dd given a past paper to do at home under exam conditions - what would you do?

If she got a 3 before Christmas then miraculously improves to a grade 5 in this paper the teacher will totally be able to see that you have cheated and treat the grade as an anomaly especially when the next one done in school (assuming they ever go back) drops back down again.

Give her lots of support, revise with her, encourage her but don't teach her to cheat.

My Y11 DD is helped by DH and me providing a quiet place to work, printing off revision timetables she's created, buying post-it notes etc., not by cheating in a test or encouraging her to correct wrong answers.

I'd suggest that if you're looking for a way to help her get the grades you think she deserves, you complete the Ofqual consultation about how grades will be awarded this year. www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-how-gcse-as-and-a-level-grades-should-be-awarded-in-summer-2021

i can answer this hand on heart as ds (Y11) has just done 2 weeks of mocks online.

don't help. what's the point? I remain confident that the teachers know what he deserves and that there will be a "leg up" in the form of gentler marking and reduced syllabuses.

If she's already only achieved a 3 in a mini mock in the last month, no way would the teacher suddenly accept work of a radically different standard as part of her grading......

The time to ‘help’ her was when you first noticed she was struggling or when she got a 3 in the mini mock before Christmas. Duo lingo, GCSE bite size, testing her on regular and irregular verbs, making sure she has her tenses straight. ‘Helping’ her on a home test is going to be stunning obvious to the teacher when she’s been doing so badly.

All you can do is help her beforehand to revise everything she needs to know. You can't help her cheat.

If you have time can you get her to practise some past papers and go over the answers before she does the mock exam? Usually past papers are easy to get.

I’m also assuming the teacher want to know where she’ll be on the foundation paper so they can make a true judgement of whether she should be given foundation or higher level assessments when they’re released. Regardless of you having no moral compass, you could actually seriously mess this up for her.

I don't understand why you wouldn't want to know exactly what's she's capable of? So what if her friends get higher marks, this is where she is at.

Also by 'helping' you are fudging the areas where she needs help and the teacher is the best person to know how to plug those gaps.

Given how shit people are at languages in this country, I'd be surprised if many parents are in a position to improve their child's French exam performance (as well as it being wrong). Likewise the help with 'grammar, vocabulary, argument' - I bet lots of people overestimate their own abilities in these areas too.

I wouldn’t. But I would worry that others would and that it wouldn’t be a level playing field.
Not sure what the answer is

DS1 is in Year 13 so would be doing A-Levels.

No, I absolutely would not help him cheat in the exam.

I would and I have provided him with as much help as possible to do the very best he can.

Seriously?? You are still wanting to cheat? After everything everyone is saying? Even after what difficultbloodywoman said you are still trying to cheat. I hope you do and I hope bloodywoman is her teacher and throws the book at you!
I’ve a yr13 and yr11 doing exams this year. It wouldn’t enter my head to ‘help’ them. Neither would they allow it! They had some assessments at home last year during lockdown and both took down their notes from the walls etc. I didn’t need to ask them. They each wanted to know how THEY performed. I’d be livid if they ever cheated.
Without integrity you have nothing.
You have zero integrity and neither will your child. All for a 4 in French.

When the OP said she would get her DD to do a couple of different papers first, I assumed that they were other, different, old papers. Not the one that will be assessed.

Doing other papers is helpful. But doing the same paper under non exam conditions only to repeat it later under exam conditions would be cheating, in my opinion.

I wouldn’t cheat because I would want my dcs to respect me. I would be concerned that my dcs would question my moral judgement in the future.
Last year my ds took his year 10 Summer exams at home. He did very little revision and as a result ended up with grade 5’s and 6’s. This is from a child who was getting grade 7’s and 8’s prior to the first lockdown .
He was very upset with his results and so this year he has been working really hard .
Don’t get me wrong, I was sorely tempted to give him a CPG workbook and let him get on with it, but I wanted to teach him the importance of hard work.

I'd be interested to know how many of you who would absolutely not help your child have children taking their exams this year

As I explained up thread, I didnt help DD wirh her SATS papers last spring and yes, they don't have the gravitas that GCSE or A Levels have but are used to inform the secondary of where she is at. What is the point in cheating and distorting her actual ability?

As I also asked earlier - are you reading people's responses? I strongly disagree that we're all liars on here so perhaps speak to the school, explain your concerns and get some reassurance on this. Helping your DD to cheat is not the answer.

Past papers (under exam conditions) are the best way of revealing gaps in your knowledge. Don't ruin this opportunity for your DD by helping her with the paper.

[quote LetterOfTheLawFella]@bravefox I hope that is the case

@DifficultBloodyWoman thank you for providing your perspective. My plan is to get dd to do a couple of different papers first and go through any errors with her before she attempts the assessed one.

I'd be interested to know how many of you who would absolutely not help your child have children taking their exams this year.[/quote]
Seriously?? You are still wanting to cheat? After everything everyone is saying? Even after what difficultbloodywoman said you are still trying to cheat. I hope you do and I hope bloodywoman is her teacher and throws the book at you!
I’ve a yr13 and yr11 doing exams this year. It wouldn’t enter my head to ‘help’ them. Neither would they allow it! They had some assessments at home last year during lockdown and both took down their notes from the walls etc. I didn’t need to ask them. They each wanted to know how THEY performed. I’d be livid if they ever cheated.
Without integrity you have nothing.
You have zero integrity and neither will your child. All for a 4 in French.

Are you serious? Why?

Nope. As had as it is.

I hope everyone remembers to make them do their mock exams in a room without a computer (or computer is switched off) or books that could help? And remove their phones? It’s about preventing them from cheating too. I’m sure a few kids, under the stress and pressure that they’re under at the moment, would be tempted to have a quick Google. So it’s not necessarily about helping them directly, it’s also about not facilitating indirectly.

I’m not sure I’d be much help even if I was inclined to ‘help’. Certainly not in maths or any of the sciences. I could possibly spot a spelling mistake but that doesn’t seem to be a problem these days anyway.

But there will be kids getting help most certainly. Most likely scenario would be the parent revealing the question(s) to their child in advance of them ‘sitting’ the actual exam thus allowing them to pre-prepare some answers in advance.

How much help though could parents realistically be helping though - how much French do they know and how to do it to actually aid and be of help.

Not only is it cheating but I suspect could make the mark worse by putting your child off and telling them incorrect answers

Coursework wise I check for silly mistakes - I am an editor by trade and I am happy to edit work but not change it. I guide the editing as well

Again, I don't like it, but I don't think that the op is wrong to think it's happening.

I totally agree that it will happen, but it's a pretty big leap from that to say that most parents would cheat and that those of us who say that we wouldn't are lying.

I'm really glad that my dd did her mocks in school before Christmas and proved what she was capable of then. I'd hate to think of people assuming that it was me doing the work for her.