Posts Tagged ‘GCSE English’

Congratulations to GCSE students!

Thursday, August 25th, 2011

Another happy parent this morning wished to thank their tutor Ajmal!

“Henry got a B in his Maths GCSE – thank you so much for all your help – we are over the moon! Would love it if you would come and help Adam this year. Hope you are well. Emma.”

Nearly one in four GCSE entries has been awarded an A or an A* grade in results published this morning. This a great news!

Around 750,000 children receive their GCSE results today in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The overall pass rate at grades A* to C has increased to 69.8%, while the percentage getting an A or A* has risen from 22.6% last year to 23.2% this summer.

This year’s GCSE results also show an increase in entries for physics, chemistry and biology. Physics is up 16.4%, chemistry 16.2% and biology 14.2%.

Results show the continuing trend for grades in Northern Ireland to be highest, with England second and then Wales.

The gender gap widened yet again. Girls have increased their lead on boys for top grades in GCSEs, 26% of exams taken by girls were given the top grades, while just under 20% of those taken by boys were.

The numbers of pupils taking modern foreign languages continues to fall. Fewer pupils are taking history and geography, with history entries down around 2,700, and geography entries slumping dramatically by 13,800 in one year.

Figures published by the Joint Council for Qualifications suggest that students are starting to return to tough subjects favoured by employers and leading universities – mirroring a trend in last week’s A-level results.

For those students who didn’t receive such good results, please don’t despair! If you are thinking of resitting some of your exams why not consider receiving one to one tuition? Some resits can be taken as early as November or January, with Maths and English being particularly popular subjects to resit, as Cs in both are considered an important benchmark in terms of basic skills.

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Grammar brought back into focus for exam pupils

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

The days of sloppy grammar at school could be at an end. Teenagers are to be penalised for poor grammar in tough new rules being proposed for GCSEs and A levels. Why are these rules being proposed, and what does your teen need to do in order to meet the strict new grammatical requirements?

A return to great grammar

It’s no secret that many parents and educators bemoan the lack of good grammar usage amongst today’s teenagers. As we’ve spoken about before in this blog, this is due to a combination of factors. Although grammar is returning to prominence, it has not always been taught thoroughly, if at all, in all schools, and certainly not as well as it was in the 1940s and 1950s.

Secondly, teenagers’ heavy usage of e-mail and text speak means that they are not accustomed to using standard English, along with its grammatical rules, regulations and possibilities.

The end result is that many teenagers present low standards in written English, even if they are intelligent.

Love for literacy

Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, has unveiled plans to change this trend. From now on, teenagers could lose up to five per cent of marks in their examinations if they fail to display high standards of written English.

This marks a return to traditional standards. Indeed, until 2003, five per cent of marks in all GCSE exams were set aside for high standards of written English.

Educators are welcoming the move. Prof Alan Smithers, the director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University, said: “Clear expression is evidence of clear thought. It is reasonable to expect accurate spelling and good use of grammar in an exam.”

Get into grammar

If your teen needs to brush up on their grammar, then now is the time to start. Don’t wait until exam season. Make sure they know how to use apostrophes, commas, colons and how to distinguish between key words such as “their”, “they’re” and “there”. For extra help, why not contact one of First Tutors’ English tutors?

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Discover the world of English literature

Tuesday, November 9th, 2010

Many students will associate reading great works of English literature with having to do exams on them come the end of term. Of course, it was never Virginia Woolf’s intention to have To the Lighthouse form a part of an A-level English course.  Admittedly this can deaden the impact of great literature, but with the help of an English tutor your child could take real pleasure in these great works while working toward satisfying academic achievements.

When it comes to getting your kids to read there’s an awful lot to compete with. The quantity and variety of media that they are exposed to is staggering. From television and video games to iPods and the internet, it’s no wonder their attention might appear to wander a few pages into Sense and Sensibility. However much of the pleasure of reading comes from its slow release, which can initially feel like inaccessibility. A great entry point is to try and find something of the modern day within these seemingly foreign worlds of centuries past. How would your child feel in the shoes of the orphaned Oliver Twist? Can they relate to Winston Smith’s desire for freedom in 1984?

If you think your child would benefit from getting acquainted with English literature to help them through their A-level or GCSE English course and they need some extra motivation, as well as some help in appreciating the text at hand, it can be useful to hire a tutor for some one to one sessions. Their tutor can point them towards some of the best works in English literature to start with and guide them through the process of reading, enjoying and critical thinking.

First Tutors has plenty of excellent tutors who can help your child in their journey through English literature. Why not browse our site for one near you?

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Preparing your child for their GCSEs – Part 2

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

Following on from Preparing your child for their GCSEs – Part 1, here are three more ways to ensure your child is going into their GCSE years with confidence:

1. Choose a good mix of subjects. For the first time in their academic career, your child actually has a say in which subjects they want to study. However, they will still need your guiding hand to make sure they select subjects that support both their individual strengths and their future university applications. Languages are always a good idea, if your child has an aptitude for them.

2. Identify weaknesses as soon as possible. Every child is stronger in some subjects than others, and it takes a great deal of discipline to focus study time on the more difficult subjects, particularly if they are mandatory and your child does not enjoy them. Using the services of a private tutor for the more challenging subjects can be a good way to boost your child’s confidence, as well as improve their exam scores.

3. Practise makes perfect. Most kids are terrified of exams – even if they won’t admit it to their parents! The more preparation you can give them, therefore, the better. Obtain practise papers and revision guides for each of their GCSE subjects so that your child can get used to the format of each of their exams. For subjects like English, which require essays to be written during the exam, you or your child’s home tutor should set “fake exams” to help them learn to write essays within a restricted timeframe.

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GCSE pupils achieve record results

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

First Tutors would like to wish all of our tutees the very best of luck as they collect their exam results today. Good luck as well to our tutors, who are probably just as nervous!

If national data is anything to go by, today’s exam results should be the cause of celebration for many of our tutees and tutors: 2010 has proved to be another record-breaking year for GCSE results.

Almost seven out of ten GCSE entries this year have been awarded a C grade or above and the pass rate overall has risen for the 23rd year in a row. This year, 98.7% of entries achieved a pass grade.

The results also mirror the A-level trend for an increase in entries for the Sciences and a decrease in that for the traditional modern languages.

In individual Science GCSEs, Biology entries have increased by 28.3%, chemistry by 32.2% and physics by 32.1%.

By contrast, entries in French and German have gone down by 5.9% and 4.5% respectively. However, there were big rises in those for Portuguese, Chinese and Polish.

This year also shows an increased trend in pupils sitting GCSE English and GCSE Maths a year early. This year, more than 10% of pupils sat Maths early whilst just under this figure took English early – a 50% increase on last year’s entries.

The figures have attracted criticism by some educators, with many saying that the exams are becoming “too easy” and “too predictable”. The Association of Teachers and Lecturers stated that the exam system was in “disarray” and that even those who achieved “a string of A*s” were not well served by GCSEs. However, First Tutors would like to offer sincere congratulations to all the students who are today celebrating the results of their hard work.

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5 ways English tutors can demonstrate colons

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

The colon as we know it – two dots on a vertical line – was first recorded in English around the year 1600 and its use varies across languages worldwide. It has several related but distinct uses in English, mainly to inform a reader that two pieces of information are connected. Here are five examples that English tutors can use when teaching their students how to use colons:

1) The most common use of a colon is known as syntactical-deductive. It is used when the second clause of a sentence presents the logical effect or consequence of a fact stated previously, usually in the first clause. For example:

‘There was no one there to welcome him: the party had ended early’

2) The second use follows a similar pattern, but introduces a description. This is known as syntactical-descriptive, and the first clause should be a complete sentence in its own right.

‘I have five cousins: John, Joanne, Stephen, Matthew and Laura’

3) Colons can introduce direct speech:

Shakespeare had a very sound banking policy: ‘Neither a borrower nor a lender be.‘

4) Colons can demarcate differing pieces of information:

Paddington: A cartoon bear created by Michael Bond. Also a major train station in London, UK

5) Colons can also be used to separate chapters and verses, and to distinguish titles and subtitles:

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

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The purpose of prepositions

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

Prepositions relate different items to each other. In English, many prepositions have numerous meanings depending on the context in which they are used. When a verb is followed by a preposition, it is often clear which one must be used, e.g. “rely on”, “speak to”. However, when a choice of preposition is possible, the meaning changes accordingly: “check for”; “check on”; “check over”.

Prepositions indicate place or time (e.g. “Drive to London by 6pm”). Much like transitive verbs, prepositions need an object, and they are usually followed by a noun phrase (“be on time”) or an “-ing” clause (“thanks for driving”).

The technical term for a preposition and the noun phrase that goes with it is a ‘prepositional phrase’ – but your tutees only really need to know that if they’re studying University English. For GCSE and A-level English, just make sure your tutee has a good grasp of how and when to use prepositions in their essays and creative writing.

Prepositions range from the simple (“to”, “on”, “in” etc) to the complex (“due to”, “together with”, “because of” etc) and can be strung together in prepositional phrases, as mentioned above.

Here are some examples of sentences containing prepositional phrases:

“The woman in the blue dress smiled at me.”

“Dad put the chocolates on the table.”

Prepositions can also combine with some verbs to create new meanings – these are called phrasal verbs. E.g. “He went through a hard time”.

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5 tips for GCSE resits

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

This year’s GCSE results were the best yet, but inevitably some pupils will have been disappointed with their grades. Many A-level courses require pupils to have obtained at least 5 A*-C GCSEs. Those who haven’t achieved this standard, but want to proceed to further study, may decide to take the private exam entry route in order to improve their GCSE grades.

Here are 5 tips to help you/ your child prepare for GCSE resits if you’re considering private exam entry:

1)    Contact the relevant exam boards for a list of local examining centres. Examination Officers are not obligated to accept private candidates to their exam centres so you may need to contact more than one centre to find one that will accommodate you.

2)    If the GCSE subject you want to resit involves coursework you will need to find someone who can examine it. An exam board moderator may be able to do this but you will need to confirm with the exam centre.

3)    Make sure you submit your exam entry paperwork in plenty of time. Each exam centre sets a deadline for exam entry paperwork. Sometimes this includes a visit to the centre to verify your identity.

4)     Budget for the fees. As well as the costs of private tuition and exam revision aids, parents also need to budget for the costs of the GCSE resits. Private exam entry usually attracts both administration fees and fees for each individual exam. Entry for GCSE English can cost as much as £50, depending on the exam board.

5)    Finally, make sure you put in plenty of study time before the resit exam. Select a private tutor with good credentials who can guide you/ your child towards an improved performance in the relevant subject(s).

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