It is that time of year again - the time one updates all ones profiles in Tutor Registers for the new year. I have a very conservative approach to this - I have used the same form of words for years, because it tells the truth, and works!
  And yet this year I have added a new paragraph, which reflects the change in GCSE maths. The exam is now more about english than maths. It is a reading exam, and I spent a lot of last year thinking about how one reads questions the often tortured prose maths GCSE and A level is written in (which is ironic as I am very badly dyslexic-  but hey that make me very good at thinking about ways to read of problem). The importance of this cannot be over emphasised - the difference between an A and a B grade isa  difference in ones ability to read the question!
 My profiles have therefore all been updated to make this point....

Making that Difference

   So last night I got the first result I thought - 'hmm, should have done better' at. The result in question was a B, for a pupil who in the mocks got an E - so on the face of it - fine. And yet, and yet, he should have got an A, at least that was what I thought - that was what he was working to in the sessions.
   The problem is of course the ghost that haunts maths tuition, the one I seem to spend my life exorcising and thinking about. The simple fact is that pupils behave differently in tuitions than they do in exams and under the 'pressure' of an exam; and this was a pupil who had this track record of under performing. The game was therefore to ensure that he knew the sorts of questions well enough, and had enough practice, enough mathematical 'bottom', to fight the gremlins of 'sitting the exam', which given that the second exam this year (a calculator paper) was very tricky, was certainly needed. Hard exams require bottom (call it confidence if you like), and he now had it, so did not go to pieces, and yet, did not keep it enough to perform to grade.
   My beef (with myself) is that I should have done better. At issue here, is one of the real arts and mysteries of teaching. Put simply, teaching 'how to answer questions' is a dark science. To take in a 'perfect answer'  is as bad as to try to get pupils to questions they simply cannot do. The game is always to start them off, and get them sparking, get them thinking for themselves - asking the right question, and moving the perspective around, and showing them how one does it and why. In short it is to get them thinking -  and most of them, bless them, all can do that. The trouble of course is how they then react to the fact they are 'thinking'. Many are frankly scared by it. They are not used to it, and are forever coming up with reasons why they cannot really think, if you are not in the room, and say so even as they are working through the questions themselves. I think the question here is really one of trust and the courage that goes with it. To think is to risk one's own genius, and to trust the examiner with that genius, and perhaps with some justification (given how GCSE maths appears to be something of a political football at the moment) they are simply very very unwilling to do this. However good the pupil is, one has to work through this scruple and this fear, and I do so. The risk is that a hard exam knocks them back into 'form'. That is to say, all those doubts re-surface, and the entire issue becomes impossible again...
   This I am sure, happened to this pupil. Hence the lack of an A. The B is then the result of the fact that I taught him well. That is, well enough even under strain not to go to pieces, and to do those bits he could (a vital second line defence). Meaning that I think I did him good (well if you look at his form I am sure I did), and yet, and yet, I still regret that fact that I did not get that 'virtual catechism' which  typifies 'thinking in a maths exam', quite internal, quite strong, enough.
   So that I am left with this feeling that I must do better next time - and am working out how now. For even after twenty years, I feel that I am still learning how to teach - and hope I never stop learning.

To find out more and me and my teaching practice see my website at:

http://www.cartwheels-collective.co.uk/And_Maths_Tuition_too....html

So Results slowly coming in - so far of the four I have got, there are three A's and a C. the C is in a foundation exam (so is maximum mark) and the pupil was forecast an E (or F) - and one of the A's was avery able pupil, who was - without much school help) taking the exam 2 years early (He is fourteen). More results (and analysis) will follow over the next few days.... As I get them (you always get the real shockers first - but others will come)

Hold Onto your Hats.

 Today is one of the defining days of a maths tutors calendar - It is GCSE results day - the day you get to know how you did last year - the day that defines the kind of work you get next year. One of the things I actually enjoy about teaching one to one sessions is it is relatively easy to tell how good you are-  more than that parents can tell as well. If you go off form, you loose business - and conversely if you are good you get busy!. If find it keeps me keen, and sharp, and always going my very best for my pupils....
 So may fingers are firmly crossed for today - good luck everyone-
And if you find your self in need of more maths - you can find me at: http://www.cartwheels-collective.co.uk/And_Maths_Tuition_too....html

Starting the New Term

It is that time again - The time I start slowly pulling off the summer lethagy and thinking about maths result (A Level next week-  GCSE the week after). I am always rather nervous asIi like to do well (I have dual targets for all my students, the first one what I think they would have got without me, the second what they got with me...).
This year I am planning to post these result here, for all to see....
So here we go -
And good luck everyone.