Case Study: Repeated GCSE Resits

Simon’s mum approached me in January 2025 when Simon got his resit results and found he had failed to get the required Grade 4. This had been his fifth attempt.

Background

Simon was studying at Chelmsford College and wanted to start an apprenticeship when he completed his course but, without a pass grade at GCSE English Language, he could progress no further with his training. The college had provided English lessons as part of Simon’s timetable, but these were clearly not hitting the mark with Simon. His previous papers were not available to see but Simon knew that he typically only wrote one or two sentences for each answer, saying that he had a ‘brain freeze’ whenever he walked into an exam room.

Simon’s mum sent me a piece of narrative writing he had done showing that Simon had a wide vocabulary, imagination and creativity – clearly, he had the ability to pass but just didn’t know how.

Tuition Action

Simon started weekly tuition sessions with me in mid-January. It was clear that his confidence in his ability was very low, and he was frustrated that he needed to overcome this barrier in order to progress with what he really wanted to do in life. However, he had not been tutored before so was ready to try a new approach.

We started by learning a focused, effective way to approach questions where you are asked to comment on language. These analysis questions feature in both Language Paper 1 and 2 so the ability to answer these questions is fundamental to success in English. I had attended an excellent training event with an AQA examiner who had suggested an approach to these questions using an easy, memorable acronym. Applying this acronym meant that Simon had a scaffold to use in the exam which would help to overcome his brain freeze. He picked this up quickly and reported, within a few weeks, that he had been able to apply it in a test at college and was pleased with the amount he had been able to write. This early success was key to beginning to rebuild Simon’ s confidence.

We used a similar approach to the other questions in the exam, providing frameworks to unlock each question and give Simon the skill and confidence to apply these to any text he came up against in the exam. Simon was good at following logical steps – the trade he was learning required this – so he picked up the methods securely as we looked at a series of past papers over the six months we worked together.

His creative writing was a strength, but I was able to give him quick and effective ways to elevate this to pick up some extra points and reach the level required to pass. By sitting with him as he wrote, I could see where he slowed down and where he was more confident which allowed me to intervene when needed without killing his creativity and independence.

Repetition and practice of the approaches to each question is vital to any student and is sadly something schools and colleges have insufficient time and resources to do. Working on a one-to-one basis meant we could get through several past papers for both Language Papers, ensuring that Simon was really familiar with what he had to do in the exam. As we got nearer to the exam dates, we started doing the questions in timed conditions to try to replicate some of the pressure Simon would experience in the exam.

Outcome

By the time to exam started in May 2025, Simon was able to use the methods, acronyms and sentence starters for each question without prompting and write answers which were developed enough to hit the marking criteria. More importantly, he felt that he would be able to do this in the exam without my support.

I was delighted to hear from Simon in August that he had got the required Grade 4 for English Language and could now move on with his training.