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

Your daughters exam results should be the least of your worries if you haven't taught her right from wrong.

For context, I'm a teacher and marked state exams at the end of the last school year. Cheating was pretty common. Not by much, and except for a couple of outrageous cases, impossible to prove. Again, I don't like it, but I don't think that the op is wrong to think it's happening.

[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]
Going through other papers with her is an excellent way to help her.

When you check them afterwards, please pay attention to the areas in which she makes mistakes (not only the exact errors). This can show you if she needs more help with, for example, grammar or vocabulary or how to structure an argument.

Please do not worry about how other parents may or may not be ‘helping’ their children. Comparisons to other children will not help your daughter. However, if you really can’t shake that concern, email the teacher to see what they say.

If I were to receive such an email, I would explain (more nicely than I did above) that I can usually spot cheating a mile off and it will result in a big, fat zero. Then I would explain that I can best teach your daughter if I know what exactly she does and doesn’t know (with or without the building block analogy as above). Then I would make what I hope would be helpful suggestions for you to assist her in learning he language.

So, with that in mind...
Languages are ‘use it or lose it’. If you can speak the language, speak it to her every day. If not, watch movies, listen to the radio. Build the language in to your daily life. Obviously, holidays are probably out at the moment.
‘Chunking’ can be useful - learning specific phrases that be used in arguments and as transition markers. These include ‘in my opinion’, ‘on the other hand’, ‘in contrast’, ‘in conclusion’ etc.
Read. Read, read, read. The newspaper, online entertainment news, what ever she is into. Is she a fan of a particular music group? Then start googling their French/German/Spanish/Whatever websites. This is a great way to learn the phrases she will need for writing and to extend her vocabulary in subjects that she is actually interested in. And the exposure to grammar in practical use will help familiarise her with it even if it something she hasn’t been explicitly taught yet.

Good luck

I think that most posters are lying, OP. I suspect that, yes, most parents would help if they could (giving more time, pointing out errors, etc). I'm not supporting that, but it's probably true.

But why do you think most posters are lying? Why would people need to lie about this on an anonymous forum? Is it because you yourself would cheat but don't want to admit it, so you assume that everyone else is the same?

Is it really so hard to see that some parents don't see exam grades as the be all and end all? That many people think other things are more important, like honesty, self-esteem etc. Is it hard to believe that some parents actually trust their kids to get through the exams without the need for cheating?

Any tiny advantage in grade you might gain is thoroughly wiped out by the example you set to your child and potentially the shame and guilt they will carry by knowing that they've cheated. I absolutely wouldn't help. Exam conditions are exactly that. Would you encourage your child to sneak cheat sheets into an invigilated exam? Because this is exactly the same.

@Caswint wow, calling us all liars?! Don't you think it's more likely that the people who would cheat are just not posting on this thread to admit it? (Apart from a couple)

No, I really help and support my kids learning. I know this puts them at an advantage.
However I’m not going to allow them to cheat on exams, never mind help them do this!

I think that most posters are lying, OP. I suspect that, yes, most parents would help if they could (giving more time, pointing out errors, etc). I'm not supporting that, but it's probably true. And it does make it impossible to know if you should follow the instructions to the letter or try to change a 3 to a 4.

I would reiterate that it is hard to cheat well, and the teacher will likely know if she is suddenly proficient. It would be far better for her to take this opportunity to see where she is honestly at, and then revise hard before Spring.

This makes me glad dd's GCSE grades last summer were based on what she did in school only.

Help by creating a quiet, exam-replica environment, yes. That's quite hard to achieve at home. There's something about an exam hall that really sharpens the concentration. Though 45 minutes isn't long.

Interrupting her and flapping about, distracting her and preventing her form concentrating properly would not be helping; either in this exam, or in learning how to tackle future exams.

Bloody autocorrect. Better invigilation

Last year, Ofqual made it clear that work submitted after schools closed should be treated with caution, for this reason. We badly need the guidance for this year...

Are you all saying you wouldn't do everything you could to support your child to do the best they can?

Absolutely I would yes, to SUPPORT THEM to do the best THEY CAN. As in, make sure they do the test as instructed by the teacher, make sure the house is quite whilst they’re taking the test, probably even help them revise before hand, go through the answers with them afterwards, etc.

How is helping them cheat at the test in any way supporting them to do the best that they can?

And since when did parents help with coursework? Mine certainly didn’t. I think the extent of their help was a bit of photocopying. Was I the only one left to get on with it?!

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

Calling cheating "help" doesn't make it a helpful or ethical thing to do.

Doing past papers with her beforehand, coaching her to fill gaps in her knowledge, teaching her exam technique, collaborating with her teacher to ensure better annihilation are helpful actions.

I know it's not the same but DD had an end of unit test which she had to do alone (she's year 4) it went against my natural instinct to not help when she was stuck but if I'd have helped then her teacher wouldn't know where she needed help

How is cheating helping your child? I just can’t fathom this. If you want to help your child, support their learning in whatever way you can and allow the teacher to do their job by assessing your child’s real abilities.

So just honestly bring it up with the teacher. Say you've done a poll on here and most of the parents are dishonest and would help their child cheat. 😂

[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]
Ds is doing exams this year.

I wouldn't help him other than to advise him before the exam to read questions carefully, watch out for common silly mistakes that lose marks and once answered look back and make sure he has answered the actual question.

I maybe would have given him an extra minute or two, which is still cheating, if he was just finishing up, but absolutely no longer.

Shocking! Cheating - terrible message to your child 😱

I want my child to feel it's not the end of the world if you aren't doing too well in a subject as long as they are doing the best they can, and you are confident everything will be OK even if they do get a bad mark. By doing something they will know is cheating you are sending a message you think a good grade is so important you will take desperate measures to get it. I want my dd to have confidence to try things and not be scared to fail sometimes and not feel bad if she does but have that resilience to try a new way and keep going.

Yes, totally agree.

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

I have a dd doing GCSEs this year. I absolutely wouldn't help her. I don't believe in cheating. Also, I wouldn't ever want to send the message to my dd that her own efforts aren't good enough, that I don't trust her to get through it without my help. What a terrible vote of no confidence that would be if your own mum thought you were so incapable that you need to behave in such a dishonest way! Ultimately, I guess I value my dd's self esteem more than I value her grades. And teaching her basic morality, of course.

A lot of parents clearly would cheat, though, which is why we should not allow teacher assessment to be based on exams taken at home. Thankfully, most teachers will quickly realise what's going on in any case. They aren't daft.

I want my child to feel it's not the end of the world if you aren't doing too well in a subject as long as they are doing the best they can, and you are confident everything will be OK even if they do get a bad mark. By doing something they will know is cheating you are sending a message you think a good grade is so important you will take desperate measures to get it. I want my dd to have confidence to try things and not be scared to fail sometimes and not feel bad if she does but have that resilience to try a new way and keep going.

Sadly, a lot of employers and universities are not going to take this cohort's exam results seriously. The OP is precisely the reason why.