To ask why mocks weren’t standardised this year

[Howcanidothis3]

Just that really why did students not all do the same papers at the same time this year

Because they hasn’t all covered the same topics in the same order.
Because students had had vastly different learning experiences during the lockdown and schools are still playing catch up.
Because Gavin was insisting exams would take place next year.

But most of all because that would have required foresight and planning from the DfE.

Slightly unrelated but surely it would also make sense every year

Who would have written them? Many are new syllabuses with only 1 past paper and the exemplar. Students would have been able to re use them as publically available beforehand. You would have needed an unreleased paper written by exam boards, plus markers plus whole standardisation process, leading to examiner reports. So basically, gcses early.

All exa boards always write up back up papers they could have used all or part of the back up paper from 2020 that was never used

@Howcanidothis3

Slightly unrelated but surely it would also make sense every year

That’s just effectively GCSEs in the autumn then.

What’s your plan for marking them? Teachers or externally? How will you make sure they’re standardised across the country?

The thing is, there’s been a global pandemic on...

People have been self isolating
Not everyone does the same topics in the same order
Who is writing them? How does it become a level playing field if it’s a paper already out there?

No I mean every year as a just in case options marked by teachers using the same process but using the same papers at the same point in the year

Because that decision would have had to be made last summer to be in any way viable. You just can't standardise a completely fragmented system without a load of notice.

Not all schools do mocks in the autumn
There’s a pandemic
Teachers need to teach the content before it can be assessed

I don’t mean it would be perfect but it would have been helpful and made predicted grades far more easy

But schools do t all do mocks at the same time. School a does in November, b in December, c in February. Who gets the best results?

@Howcanidothis3

No I mean every year as a just in case options marked by teachers using the same process but using the same papers at the same point in the year

Why would you want to impose that on schools? Seriously, what’s the benefit supposed to be in a normal year?

@ElfHatOnPicture

But schools do t all do mocks at the same time. School a does in November, b in December, c in February. Who gets the best results?

That’s my point why didn’t the DFE tell schools to all do mocks at a certain point and supply one paper for all students to do instead of it varying from school to school

DfE don't have anything to do with the papers though, that's exam boards

So in your system, would all schools do the same boards and the same GCSEs (some schools use the IGCSE and some mix and match) and the same tiers and teach the topics in the exact same order? What would you do.about the problem that some students will have started in year 9 and that different amounts/topics will have been covered in year 10 even if that's not the case?

And who do you propose would mark them? If internally, where would grade boundaries come from?

Wales are already doing this btw

because some schools teach the content in a totally different order to others so they may well not have covered the units or, perhaps more importantly, the skills. It would effectively be the same massive undertaking as the summer exams just 6 months earlier. Schools vary massively in their demographic and mocks serve different purposes. Some years I set a hard paper as my kids need a kick up the bum. Other years I choose easier questions to give them a bit of confidence, or mark harshly / generously, or tweak the grade boundaries a bit - its called professional judgement.

I’m not saying they should be treated as GCSEs I just think is they were standardised and at the same time it would make CAGs far better

Brilliant if you can get rid of competition of exam boards. Until then...

I can see where you’re coming from and why that seems like a good idea, but sadly in practice it isn’t practical and wouldn’t work.

Wales have how many Y11s?
And haven't reformed their GCSEs, so retired/ex-teachers could be drafted in to assist?

Some schools run open-book mocks, some know which topics will be on the papers, some have complete exam conditions...

My sons school did mocks last year.
It didn’t help as a lot of the content hadn’t been covered due to the cv Hokey Cokey.
If those are used as predicted grades many would be basically failing, including students predicted to get high grades.
It took a while for it to sink in that it’s not the end of the world and things can still turn around. It’s the ones without parental support and encouragement that are going to be really fucked.

Everyone else is correct here I'm afraid OP

Schools teach different parts of the curriculum at different times - a specific 'mock' paper would disadvantage some schools, plus there are different exam boards - the DfE don't write exam papers.

Also you are suggesting a full set of exams to be made mandatory, the organisation and admin that a set of standardised exams require in a normal year is HUGE. To do that twice in a year during a pandemic would send exams officers running for the hills.

I'm not sure why education is so fragmented already, let alone in a pandemic.
Why don't all schools follow the same curriculum per exam board. Why is every teacher working hours and hours on interpretation and lesson plans every day, week, year and every child being subject to how good they are.
YANBU