15 year old Son did very average in 3rd year Winter exams

totierne

Son's point of view was actual junior cycle questions were used (i.e. a step up in difficulty).

Ideas for helping him:

1/We booked him in for extra tuition at Christmas (in English and French) - most marks were worse than summer. (Maths/Music were still good)

(Considering his likely leaving cert subjects - the summary is: We should book him in for extra tuition at Science as well.)

2/Is more material available for GCSE exams - more example questions - and where the marks get assigned/lost - or would that just confuse/different syllabus?

3/School stuff: get on to the form rep/parent teacher meeting.

4/(Get my son into more/better/different/other preparation.)

5/In his defence he has a long commute - and does a lot of music (practice and lessons). (It would be good to keep music ticking over - however at a lower level - no additional exams/grades etc.)

onlinemathsgr

GCSEs are very very different, so best to steer clear of them. Studyclix isnt a bad site for past paper questions by topic.

Have you had a cha with your son to make sures he happy in life and all that?

Good luck

angela1711

Junior Cert is pretty much pointless mostly used to determine whether a child is capable of studying a subject on higher level in the Leaving Cert. I wouldn’t put too much pressure on a child so that he/she feels they have to do above and beyond to get on well. On top of it even most stuff thought at Leaving Cert level is pretty much useless for both College and further life. I had great Leaving Cert result and if I had to face the exams again I would probably fail most of them. Let your child enjoy their Christmas brake and do not put too much pressure on them. I especially wouldn’t be concerned about any winter results. My own were terrible and in most subjects I went from Ds or Cs to high Bs and As in the actual exams.

One thing you should consider is having him do a proper IQ test. Depending on his result, you would be better able to Judge if he’s currently performing at his true level, or underperforming.