'A' levels mocks shock

@Alevelsmockshock

Yes, she did miss out whole questions.

This is the problem.

A tutor won't help with this.

In the subjects she is doing she needs to get something down for every question.

@RIPVPROG

Weren't you given your Maths mock paper back.
Surely if it was a B rather than an E you would be able to tell by adding up the marks?

In maths you can't really mark harshly. If it is right it is right.
You can penalise for not showing working or rounding errors more than would happen in the real thing but that is about it.

Should say 'the exam he did by far the best in'.

OP, I think exam stress is a huge thing. My DS has this and just got worse and worse in exams as Y13 progressed. In the end it was a matter of endurance to just pass everything but he was still so disappointed. Interestingly, the exam he didn't far the best in was his very last one (also his worst subject). I think he was just so happy to be at end. He refused uni because he "never wants to sit another exam in his life." The subject he did worst in was the one he had tutoring for 2 years, spent by far the most time revising for and was most stressed about.

Exams is about way more than knowledge. All I could do was take the pressure off. We didn't talk about grades or uni or what comes after,

If there hasn't been an "outside " reason (ie family death, bad break up, pregnancy) then I would be strongly discouraging universitiy for the time being.
It is self led and if she doesn't have that under control it's pointless and she's unlikely to get offers anyway.
A year working may bring maturity or a year at college at an access course as an option.
There's no wrong way round, every kid is different and exams are a skill in and of themselves and not one everyone masters whilst young x

Ah, I just had to reset my password as on my phone and this username is automatically generated.

Dd didn't get Sats results - her whole year groups' were annulled. This caused problems in her old school as she was predicted to fail everything.

Her old school hadn't bothered keeping assessment data on her (a whole other story) as so her predictions have been based on what she's done in her current school.

In GCSE I had a subject that should have been really easy for me, but I didn’t enjoy the class or other people in that class so my coursework ways really poor. I think E. I was embarrassed but deep inside knew I hadn’t tried. I BEGGED to still be able to sit this exam and promised I would revise which I did maybe twice. I got a B overall as my exam results were so good they averaged out. It sounds like your daughter is intelligent if she was predicted these grades…. But also my son’s grades were predicted off his year 6 mock SATS as they were the year that missed the genuine SATS. It could be that your daughter couldn’t achieve these grades even if she tried her very hardest.

I will always remember my a level maths mock. Top set, all predicted As. Only two people passed (one C (me) and one E). It shocked everyone to do more revision and take it more seriously. Tell her there is still time and to make a revision plan together. Remember she is still learning how to revise and what is best for her for each subject

What subject are her university offers for? There is always Clearing. Or taking a year out and applying with results in hand.

My maths GCSE teacher did this to me. I had a fairly laissez-faire attitude to school work at that age, I was able to put in very little effort, do my homework on the school bus and get very good marks. I didn't really revise. I did my maths mock and got an E. I was shaken to my very core and my teenage ego was more than dented, I didn't fail, I rarely got a B. My maths teacher was brutal, told me I might be able to swan into other lessons cobble something together and walk out with a top grade, but his subject took work. He gave me extra work to do and helped me set up a revision plan. On results day I opened that little paper envelope and I got an A* , I burst into tears and my mum thought I'd failed.
I'm pretty sure now that exam was never an E, maybe a B, but he thought I was a cocky little shit who could do better if I actually worked hard. He wasn't wrong.
I didn't think teachers would still get away with that kind of thing now though!

If it's exam technique she's lacking, she needs to start doing timed practise (past papers) at home (where there is no external pressure) to get used to the routine and structure of the papers. Ideally, her teacher would mark them for her, but if not, sometimes tutors will mark practise papers for a smaller fee than a tutoring session.

refusing to go is very immature. Yes it's humiliating, but hiding away and getting angry is not going to change this. She needs to have an action plan, drawn up with the support of her teachers and family.
Stomping her feet and blaming everyone else is 13 year old behaviour, not from someone who is thinking about university.
Not a dig at you OP. You sound brilliant and supportive.

A full paper. A we have the grade boundaries for each paper so we use those.

Because that's the way we plan the course. We can't do more than one mock in y13 because we're not allowed, so we designed the course to make it as effective as possible.

So we don't need to mark up or down to suit the story we're trying to tell. We simply say "you got X which would've been a grade Y" and take it from there.

It works for us.

We are in a similar situation DS predicted ABB and got B, C, U in his mocks.

He also gets very defensive about discussing it, doesn't want to listen to advice or offered help and to be honest seems embarassed about it. He is really starting to put the hours in but again I don't think those hours are that productive (listening to music), messaging on social media and he won't listen about the need to do past paper after past paper!

How have you covered enough content to do a full A level in year 12?

Sociology she can absolutely turn around if she learns everything. I went from an E to an A 30 years ago. It is a knowledge based subject. Biology will be possible too if she can really focus on learning. I think English lit is a bit harder and maybe where to focus. Obviously her individual strengths are key..

Not necessarily true. My subject uses a past paper and those grade boundaries.

Is it one of those schools where the teachers aggressively under-score the mocks because they think the shock will motivate the kids? I have known some pretty egregious examples of that happening.

If she genuinely just bombed them, the best thing you can do is help her pick herself up and get on with working towards a better experience in the real thing. It sounds like you've got a good understanding of where she fell down, so you have time to get her the right support to target her weaknesses. I wouldn't go overboard with tutoring etc however. She needs to stay calm and keep things in perspective. Too many kids are burning out and collapsing because they're being force-fed the idea that the exams are everything and their lives won't be worth living if they fail. I know two who managed to get the top grades, got into Oxbridge and have rusticated during their first year because they just can't take any more pressure.

Her year 12 mocks are pretty meaningless. They wouldn't have been real past exams and so there would not have been any grade boundaries to give her a meaningful grade.

When you say "gone from an A to a U", how was that A determined?

I’d definitely be speaking to the teachers. Something has gone wrong here. I assume she got As/Bs in her mocks in year 12, so she must have had better exam technique then.

I would also suggest tutoring.