequently reccommend this - but that's because it works) for some people)

JasX

Becles wrote: »

He said it's like a mental block and he walks in the room and forgets everything, he writes slow to make it neat and worries about running out of time. The mock he did worst in didn't have a clock in the room so he was panicking about the time.

He needs to make sure he is targetting these problems specifically, simply asking for more examples of the exam questions he's currently struggling with is ignoring the core issue and likely to be a long laborious route to improving.

Two key issues:

Issue 1- Essay technique and planning, your son needs to spend some time focusing on this, has the school agreed / can a tutor spend some time focusing on this specifically.

ie

1- getting the useful ideas / points he is capable of making in class and coming up with down on paper as an unsorted list of bullet points (so they are remembered)

2- arranging the points into some sort of sensible order, planning the essay by grouping these points into paragraphs and fleshing out the notes a tad

3-writing the essay around his plan intro -> key paragraphs planned above -> punchy conclusion

Issue 2: hand writing, my handwriting has always been terrible. I gave up trying around GCSE level and since then have only written in block capitals. It's clear, it's fine, the joined up nonsense can be readily dropped at this stage, it;s the content and ideas that matter at this stage of schooling.


Issue 3: Maybe some exam technique needed later but this can be addressed separately and with effort put into mock exam questions / tackling past papers AFTER making sure issue 1 and 2 are covered

Issue 4: you can ignore all the above nay-sayers above on Law accessablity, I know plenty of people with decidedly chequered academic backgrounds who have ended up with decent law careers... (admittedly they ended up ducking out quickly to be in-house lawyers for various organisations however much of that was driven by wanting something of a work/life balance)

pigpen

My daughters friend and my sister both studied law and were told a law a-level would put off universities.. the a-level teaches bad things by all accounts which they then have to unlearn.

My sister did English lit/lang, sociology and a language.. She qualified a few years ago with the first first at our uni in a fair few years. She hadn't been to school from year 7-10 and achieved 13 GCSE's all A/A* bar 1 B. My daughters friend did less well, completed her Law degree and is now working in a call centre because she hated law.

For most uni degrees a 'relevant' a-level is not usually specified it is worth speaking to the universities he is applying to and see what their course leaders are actually looking for.. most just say they want 3 certain grades, which again is very much negotiable!

My son has just enrolled on the Princes Trust 3 month course and starting a childcare certificate in September because he just cannot focus for A-levels.. A-levels/uni are not for everyone regardless of how bright they are.. it is ok if that is not what he wants to do.

Are these his goals he is working towards or yours???

engineer_amy

Kynthia wrote: »

Exam technique is something I studied almost as much as the subjects themselves...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.

This is key in essay based subjects, especially on complex themes and multiple topics within the same question. I used to get stuck straight in to an essay and just keep writing, then remember another point related to my second paragraph, but have no room to add it in, so the writing seemed disjointed and didn't flow. I would have also ran out of time.
Later on I learnt to open up an answer booklet to a double page and on the left hand page I would spent 10 mins and note down the key topics and what I wanted to say in each paragraph and conclusion. In a law module I noted down the relevant case law that I would be referring to so I wouldn't struggle to remember it later.
Then I would move to the right hand page and start my essay. this meant there was a bit of structure and logical progression through the essay, and on more than one occasion I ran out of time but still got marks for the key words and cases mentioned in the plan, because the examiner could see what I was intending on saying.