Tuition blues

I've been a part-time tutor for 3 years, took on this job to supplement my allowance. But its a tough job... You have to face all kinds of children and sometimes spoilt brats. But you don't have a choice... This year, I had a difficult boy who has a short attention span and very impolite as well. Anyway, the kids have finished their exams so the main thing I am concern with is how well (or bad) they have done for their exams. So, I went for tuition today. The first thing his mum said when I entered the house was that the boy had failed his Mathematics. Alright, I got a shock. None of my tuition kids had failed before. So I thought, perhaps he was just a few marks away from passing... But... Horrors of horrors, he had less than 35 marks! I didn't expect that he would fail by such a huge margin! Needless to say, that was a major shock! Well, as I said he was a difficult boy... Or were my expectations too high? I mean, since January I've telling him to memorise his multiplication tables and till now, he ain't even sure of his 2 and 3 multiplication tables! That's a long time. You can't say its difficult because my other kids of the same level as him have memorised all the 12 multiplication tables... Hai... Tell me how lah...