A’Level disasters 😔😣

[OverTheRainbow88]

Any other schools been majorly hit?

Fools I think I might be local to you, as that is what Ds's headteacher (grammar) has said to the local paper. I wonder what he will have to say next week when Ds gets his GCSEs.

I agree @Xenia. Exams should never have been cancelled. Schools probably did need to close in March but absolutely every effort must be made now to keep them open and for exams to go ahead. This nonsense cannot be permitted for any more years.

@Coldilox

My niece was at a private school and had two subjects downgraded. She has missed out on both first and second choice universities

Has she called the Universities to check, or just gone off the grades?

As others have said many Unis are being very flexible on the grades, as they want to reassurance that students will start in the Autumn.

Heartbreaking for all these kids. Downgraded when they never had a chance to take the exams and after an entire school career. What a waste.

It seems that they have assumed that everyone has given inflated grades and then downgraded everyone as a result. I know some schools spent a lot of time looking at predictions, compared to predictions in previous years and percentage changes to actual results. Identifying trends across different grade boundaries and adjusted their preductions to make results as accurate as possible.

Re the rank ordering and appeals - just saw this on Twitter....

I’m trying to find the document it’s from.

My DS was predicted ABC, he's been given BCE. His university place has gone, lots of frantic phone calls at the moment.
He was at a reasonably well known fee paying school, so no postcode lottery here.

@OverTheRainbow88

We really weren’t overly optimistic in our grading. If a student was a genuine borderline between a D/E grade for example, we did give the D but wouldn’t have given a C. We’ve had students go from Ds - Us. Only one student was predicted an A in our whole A level over 3 classes and got a C.

See that's what's scary and makes you question an algorithm

So you're saying the highest grade in you a level group was a C?

Statistically that doesn't make sense.

You may have previous students generally not being high acheiving as a whole but that doesn't mean no one will ever achieve out of norm.

@Campervan69

Utter bollocks here. Predicted A*AA, got AAB in mocks, which the teachers have now told him is what they submitted - downgraded to BBB. Presume my son's place is gone at the university he wanted to go to. The course is full. So even if he appeals he has lost out.

His is a state Grammar School and most of his friends have been downgraded.

Can't you use the mock grades if these are higher?

@SmileEachDay - that is disgraceful!

@HipTightOnions

Does anyone know the rationale behind the down grading?

• Schools provided to Ofqual (i) ranking within subject and (ii) predicted grades. We always knew the ranking was key because grades would be subject to moderation.
• Teachers everywhere tended to over-predict grades. This is natural - we are optimistic and want the best for our students.
• Some schools (like mine) looked at the grades we had predicted (much better than previous years’ results!) and realised (a) sadly, they were just not realistic and (b) they’d never get through Ofqual’s moderation process. So we revised them downwards.
• Other schools submitted their higher grades.
• Overall schools reported a 12% improvement in grades this year, which is unheard of.
• Ofqual’s algorithm did what it was always intended to do, and reduced the “inflated” grades based on data it holds about schools’ and pupils’ past performance. (For example, it would recognise if a school had an exceptionally high-performing A level cohort from its earlier GCSE results.)
• It turned out that the schools predicting the biggest increases tended to be schools with lower prior results. The reasons for this have not really been explored.
• The media spun this as sinister algorithms “targeting” disadvantaged children in a “postcode lottery”.
• It is true that an exceptional student in a school with historically lower results might lose out. That’s also true for a school which has genuinely improved significantly in the last year.
• That’s why in England there will now be an appeal process.
• Simply abandoning Ofqual’s moderation would disadvantage children in schools like mine that reined in our predictions before submitting them.

I appreciate that this is what is supposed to have happened.

However, it really doesn't seem to be what has happened in practice. What some have described in practice is very bizarre - e.g. grades not being in line with school's ranking - but also some systematic institution-wide downgrading that brings some institutions' overall results way below historic averages.

It seems to have been a bit like the e.g. art sampling that happens - where if the sampled students' work is downgraded, the whole cohort is downgraded to match. As if e.g. there was a trigger that if the downgrading in a particular subject was at a particular level, it triggered a downgrade across the entire institution, bringing the results down well below historical averages. Most peculiar.

My subject has had 90% results downgraded. All our students had already banked 40% final grade through coursework before lockdown and yet none of that was taken into account by the algorithm the government used was it?? Our teacher judgement grades took it into account though, along with their mock exam grades etc. I am beyond incensed and upset at what has been taken from some of the hardest working students I have worked with in 10 years. A*s downgraded to Bs when students got full marks in their coursework and strong mock exam results. Just cannot make head nor tail of it at all. Lots of tears today- not just from the students...

The term “downgrading” is misleading and emotive.

It assumes that the teachers’ predictions are somehow the “true” grade which has been arbitrarily changed by a heartless algorithm.

Teachers’ predictions are, for lots of good reasons, very optimistic. They would have resulted in a massive and unrealistic grade inflation this year.

From here - www.google.co.uk/amp/s/feweek.co.uk/2020/04/03/coronavirus-an-explainer-on-how-gcse-and-a-level-grades-will-be-awarded-this-summer/amp/

From April but I’ve read it several times in the last few weeks

We also have 2 students downgraded to lower than their mock grades. The entire system seems to be totally senseless.

Yes awful. My son has been downgraded and is devastated.

@HipTightOnions

and once again a postcode lottery.

It absolutely is not.

At my school some departments had lots of “downgraded” results and others had virtually none. We all have the same postcode! It’s all about how optimistic teachers’ estimates were.

Or they think people in poorer areas will be rubbish at English but good at computing? At least Scotland learned from their mistakes.

It seems that they have assumed that everyone has given inflated grades and then downgraded everyone as a result

Well no, not everyone has been downgraded so your theory isn't correct at all. The majority of students have not been downgraded.

Interesting can’t, I hadn’t heard about these cases.

In my school there was huge variation in different departments’ CAGs and the moderation worked exactly as expected - “generous” departments have seen lots of “downgrades” and stricter ones have seen hardly any change to their results.

Don't present it as all doom and gloom for the children affected. This isn't the end of their chances. They can resit and boost their qualifications to get where they intended to be, and once they have a degree, nobody is going to care what their school grades were.
I messed up and didn't finish university until I was 27 but for all the flaff and stress, it's not made one bit of difference in the long run. I have a good job, a good career, and I wish I hadn't been so stressed back then. Things will come right.

@HipTightOnions

The term “downgrading” is misleading and emotive.

It assumes that the teachers’ predictions are somehow the “true” grade which has been arbitrarily changed by a heartless algorithm.

Teachers’ predictions are, for lots of good reasons, very optimistic. They would have resulted in a massive and unrealistic grade inflation this year.

Downgraded is absolutely the accurate term for a lot of the students

What else would you call going from predicted AAA to BBC?

@Ickabog First choice have said no, she was still trying to get through to second choice last I heard but The course isn’t on the list of ones with vacancies

@SmileEachDay

I’m absolutely disgusted that this has been allowed. If the mental heath of a lot of these children has not already been affected they sure as hell have destroyed it now

I now wait for them to destroy my child when the GCSE results are given

I really, really hope this is online hyperbole and not how you present things to your child.

I really, really hope you aren't under the impression this is in any way helpful.

[quote Coldilox]@Ickabog First choice have said no, she was still trying to get through to second choice last I heard but The course isn’t on the list of ones with vacancies[/quote]
I'm really sorry to hear that.

Hopefully she will be able to get through to her second choice, and they're able to help.

Mixed bag with friends's children -one lad predicted A* x3 and got them and got his place to do law.
One lad predicted AAB got CCD -but he did not do well in his mocks -got BBC in mocks -but others assessments were higher. So he has not got on the Gateway course to do Vet Med. The entry was CCC and they aren't moving so -he has to go back and redo. He is mightily upset as since his mock he has worked 24/7 with experienced tutors to up his grades.