A Level U turn

[Jargo]

Holy shit, now based on teacher predictions.

@Jargo

Ah, ok, so basically it's going to be a very exceptional year.

Unis are going to be absolutely stuffed - I can't see how they will be able to support a higher volume of students given the pandemic either.

Easy higher past mark in the first year - you will know how many from Year 1 are going into Year 2 etc.

That's what happens in France

Thanks for the explanations re university caps.

I agree HipTightOnions. What's there to lose by predicting all your students 3 As? So they get moderated. But if they were going to get DDD anyway then it's a big win if they get BBB. Now they're all going to be clutching 3 As in their hot hands and be demanding Russell Group places and some low-tariff institutions will be staring at empty seats

Do you really think teachers would do this?? A huge amount of work and internal moderation was put in precisely to ensure that the CAGs were realistic. I really don't think there are going to be many pupils out there with unearned CAG grades. There will now be a very few who got randomly high algorithm grades who have benefited unfairly but I can't get too worked up about that.

@AuntyPasta

’Not every kid will be planning to go to university. So it shouldn't effect uni places.’

If someone’s grades cost them an offer from Oxford or Cambridge or a place on a veterinary medicine or medical course then it’s likely to be gone for good. Not all universities or all degrees are equal. Even if people can still get into the university of their choice they may miss out on their choice of course or vice versa.

It will be interesting to see if anyone has the resilience to pursue this legally. Technically if they now officially meet the grade offer, even if belatedly, the uni may be obliged to honour the place. Possibly not for 2020 though.

I’m so sorry for your DD Aragog. It’s completely unfair. I hope she’s got a place somewhere.

My niece now has the grades she needs (ABB instead of BBD) for her first choice of uni, but they can’t give her a place as they are full. This is a massive clusterfuck

@HipTightOnions

The CAGs need to be backed up with evidence..not just a grade ALLocation they does not reflect their ability.

They don’t though, SandyY2K. That’s what some of us are so upset about.

I know it hasn't been easy for you teachers. I have 3 teachers in my family and they talked about the individual profiles they did on students to justify the grades.

I totally agree that having to rank them was hard...in our case I believe from parent's evenings, that my DD was ranked highly in her A*s subject and wasn't downgraded.

As a pp said...ranking students..will mean of those in a certain category...teachers will choose the ones they like to be in a higher category...thus prejudices and bias come in and certain students (class clowns...black children etc) will be disadvantaged.

Such a difficult year... but I'm glad the decision has reversed.

She has thank you.
She is going to her insurance - ironically higher ranked and needed higher entry grades initially. But they changed her offer to unconditional based on 'strong supporting statement and references, plus strong and varied relevant work experiences' just before lockdown. So she fell lucky. So actually dd is fine and will get a boost of some grades, just not necessarily the ones she should have got if she'd done the real thing and been able to count her NEAs (which were scoring very highly.)

Sadly some of her friends are in much worse positions so I hope today's U turn helps them out.

They had to rank them but if a class is A+ ,A , A, B, B, B/C, C, C/D what’s to stop them being listed as A++, A+, A, A, A, A/B, B, B/C?*

Well you’d have to distinguish between the 2 As.

Apart from that, while I don’t know the precise format for the ranking, technically there’s nothing to prevent it. One would hope teachers’ integrity would prevent it though.

@Coldilox Did they offer her a place for 2021? And if not, would she risk taking a gap year and applying this Autumn with her new grades?

They will have taken students from clearing so may be full.

Some unis seem to have closed clearing late this afternoon, presumably to re-evaluate what places they have left in order to offer what's left to original offer holders who were rejected last week. I'm sure some uni's will be able to re-jig the courses to accept a few more, even if officially full, by reducing the numbers on other courses with unused places, i.e. dual award degrees, natural sciences, etc and also those with lots of optional modules, all where there is "wriggle room".

@Coldilox have they said this? It is a legal obligation (she says, really glad she won't be taking first year practicals this year which will either be 20 repeats or non socially distanced).

@KingscoteStaff She doesn’t want a gap year. She can’t travel, not all that easy to get a job this year. She got a place in clearing at a decent uni but is so gutted to have missed out on where she wanted to go.

It will be interesting to see if anyone has the resilience to pursue this legally. Technically if they now officially meet the grade offer, even if belatedly, the uni may be obliged to honour the place. Possibly not for 2020 though.

They aren't obliged to offer a place in normal years if students results change following a remark (if they are full) so I don't think this will be any different. They couldn't anticipate that this would happen and may have have taken extra students on via clearing .They may offer a place for next year though.

@worstofbothworlds they have said they can’t offer her a place this year

Unis are going to be absolutely stuffed

It's excellent news for universities, with a significant drop in overseas students, and some wishing to postpone starting until things are more 'normal', they need this boost. Of course it will be an administrative nightmare, and I do feel for those who missed out on uni places and now, at the competitive unis for the competitive courses don't have a place- but on the whole spaces will still be higher than demand, just some compromises to be had.

@Coldilox

My niece now has the grades she needs (ABB instead of BBD) for her first choice of uni, but they can’t give her a place as they are full. This is a massive clusterfuck

Unis always offer more places than they have available, so this would have happened if the teacher grades had been awarded last week anyway. Some unis give twice as many offers as places to account for applicants who don't achieve their predicted grades or who change their mind, take a gap year, go through clearing instead, etc etc.

There'd have been howls of protest last week just the same if everyone had got their grades, but still rejected by their chosen Uni which would have happened if they didn't have enough places - maybe they'd have then selected via personal statement evaluation etc?

[quote worstofbothworlds]@Coldilox have they said this? It is a legal obligation (she says, really glad she won't be taking first year practicals this year which will either be 20 repeats or non socially distanced).[/quote]
It isn't a legal obligation if she didn't have the results she needed on results day.

*Yes but the new bod would be an incompetent shit who has not - yet - fucked up,

as compared to an incompetent shit who has just fucked up serially*

At least the present incumbent might be on course to get a few things right. Surely no-one can fuck up this comprehensively for long? (Ian Duncan Smith and Chris Grayling are outliers when it comes to fucking up).

It's the right decision imo, but several days too late, like many government decisions seem to be.

There'd have been howls of protest last week just the same if everyone had got their grades, but still rejected by their chosen Uni which would have happened if they didn't have enough places - maybe they'd have then selected via personal statement evaluation etc?

They would have taken them on results day and not taken on students via clearing.

What really angers me is that poorer students were disadvantaged by the algorithm and many will still lose out. You could have a privately educated student and a student from a secondary in a poor area who now have the same grades but the privately educated student gets a place and the secondary student is told there is no space for them.

What’s left in clearing today isn’t going to be any substitute for what a lot of students we’re aiming for. It not like in my day when there were no tuition fees and student loans were repayable. Paying out £9,250 a year plus rent plus living expenses is a huge commitment for a course you don’t really want.

I knew everyone would moan whatever happened - typical!

@IncidentsandAccidents can you explain further? The algorithm was applied across the board - some very elitist private schools have not faired well seemingly.

HipTightOnions

Human nature. Even the best and most professional teachers aren't immune from human nature. Any of us would struggle in that situation.

chargeorge

You don't have a child doing A Levels or GCSEs do you?