Anyone else suffering complete A-level results panic?

[CrikeyDozes]

My DD gets results tomorrow and is so stressed about it. She’s tearful, shaky and completely on edge. It’s been like this on and off all summer and is so bad today. In turn I am so anxious about the impact of bad results on her mental health that I now feel sick to my stomach and really edgy.

How do we justify an education system that puts so much pressure on kids to perform over a few exam days, takes no account of school performance outside of exams, and leaves results until a month before unis start so kids have no certainty about where they are going until only a few weeks before they leave home? Other countries don’t have such crunch exams and late results and I see absolutely no redeeming features to justify why we do.

Are others equally stressed out or are we just not handling this well?

Mine gets hers tomorrow. She's pretty calm today and has plans for later. To say she was anxious during them is a massive understatement but she got there and I supported as best I could. All the best for tomorrow - I think the anticipation is much worse than actual facts. Plus it seems a while now since they finished, so it's probably not so easy to remember how she felt at the time, ie which parts went well etc.

It’s awful and very counterproductive to good mental health and self-esteem for young people.
Some schools have no idea of the damage they are doing to some students by fuelling their anxieties. My DD’s school was only interested in the Oxbridge/medicine students at 6th form and really did my DD a disservice.
I hope it goes well. Do update when you can.

Oh your poor DD.
Our DD is a bit stressed but her lovely BF has taken her out for the day to do one of her favourite things and we have a nice chilled evening planned.
She did an additional A level on her own in 1 year to get onto her chosen course so has had no feedback about what she might get which isn't helping

Best of luck to all the DC getting results tomorrow

Not in the UK and even though results are given out earlier there is only a month between finding out which university course you got a place on and term starting. Also no kind of guarentee of university accomodation for first years and many places all accomodation is taken before the new students get their places. Its stressful i agree

My DD got her results last year, better than predicted and was able to target her application better.
She also switched her degree subject and her main ambition, as of now, is EDUCATION REFORM! The system here is unnecessarily stressful, limiting and discriminatory.

Good for your daughter @mondaytosunday. I hope she secures reform!

Sorry others are suffering too buyer nice to hear of distractions succeeding.

A lot of my family work in education and defend our system saying exams are the best way to reduce bias, level the playing field and increase social mobility. I’d like to see the evidence. We have had this system for years and have terrible social mobility, the countries with best social mobility don’t tend have remotely similar systems to ours. And what about the costs to mental health and freedom to learn for joy rather than being forced to focus on learning for exam curricula and marking systems?

I don't think being nervous the day before receiving results means that students should never have to take exams which assess what they've learned and can do.

No, not everything will be applied under that sort of pressure, and the system isn't perfect, but most people do want qualifications to demonstrate their attainment on top of the 'joy' of learning.

DD had terrible MH issues post COVID and sixth form was a total nightmare until about Feb half term where she started to feel substantially better. However, not enough time left at that point to get back on track, so we are expecting a pretty dismal set of results. She's not planning on uni anyway and has set the bar for "anything above 3 Us". She's very nervous and planning on heading to the pub as soon as it opens... Thankfully no uni stuff to navigate, she's not going.

OP, I am sorry your Dd is in such a state of nerves and stress.

Honestly, I think our job as parents is to bolster confidence and set a context.

Yes, taking an exam is stressful but it’s just a way to show what they have learned, absorbed and understood.

A levels are a stepping stone. Didn’t do as well as hoped? Re-takes! Apply again next year having gained extra experiences and maturity in a gap year, working. Or have a look at Clearing. This needs to be part of our DC’s context.

A generation or two ago only a very small % went to Uni, so many more young people benefit from higher education: surely that counts as social mobility!

I hope your Dd gets the results she hopes for tomorrow, come what may, and if she is disappointed finds a route forwards.

Stress re exam results is normal - we all survived it. Without stress, we'd achieve nothing in life.
For a parent to talk about "panic" seems excessive - surely it is up to the parent to model calm and pragmatism, regardless of the final results?

It's always been massively stressful. I remember being awake at 4am frantically refreshing UCAS knowing that it wouldn't be updated for hours, just in case.

Honestly, encourage her to go and do something to distract herself as far as possible - preferably something where you have to concentrate on what you are doing and be in the moment, not something mindless where you can be daydreaming at the same time. The wait will be over in a few hours, and whatever happens she will be ok.

The majority of qualifications are the result of exams of one type or another. It has always been the case that people take exams to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding and the results grade whether or not they have that and to what degree.

Most people will be nervous waiting for results; that’s normal. I don’t think it is to be so distressed though.

Even if the results are not what was hoped for, there are options.

When dinosaurs roamed the land, we stood outside the head teacher’s office and were summoned one by one to the inner sanctum to hear the results. The grades and numbers were published in the local paper too.

@QueenOfTheNihilist said "A generation or two ago only a very small % went to Uni, so many more young people benefit from higher education: surely that counts as social mobility! "
AFAIK when I went to Uni (early 1970s) only 3% of school leavers went. However there were no tuition fees and the student got means tested based cost of living grants, and also having a degree meant no problem getting a job.
Many jobs that now ask for a degree didn't require one then.

Yes, and I’m a teacher. I care a lot about my students’ results!

Sorry your DD is so worried. Mine has not been too bad, is currently out with her boyfriend, been on 2 holidays this summer, about to go on a third, some punting work, going out with friends, baked us all a cake last night.

My son who is slightly younger and autistic has struggled massively with the UK secondary system, primary was fine and caring, not helped by my cancer and lockdowns. I hope you DD feels better tomorrow and gets what she needs. I find food helps distract mine, like takeaway pizza, Toby carvery and staying busy helps. I would also reassure her that whatever happens it will be OK.

Thanks all. I grew up in the States and the systems couldn’t be more different so this is alien to me. Of course u am trying to help my child not panic but she has a really hard time with performing in exams so it’s difficult.

In the US there is nothing like GCSEs or A-levels and most subject level assessment is by teachers on an ongoing basis through short classroom based tests. Universities are also less exam oriented. To be honest I mush prefer the US system including the fact kids don’t have to specialise so young. The costs of US universities is a different matter.

DS is looking a bit wan and has a headache. I think it possibly is stress about tomorrow.

i have said to him that tomorrow is not a big deal. He’ll get his results and if he does well enough and still wants to, he’ll be off to Uni but that there are many many other options we can look at if he needs/wants to. Nothing more either of us can do. Fingers crossed for them all!

My DS is due results tomorrow. He has gone for a beer with his mates. Trying to stay positive at home, but with a uni place on offer and no plan B I'm getting a bit twitchy too.

Have a look at the Education board. There are lots of us wobbling over there.

Dd gets hers tomorrow. She had glandular fever in spring and missed alot of school, and still isn't quite right now. A high academic achiever all her life, she feels she has done badly as a result. I don't mind what she gets-it's not the be all and end all to me. Or her Dad. But I know she will be very unhappy if she underachieves in her own eyes and her self esteem will be shot. There is no reasoning with her-she just doesn't cope with (self perceived) failure well.
She wouldn't even tell me what she got for her GCSE's (1 a star, 4 A's, the rest b's in old money), (I had to prize it out of her on results day)as she felt she should have done better. Ridiculous reaction to really great results. So god knows how she will be to live with tomorrow if it goes how I fear it will.

But for every student that doesn’t like exams there are some that do. My DS would do terribly in teacher assessments - he has adhd and for some reason performs at a different level in an exam than he ever does at a class test and often exceeds the expectations of teachers who are often negative about him. Exams are at least objective - teachers assessments would worry me more.

It’s pretty clear that exams are the worst system apart from all the other ones. They are the only thing students can’t game, as we saw in the covid years when teachers did a level assessments (these were wildly high and some students at university now are really struggling as a result). Medical students for example have to demonstrate on the day, comprehensive knowledge of a topic and we need them to pass every exam (obv). The ones who didn’t do a levels during covid are struggling now as they are out of practice.

I'm sorry for your dd’s anxiety though, and hope she does well

Hope she got what she wanted..?