Getting it right first time

[QUEENMA]

At my wits' end literally !
DC will typically get 15- 20 sums or even more wrong on a timed paper; As soon as the paper is handed back for correction, will get almost all answers right. The mistakes are silly rather than conceptual - so can't really understand how to get DC to do it right first time ! When it happened in the initial stages I thought he was on a learning curve but it is almost habitual now.

Does anyone have any suggestions ?

Many thanks in advance !
Queenma

[BlueBerry]

DS does this too! Watching this thread with interest

[Octsmum]

I think you should be getting your DC to mark the answers rather than you marking them. This way they will see where they are making the silly mistakes and hopefully learn from them. We've done this from the start of our tutoring journey - so I'm not sure whether this will have a benefit in the few weeks left if you are sitting the test soon.

Good luck.

Octsmum

[sjroshan]

My DS has the same issue and specially nearing the CEM exam timing, I'm concerned on the silly careless mistakes he makes.

[Guest55]

Do they check the answer works?

[BlueBerry]

DS often runs out of time and doesn't have time to check his working. We are just going to go for the exams and hopefully he'll pull a miracle on the actual day!

[Octsmum]

Also getting them to write the workings out somewhere helps rather than just doing mental calculations. Makes it easier for them to check if there's time.

[QUEENMA]

He says , he checks at the end of the paper - clearly not ; It almost feels like one minute he can't see the mistakes , the other he does ! So relate to your feeling of some miracle happening Blueberry ! Feel so frustrated as it is not a case of not understanding the concepts or not working hard - it just feels like some kind of a block that we are struggling to unblock

[loobylou]

Sometimes when people are checking they're assuming they got things right so don't check as well as they need to. When you give the paper back he knows what he's got wrong so it's easier to spot the errors. How about giving him the paper back and saying (for example) "you got 2 wrong in the first 5, 1 wrong in the second 5 and 2 wrong again in the 3rd 5". That way he kind of knows what he's looking for but still has to find the errors. That might help him understand how to check thoroughly?
You could then move on to bigger chunks of the paper eg you got 3 wrong on this page and he has to find them.
I find this works quite well with my ds. If I just tell him what he's got wrong he doesn't seem to improve as much.
I don't have any theory backing this up but it might be worth a try?

[Daogroupie]

I would stop doing timed papers as he is rushing through and not checking.

I would do one question at a time. Make him sit there and do it and sit next to him and watch how he does it and at what point the process breaks down, Have a consequence for each one he gets wrong.

If he sits there and gets three wrong in a row then he will begin to see what is happening and hopefully change his approach.

Students seem to think that silly mistakes are another more minor category of being wrong because they did actually know how to do it.

They need to learn that wrong is still wrong even if they did know how to do it. The examiner does not know that they knew how to do it, only that they got it wrong. There is only one category of wrong and that is wrong! Don't use the term silly mistake, use the word wrong as that is the cold hard reality of it.

Put a large whiteboard in front of him with his scores from each paper in a percentage so he can clearly see how many marks he is losing.

It is not going to suddenly go right on the day so you need to fix it now. Students continue in their patterns of behaviour unless something is done to change it. DG