Can I ask your opinions on my daughters mock results please

[Birdbox181]

She's in year 11. Wants to do a levels. As a side note, her Geography mock results were poor as the teacher hadn't covered the topics in the exam yet. Her minimum grades as all 7. This is based on year 6 Sats which her primary school did a great job of prepping them for, she hasn't achieved straight 7s since.

Just after some general opinions/thoughts please.

I would be getting some extra revision sessions in with school and of course at home. They do them at my DDs school most days.

Definitely extra revision sessions, printing off past exam papers to do at home, and possibly a tutor if you can afford one?

Looks like shes capable but appears to have not revised at all for her mocks? Are there any words linked to the report that gives this as the reason?

I don't think it's unusual to do badly in mocks but it's an awful wake up call to only have a few months to get down to it on so many subjects.

I think I'd be looking for tutors at this stage as it could go either way depending on her reaction. Some teenagers rise and others double down. Even those that rise might not know how to cover everything they need to.

drop Spanish focus on getting everything else higher?

You usually need 6 grade A/B 8/9 Inc maths and English. Look at other courses besides A levels at your local college. Revision helps but concentrate on good results rather than spread too thinly.

How much effort does she put in? Does she pay attention in school and do her homework? Did she revise for the mocks?

Get her to come up with a Plan B if she can’t do A levels. She needs one plus it might help focus her mind on what’s at stake.

If she really throws herself into it she can improve those grades.

does she know where she needs to improve?

Bribe her , £100 for every grade 7 she gets. Or whatever.

I expect my students to achieve 2-3 grades below their summer result in the mocks so her results are not alarming to me. When it comes to the mocks, students don’t revise in the same way and are not fully confident in exam technique so often run out of time or fail to hit higher aspects of the mark scheme. What do they calculate their minimum grade column from? Your daughters cohort will not have sat their SATs in Y6 so this is something to take into consideration. Her predicted grades are what she needs to work towards.

When it comes to Geography, why did they set questions the students hadn’t covered yet? That is very odd. We decide as a department what the paper will be and will make sure the students are prepared so we don’t set them up to fail. Maybe staffing issues?

Anyway, I wouldn’t be concerned at this point. It is often a reality check for lots of them as they realise how much revision they have to do compared to what they thought would be enough.

Edited to add about Spanish - did she sit the exam?

I'd be very surprised if anywhere was asking for 8/9s for A level. Sixth forms near me usually ask for 5 x 6s and above and often 7s or above in the ones you want to do for A level. In 'old money' a 7 is supposed to be an A, an 8 is an A star, and a 9 is a new top grade.

That said OP, your DD does seem to be underperforming vs her predicted grades in a number of subjects, so that warrants a further discussion with the school. It may be that everyone got low grades and some teachers were using them as a 'wake up call', but it may be that there's a bigger problem. You want to try and get the Maths up to a secure 5 if you, can consider not entering her for Spanish if she's not likely to pass it (as all grades achieved have to be declared later).

Did she take the Spanish exam? She will struggle with A levels unless she can improve them overall. Does she have a backup plan?

Thankyou for all the replies.

Parents evening is next week so I'll get some more in put then.

To answer some questions, she did the bare minimum in revision but they have more mocks on March and she's already started studying for those.. she's starting maths and science intervention next week.

She hates Spanish. We've told her not to study for it. I don't see the point when she needs to get her grades up in the core subjects.

She does have a back up of business T levels.

Once the syllabus is finished and they start learning exam technique then grades can rise if exam technique is the issue.

It’s good news that she’s treating yeh next set of mocks more seriously. Hopefully she will see her studying pay off with high grades.

Did she revise for mocks? I didn't bother and my results reflected that. I did absolutely fine in the final exams though as I revised then. Regardless of results, maybe she needs some extra help in maths.

Thankyou.

I'm trying not to pass my stress about it on to her as she's a very laid back person and I'd much rather her be like that than the anxious mess I was.

I do think she's realised that she needs to knuckle down and I don't think her grades are terrible but she definitely has room for improvement.

She did a bit but really no where near what's needed for the real ones.

Ignore predicted grades based on SATS. Particularly is the SATS result may have been artificially high due to "over prepping". Has she ever been on target for those grades? If not, then don't compare her actual grades to computer generated ones.

What A Levels is she interested in? Looks like she would be fine to do English/Humanities/Business studies type choices. Although she might need to look at a sixth form with lower entry criteria.

If she did minimal revision then I wouldn't be too concerned. My son got his Physics from a 4 to an 8 because he hadn't revised. I am not sure what they expect in gcse terms but for A levels we were told we could expect a 1 to 1.5 grade increase between mocks and A levels so I suspect for gcses it could be higher.

I think little and often revision from here on in will help. Also quite often they finish the syllabus before Easter so from then on its all revision.

There is no "usually" about sixth form entry criteria.

For example if the OP's DC wanted to study English Lang, English Lit and Business at my local sixth form they want 5 Grade 5s, with 5s in the A Level subjects chosen and a 4 in Maths. Which seems very achievable based on the mocks

Not necessarily. At my kids school you need 6 passes grades 9-4, and either a 6 or 7 or above in your chosen subject (ie if you want to study history you need to have achieved a grade 6).

OP I would maybe look into a tutor (do the school not offer extra revision sessions before or after school?) but also look into local colleges as a back up. She may end up preferring to do a vocational course there anyway.

The 6th form is attached to her school. She will need 5s in core subjects and 6s in the subjects she wants to take (unless it's a new subject).

Maths, Science and MFL - is she doing Foundation (capped at a 5) or Higher tier?

If she needs 5s but not 6s then Foundation may be better, more straightforward exams, and less content to revise.

What does the ‘minimum grade’ column signify?

That's not accurate for most 6th forms. Five passes at 9-4 with at least a 6 in the subjects you want to study is pretty standard for A level entry. A grade 8 is equivalent to A and a 9 is above an A. Maybe 6th form is highly selective where you are but that certainly isn't the norm.

Ignore the grades generated from y6 SATs. I don't think it is helpful for the school to share those anyway.