Y11 2023/24 thread 5 - results!

Yes she was, I managed to speak to a few of them, all were grinning for him and pats on the back were allowed.

He was shaking before the results came through bless him

@WillimNot that's brought a tear to my eye.

My proudest moment yesterday was the student with the "worst" results in my class. He's overcome so much and I was so pleased for him. I'd have loved to give him a hug too.

I'm so pleased for your boy and his teacher. She must be brimming with pride too.

I'm so proud of my DS

He has had it so tough, bullying at his last school, which made a move at the start of year 11 necessary for his safety and mental health. Old school never saw him or his abilities, he was just an SEN kid with disabilities. Predicted 4s and 5s.

New school has been the making of him, he is just him, they don't use his disability against him, quite the opposite. They've supported and nurtured him.

He got 7s and 8s yesterday, and was told he could easily manage 4 A'levels. The old school was pushing him to do two if he stayed.

I'm so blown away, one teacher was jumping up and down when he came in to collect his results and register for sixth, saying she had specifically looked for him as she knew how nervous he was- one of his books he only picked up in October. She said she would've asked to hug him but knows that's not his thing!

I can see him doing so well going forward with this terrific school, I will never be able to thank them enough.

There appears to be a real problem however with Eng lit in that there were “ predictions” on themes going round on social media ( & even from teachers)

There are several "quotations for all topics" videos out there. It's a dangerous gamble to just plagiarise those.

I also think that this is part of it, plus the particular style or theme of a paper can totally throw people off, there was a question or 2 this year that did really perplex my DD’s and her friends & others ( by reading what those on student room were saying post exam)…but overall their Eng lang set achieved better than expected. There appears to be a real problem however with Eng lit in that there were “ predictions” on themes going round on social media ( & even from teachers) which means that some kids are possibly doing no revision or planning for certain topics/ themes…my daughter was caught out by this but luckily still did well overall.

Hey there! This page (eduqas-gcse-grade-points-june-2024.pdf) states:
G4 - 111/200
G5 - 126/200
G6 - 142/200
G7 - 158/200
G8 - 168/200
G9 - 178/200
Hope this helps!

Has anyone else had this? So we don’t know how far off the grade boundary she was either .

It happens a lot because of the way the data is managed and reported - it's nothing sinister. Ask the school: they will know.

Eduqas English language here, predicted 6/7 and consistently achieved this throughout years 10/11 but grade 3 result. Others at school with similar experience.

Also we have the marks for the Eduqas English lit but no mark given for the language to anyone in school. (All other subjects had marks). Has anyone else had this? So we don’t know how far off the grade boundary she was either .

All other subjects were inline with expectation except the creative ones that had external moderation and dropped a few marks.

I've had time to analyse some data in our school now - this is only one cohort of approx 160 kids but...

English Lang results were significantly below forecast at G9 (approx 15%), Grade 8-9 (approx 23%) and G7-9 (approx 20%). Looking at performance in mocks to actual it looks as though mocks might have been marked generously.

RS was the other subject with a big deferential to actual- below forecast at G9 (approx 10%), Grade 8-9 (approx 19%) and G7-9 (approx 22%). Mock performance looks in line with actual - unusual as every other subject has seen improvement and RS is normally a strong subject with better outcomes than this year.

Overall, high grades (7-9) have dropped by 5% this year from 73% to 68%. In 2022 they were 79.5%!

Had same problem with Electronics not listed on WJEC.

School sent email to DS yesterday asking for permission to have a computer science paper reviewed for him. He only saw it today as emailed school to see if he could do core Maths they email last month to say oversubscribed and no other info. no reply yet. He has to let college know on Sunday by email. So not sure what to do.

@BeaLola was it WJEC or Eduqas?

I can’t find it on WJEC but the Eduqas ones are here https://www.eduqas.co.uk/media/qrzg2rsa/eduqas-gcse-grade-points-june-2024.pdf

Update school say he's 1 mark off a 5 in English and reviewing the papers this week to see whether or not to sent for remark
School also surprised as it's such an outlier mark compared to the rest of his marks (inc English lit) and his mocks / classwork
School not known for being generous with their marking
Still waiting on college to say whether they will accept him
DS has had another night of stressful tossing and turning & checking his email (we're 8hrs behind the U.K.) but is now up and obsessing about a jigsaw he found in our rental so hopefully that will distract him for a bit. He never does jigsaws so that's quite telling.

Good point!

@Philandbill exactly the same here. Predicted or above in everything else except AQA lang.

DD basically got her predicted in everything else, a 5 in AQA language is the outlier. Family member is an experienced English teacher and has seen lots of her work and is very surprised at the lower grade.

I've name changed for this. DS did AQA English was predicted two 8s but actually got two 9s.

He basically got his predicted grades or a grade above in all his exams but his school say they mark harshly in mocks etc. I would say all his friends got what they expected or slightly better with just the odd lowered grade.

I agree, @WhereAreWeNow - if my DS wasn't such an avid reader and good writer, I'd shrug off his 6s, but I'm hearing a lot of people talk about odd grades (I know, it's only anecdotal evidence, but there's quite a few anecdotes now). Also he was consistently getting higher scores on mocks.

We are going to ask for a review for his Lang as it was 2 marks off a 7 so I will pop my head into your thread.

Also want to say that IMO it takes all kinds of minds to make the world go round and I wish more schools appreciated that. I really hate to hear of schools making kids feel less valued or unwelcome due to their scores. A student who may not get on with academics might be brilliant at a trade, or fixing things, or counselling, or business, or any number of other things. The kid who got a low score in English might be the person fixing up your car or boiler in a few years, or running a business. Not talking about anyone on this thread. Only to teachers or anyone making someone feel small due to their scores. Off my soapbox now.

The trouble is, one-off stories are not evidence of any kind of systemic issue. Some kids will always do better or worse than predicted. That depends on the accuracy of internal marking for mocks, luck on the day of exams, etc etc etc. It could also be an exam board marking thing but there is no actual evidence of that. Obviously easy for me to say as my child did better than expected. But for balance did (considerably) worse in another subject than predicted so, swings and roundabouts...

Sorry to distal but can anyone point me in the grade boundaries for WJEC Film Studies C670QS GCSE - I have found AQamA and Edexcel but this is alluding me

I'm just popping by to point out that AQA has by far the largest cohort for GCSE English, so you will naturally hear more about them.

I think I might start a separate thread just on AQA English so we can find out how we all get on with reviews.
@Panic71 @Sparklingwineandcheese @stopscrollingandgettowork

Looking at the way that some people are reporting big discrepancies in English grades with AQA while others aren’t makes me query how accurately the teachers were applying the mark scheme in mocks etc
But as it's throughout the country in different schools and only seems to be AQA either the examiners have been told to be extremely harsh, the training given to schools is insufficient or incorrect and/ or the mark scheme is way too vague and open to interpretation. It's not as likely that so many individual teachers in so many settings can be so off in a specification that has been used for years, and it's only the ones teaching AQA.

It's strangely reassuring to hear how many of our DC are in the same boat with AQA English. I mean it's awful that so many kids have had a disappointment yesterday but it's reassuring to think it's a wider AQA problem rather than something just DD is experiencing.
School is sending for review. I can't help but wonder if this is a money spinner for AQA. It just doesn't make sense that so many kids have grades totally out of keeping with all their mocks and predicted grades.