Exams

PotteringAlonggotkickedoutandhadtoreregister · 18/05/2023 21:00

The only problem he will have is that he will have to declare it as an exam he took and it will be on his exam certificates as a U.

”I didn’t think it was important so I didn’t bother” won’t necessarily go down well with employers in the future. It might make no difference at all, but I’m not sure it paints him in a good light.

Actually if it did come up with an employer in the future ( unlikely but anyway) I think it's best to just be honest and say I was extremely young for my age when my did that and in retrospect I realise xyz and I've since learnt that in such and such a situation , the appropriate thing to do is xyz....

Sorry! You’re absolutely right, not everyone goes to uni (two of mine have, one probably won’t, I’m only going as a mature student).. I should have said if doing UCAS he’ll need to declare it (even 20 years later, I had a whole saga trying to locate my certificates!)

He'll have to declare it on his UCAS, but I agree, after that, employers won't bother to check.

Some previous posters described it as 'funny'

Who thinks it is fine?

It’s happened now, I’m sure OP would rather it hadn’t, but her question was whether it would impact other grades and the answer is no.

I think it's surprising that posters think that a teenager just giving up on a subject and not even bothering to try is fine. Really sad. And also a bit petulant that he destroys the paper as didn't get his own way (despite, no doubt, hours of teacher investment!) Schools don't allow children to drop subjects at GCSE (unless they have SEN) as they have to be somewhere supervised every period of the day. Where would they go with a blank space on their timetable?

Under the exam regulations, nobody should be reading his answer booklet except the person marking it. It would be a breach of the exam regulations for a teacher or exams officer to read the answer booklet and comment on it.

Invigilators won't have looked at his paper, they're not allowed to. Not allowed to look through the papers before or after. What he put in the paper is not their business and nothing will be done, he'll just get 0 when it's marked. Some don't even open the paper.

I do think it's a shame that if he turned up and sat it that he didn't at least attempt it though.

OP

I believe it may be possible to withdraw from the exam even at this late stage, before it is graded.

Maybe look into it.

Why are you assuming he is going to apply to University? It seems the go to assumption on MN that after GCSEs comes 6th form then Uni but for a lot of people this is not the case and they still go on to have very good careers.

He will have to declare his U grade when he applies to university via UCAS as another poster said. If it is a uni that scores Gcse Grades his score average will be affected by a 0

The issue will be when he comes to apply to uni, as UCAS rules state you have to declare ALL grades for ALL exams taken, including any you failed and / or ended up resitting. If you fail to declare anything you risk your application being thrown out.

Surely you just don't put that exam on your qualification list unless its the same exam board or as I do now:

• 9 A-C grades inc Maths English and Science. Gcses become less important the further up you go.

^^ this
If he has to provide result slips as evidence in the future his U grade will be on there for all to see.

Not his finest hours I wouldn’t have thought.

The only problem he will have is that he will have to declare it as an exam he took and it will be on his exam certificates as a U.

”I didn’t think it was important so I didn’t bother” won’t necessarily go down well with employers in the future. It might make no difference at all, but I’m not sure it paints him in a good light.

Yeah it won't affect him. Sad the school didn't let him drop it but also I find it kind of funny how he used it for Maths revision 😂If I was an examiner that would make my day. I'm sure your son will do great in his other exams though.

I imagine OP and the kid’s teachers have all been pushing and hoping that he would take the exam seriously.

Why did you let him enter the exam if he had no intention of completing it? School will not be happy with a 0 score and his teacher might be in trouble for the bad result.

Even if he is not interested in the subject, does he not need to get an average point score to be accepted into 6th form?

OP I work in an exams team. It is highly unlikely anyone had time or inclination to actually look at his paper (and only exams staff or invigilators would be able to look anyway - certainly no teachers). And even if someone noticed as long as there was nothing offensive on it no one will do anything about it in my experience. It will have been sent to the exam board and will get a zero grade. It's possible the Exams Officer was alerted by an invigilator but there really is nothing anyone can do about it. The school won't be chuffed but that's just tough. I wouldn't worry

Hope he's fine and happy about the others.
I had to grin reading this though - my son managed to do something remarkably similar in one of his A level mocks ...

Yes, the only problem will be if he's written something offensive, and realistically it won't affect more than that paper, unless he's written "Frequent obscenities;
discriminatory language,remarks or drawings directed at an individual or
group"

If he's covered the paper with racist jokes etc, then it could mean the exam board disqualify him from that qualification, or, if very severe, from all the qualifications he's taking with them.

If it's just a load of maths formulae, he will be fine.

Hi @SheilaFentiman , @catndogslife and @lanthanum many thanks, i appreciate your comments and time. He was respectful and only used the given spaces for answering (!) and yes, nothing rude....I will maybe check in with his teacher at some point. all the best.

Hi @yikes88 , you have described the situation perfectly (and much better than I :D) - thanks for your reply, much appreciated and yours, with the others have calmed me some. All the best