EOY10 internal examinations

[AuntJobiska]

DS's internal EOY Year 10 exam marks look pretty duff to me, despite heaps of revision. All in the sixties. This will translate into 6s on his report (grade boundaries set by the school, different from subject to subject). The school won't give out year averages, so he could be in the bottom 10% or the bottom 40% for all I know (treating where he sits in the year as a rough proxy for how well he's likely to do, based on the school's record for producing good GCSE results - and for having to ask a small number of boys to make other arrangements for their A levels).

My understanding is that in most cases the exam covered most if not all of the GCSE syllabus. They aim to teach it all by the end of y 10 and then revise/practise in year 11.

Any general opinions on whether sixes at the end of year 10 usually translate pretty optimistically into 7s and 8s at GCSE? it sounds like it should, and I really am trying to be sensible and not worry, but my rational sense gets undermined by the fact that I only ever hear about a small no. of other children who never drop below 7 and get a lot of 8s (I speak to very few parents) so it makes me fret. I can understand why the school doesn't give out year averages for exams, but I really wish they would. The context would be helpful.

[TeenTimesTwo]

Well I suppose 'duff' is in the eye of the beholder.
6s by the end of y10 sounds ace to me if they have whistled through the content. Then he has a whole year to build on perfecting knowledge and exam technique.

Put it this way. If he doesn't go up from 6s then what on earth are they doing with y11?

[AhBut]

I think you need to put these exams into context. They’re year 10 exams, a reasonable predictor assuming all stays stable, but they’re not the teal thing. Two key reasons;

I’d be very surprised if the school had finished the syllabus; most schools were still reaching year 11 up to and beyond Easter this year because the content is so huge now.
And there are no past papers for all except English and maths, and very few for those. Schools will save those for year 11 mocks.

So the school will have made up their own exams for year 10s which may now be quite like the real thing. Question types vary hugely.

Use the results to help your child learn, to make any changes needs to revision or application. Never helpful to compare!

[AuntJobiska]

TeenTimesTwo that made me laugh! And thank you, AhBut - you have given me a useful couple of questions to ask at parents evening.

Both responses very kind, thank you. It wasn't a really very answerable question. I just need to talk it through in the virtual world where I'm not boring my real-life friends (none of whom have similarly aged kids) with the same old inescapable anxieties all the time. They've got their own stuff going on, which is much more important than whether DS will get As and A*s at GCSE (I know, old money). Also can't offload on DH because he is the type of person who will keep saying "let's see what happens" until we know what happens, at which point he says "let's see what happens" about the next stage of the journey. We are, basically, an interventionist married to an ostrich. None of this has anything to do with education! Sorry!

[AtiaoftheJulii]

My daughter's just coming to the end of y10 too - the school have warned them all to take the grades with a pinch of salt as the school are just making a judgement based on the guidance they've been given. They're going to revisit the end of y10 results after the GCSE results come out, to see whether they think they're on the right lines.

But broadly yes, I think 6s at this stage are fine and 'should' translate to 7s and 8s next year, with the occasional 6 or 9. That's certainly what I'm expecting/hoping for dd3 anyway.

[AuntJobiska]

Apparently a number of the kids are getting lower marks than they're used to in the exams (at DS's school, but perhaps it's not uncommon across the Year 10 experience in general). It sort of makes sense that they would struggle a bit with papers that are close to GCSE standard a year before they actually sit the things. That's what I'm telling myself anyway.

[AhBut]

Sorry for the multiple typos this morning! Definitely check at parents evening but honestly as well as what I said above they’ll be stabbing in the dark at grade boundaries now because nobody knows.
I’d go by %s and think forwards about what he can do to develop.
Enjoy now, enough time for angst in year 11 - it’s a hard old slog.