A’Level disasters 😔😣

[OverTheRainbow88]

Any other schools been majorly hit?

I can’t understand why the awarded grades are so much lower than mock grades. Surely no schools overinflated their mock grades (given via an actual mock exam), as part of the purpose of taking mocks is to show the kids how much more work they have to do if they want to get the top grades! So are they suggesting that schools have lied about their mock exam results or are they saying ‘this kid got an A in a mock exam, held in exam conditions 6 months before the end of the course...oh we’ll mark them down to a C for the hell of it!’ I know when I was at sixth form, 20 years ago now, my cohort did atrociously on our mock exams but all significantly improved by the time of our actual A level results.

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

I would say either:

• This is an exceptional student in a school which has historically had less good results. Appeal appeal appeal!

Or:

• The prediction was too high.

DD downgraded from ABC (realistic grades, AB high D, mocks) to CCD. Everyone downgraded. All her friends also downgraded for everything. Missed both firm and insurance. School appealing. All local comps here suffered the same fate. I'm wondering if the private schools suffered the similar outcome or not?

@CoRhona

I also have a Year 11 DC so all this to go through again next week!

I think I'm going to suggest to DC1 (Year 13) that on his CV he puts 'School submitted grades - BBB; Awarded grades due to Coronavirus - BBC' to show there was a difference.

I was just saying exactly the same to DD, add an extra column to her CV. It would be great if that became the norm for this year's cohort.

Surely no schools overinflated their mock grades (given via an actual mock exam), as part of the purpose of taking mocks is to show the kids how much more work they have to do if they want to get the top grades!

Some schools take the opposite approach to encourage less confident students. Some schools create their own mocks and mark schemes. Some teachers inadvertently mark too generously.

There’s so much inconsistency that mock results should not be used as substitutes. That’s not what they were designed for.

Just some caution here, all those saying my child's predictions were ... are these the predictions they were given for UCAS last September? They might not actually be the grades estimated in June by their teachers. We generally give positive UCAS grades but then with further work and mock exams submitted CAGs that were lower then UCAS preditions for one or two students who hadn't improved as much I we had hoped. You can ask to see their CAGs that were submitted by the school. I have seen some weird results, some up, some down. The ranking has been maintained though.

I can't believe anyone is defending this system. Students are losing university places based on factors other than their own ability/performance. This shouldn't be allowed. Exams should never have been cancelled in the first place but, having been cancelled, the government owed it to students to ensure their grades were calculated purely on the basis of evidence relating to their own performance (mock exams, teachers' predicted grades etc.) rather than other irrelevant factors such as past school performance.

For those saying the system is 'fair' at a national level, this doesn't matter. It is the individuals who will carry the consequences of this (lost university places, AAA student having BBC on their CV) and so it has to be 'fair' at an individual level as well. The government has had months to come up with something - it could have organised open-book exams sat remotely (as many universities have done) or asked students to submit further coursework to make up their grade. Anything would have been better than this fiasco.

@HipTightOnions

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

I would say either:

• This is an exceptional student in a school which has historically had less good results. Appeal appeal appeal!

Or:

• The prediction was too high.

She had exactly those results in her mocks and has never had a C ever (and straight A GCSE's). She's also in a decent school. The school staff are baffled as there's no logic.

We'll appeal, but she's lost her first choice uni place already. Over-subscribed course so they won't wait for appeal.

@mushroom3

DD downgraded from ABC (realistic grades, AB high D, mocks) to CCD. Everyone downgraded. All her friends also downgraded for everything. Missed both firm and insurance. School appealing. All local comps here suffered the same fate. I'm wondering if the private schools suffered the similar outcome or not?

They have.

I have taught my children A levels are the currency to do the degree you want. They aren't everything but this year is so different and I really feel for all the students who are disappointed.

My dd was predicted BBC and that is what she has been given. She may be a rarity reading this. A lot of her friends are extremely gutted by their results.

HAS ANYONE'S CHILD got what they were predicted??

Between DD1 and DD2's two friendship groups there appears to be 2 with their predicted grades.

And randomly one lad who was predicted CCC based on CCC mocks who got BCC

HAS ANYONE'S CHILD got what they were predicted??

75% of grades at my school were exactly what the teachers submitted.

These are not the same as their school targets or UCAS predictions, which were “aspirational”.

I remember ages ago reading that if your child’s grade was improved on appeal another child’s grade would go down to keep it in line with the class ranking.

Yes this is what they're currently reporting will happen. Which would be fucking diabolical!

Let's see if it's confirmed officially.

Erm my actual A level reselts were worse than my predicted grades.

Has anyone actually considered that teachers (even if it is totally subconscious) are probably too generous with the predicted grades, just by seeing the kids every few days, the teachers probably subconsciously favour them, and do are generous with the predicted grades (they can't help it, it's human nature)

It’s not unknown for schools to inadvertently set a mock paper already seen by the students. Both mine had this happen,

Just some caution here, all those saying my child's predictions were ... are these the predictions they were given for UCAS last September? They might not actually be the grades estimated in June by their teachers. We generally give positive UCAS grades but then with further work and mock exams submitted CAGs that were lower then UCAS preditions for one or two students who hadn't improved as much I we had hoped. You can ask to see their CAGs that were submitted by the school. I have seen some weird results, some up, some down. The ranking has been maintained though.

Yes to this!!!!

Our head of 6th always puts pressure on us as teachers to increase our predicted grades for UCAS as students and some parents beg him to, even if we as their class teacher say no, they often get changed anyway to a higher grade. Which often results in disappointed students come uni acceptance day!

'School submitted grades - BBB; Awarded grades due to Coronavirus - BBC'

The only grades that are going to count are the awarded ones, due to the fact that predicted grades are not uniformly predicted and various factors come into it. Really no point in adding in another line on a CV (which people hate reading anyway).

School here told the pupils, if they asked, what they had submitted for them. So they're not working on guesses here.

I think the school were expecting this after the Scottish saga.

Erm my actual A level reselts were worse than my predicted grades.

UCAS predicted grades won’t have had the same rigour applied to them.

She had exactly those results in her mocks and has never had a C ever (and straight A GCSE's). She's also in a decent school. The school staff are baffled as there's no logic.

Gosh that’s tough. Media are reporting that universities will be flexible but clearly not true everywhere.

You could ask the school where they placed her in the ranking?

Personally, I think the best solution overt would have been to have no lockdown.

@SweetPetrichor

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.

This.

Everyone will know this is year grades weren’t based on actual performance. Everyone gets a 2:1 at Uni if not a First
I’d be more focused on a lack of jobs in three years or that our kids need to be entrepreneurial, rather than how bad a “C” looks.