A level grades

[DolphinFC]

If feel that value of an A grade ar A level has been reduced dramatically. I feel truly sorry for those very bright, hard-working students who would've got an A grade no matter what. Their deserved A grade is now lost in a pile of undeserved A grades.

Jog on you insensitive person. The children have worked bloody hard.

@Morgoth

But it’s not like C or D grade students are suddenly getting A*s. As PPs have said, it will all come out in the wash at university anyway and students will sink or swim. Employers will care more about your choice of university, subject, degree grade and how you come across in the interview. An employer will be able to spot an elite student a mile off. Job applications for graduate jobs are absurdly competitive.

No employer is going to look at a student that comes out of York or Durham University with a 2,1 or a first class degree in Physics and then look at their A-level grades of 4 A*s of 2021 and think “this must be a student who has had their grades significantly inflated therefore isn’t an elite student”.

But it looks like C or D grade students are likely getting As, where else are the 44% coming from? A proportion of those students would not have achieved those grades, due to inconsistency or poor exam performance.

The ball will be kicked further along the road. It’s happens after this - ie degree that will be the deciding factor now. I agree that it takes the sheen off top grades if almost 50% of students have got top grades.

But it looks like C or D grade students are likely getting As, where else are the 44% coming from?

The borderline B/A students, presumably.
Plus the 10% or so of the confident A/A* ones who, year on year, would have unexpectedly goofed in one of their actual exams.

Well aren’t you a charm? Fuck off with this shit on this day.
This cohort of young people have worked their fucking socks off this year under ridiculous circumstances.
They’ve shown more resilience and work ethic than many ‘grown ups’. Let them have their time in the sun.

Fucking insensitive post. And I don’t normally bite but today of all days. 🤬

Not all students got higher grades than predicted. Not all students are going to uni, so saying 'it won't matter once they have their degree' isn't helpful. And employers saying they'll just mark down grades from this year, also not helpful. My DD got CCD (predicted BCD), and is already struggling with job hunting, as she's chronically shy and quite awkward, so she doesn't need to hear these sort of comments. She worked really hard for her A levels under difficult circumstances.

*A realistic BBB student who was predicted AAA will struggle with a medicine or Veterinary Science degree for example and his or her degree classification will reflect this.

It will all come out in the wash eventually.*

Quite - but I do feel for students who may end up struggling and failing at tougher university courses due to their results this year, or those who don't go to university and are subject to the assumptions of employers who think they didn't deserve their grades.

There isn't a better system at present but it's damnably difficult for universities and employers to distinguish at the top end of the scale if over 40% of students are receiving A/A grades. That is actually why they introduced A grades at A Level in the first place - to be able to distinguish the most academic candidates from their peers.

@Stillcrikey

Well aren’t you a charm? Fuck off with this shit on this day. This cohort of young people have worked their fucking socks off this year under ridiculous circumstances. They’ve shown more resilience and work ethic than many ‘grown ups’. Let them have their time in the sun.

Fucking insensitive post. And I don’t normally bite but today of all days. 🤬

Totally agree.

Real students with real lives are getting these grades today. They don't need all this noise on here, in the media, everywhere.

They have had an absolutely appalling and uncertain experience for 18 months. They only now know what they will be able to do next month. Just leave them to enjoy it and celebrate.

Don't belittle what they, their families and their schools have achieved under the most unimaginable difficulty and pressure.

Last year my daughter's grades (AAAB) were way above the results of her mocks and although I wouldn't have said it to her I was concerned that they were inflated. However she has finished her first year of a very academic course having been told to drop certain modules because she already has the skills required and has finished with top marks in all her exams.

Maybe she would not have got those grades if she had sat exams in May/June last year but she clearly deserved the grades she got as her university record shows.

The entire point of a grading system is to differentiate between people.

If you give nearly half the entrants the top grade, it renders the whole thing completely pointless (regardless of the perfectly valid reasons put forward on this thread for doing so).

@MoreRainThanAnyYet

But it looks like C or D grade students are likely getting As, where else are the 44% coming from?

The borderline B/A students, presumably.
Plus the 10% or so of the confident A/A* ones who, year on year, would have unexpectedly goofed in one of their actual exams.

Exactly this. And also correct to the poster above who said that a degree will become the most important deciding factor now (though it was significantly anyway - it will just be given even more weighting ).

I think people underestimate how much significance the top graduate employers will give to your degree classification, subject and university, and overestimate how much importance they place on your GCSEs and A-levels. So many graduate employers don’t even ask for this.

The top graduate schemes are rigorous and competitive and these employers can spot the brightest students from the rest with relative ease. A-level results will probably not even factor 5% in their decision-making process. They normally select students from good unis with good subjects who have achieved good classifications and perform confidently and competently in interviews.

The candidates have to go through many rounds of company-set literacy, mathematics, cognitive and verbal reasoning tests and long interviews.

I guarantee there will be hardly any cases where a top graduate employer has been “tricked” into hiring what they think is a top 10% performer but is actually a top 50% performer. Their selection and interview process weeds these people out very easily, and first and foremost, if they don’t achieve the required degree grade at university anyway, they won’t get a look in, regardless of what they got in their A-levels.

@Lalliella

Your post is incredibly insensitive. Those kids have had an absolutely shit 18 months, extremely detrimental to the mental health of many. I’d give them all A*s just for getting through it.

How is that kind to the students who have worked their arses off for their entire school life and would have actually achieved an A anyway?

@arethereanyleftatall

The entire point of a grading system is to differentiate between people.

If you give nearly half the entrants the top grade, it renders the whole thing completely pointless (regardless of the perfectly valid reasons put forward on this thread for doing so).

Indeed, that is the point. Put emotions aside. I very much doubt the students will read these comments on a MN thread anyway. It's just opinions based on historical data of previous results. A levels are just one measure of success and useful for University but in the grand scheme of things 🤷‍♂️

You do know that on the academic journey A Level results mean very little? You are 17/18 when you take them, developmentally your brain isn't on its fixed life course or the peak of ability. There is so much else informing performance at that age. I am doing a PHD, I got terrible GCSE results because I was on drugs, A,C and D for A Levels because I was catching up, a first class undergraduate degree, a PGDip, a distinction in my Masters and a high grade in the first year of my Level 8. My next research paper is about to be published. You can have the highest cognition in the world but the lowest motivating factors. Nobody asks my A Level results. My DS has just achieved an A in Music and two C's in Politics and English. How can he have faked the ability to be outstanding in music?

It is SHIT behaviour to treat these young people like they are in a competition and unworthy. Who are you to decide what is good enough? Anyone who has learnt anything knows, you learn for yourself. Not to compete and be the best, not to make your parents or school proud, not to crap on your peers achievements. Anyone with half a brain knows that lifelong learning is a pleasure, not a stick to beat people or belittle them with.

My son got excellent grades today. To those saying exams were cancelled, external exams certainly but ds1 had so many exams during this year. The school wanting to provide as much evidence as possible of their working level, I am guessing.

It’s been a really rough year for year 13’s and same as year11’s last year, the results they have worked so hard for are being criticized.

Ds1 has his place at Oxford, for which he also had to do an entrance exam. We are incredibly proud of him.

Teenagers have suffered so much through this pandemic, congratulations to all those who got excellent results today.

Has there been a breakdown of how many of these As are from private school pupils?

@Teenageromance

Has there been a breakdown of how many of these As are from private school pupils?

Just over 70% I believe. As opposed to 39% from state schools.

To me, this makes up for all the years I've taught amazing students who've been spot on all the way, then tripped up on the day by slightly misinterpreting the question or running out of time or having a life bomb go off just before the exam. Every single year, you bite your nails and hope your kids get the grades they deserve. Very occasionally, a lazy bugger storms it in the exam, but more often than not, it's a kid who just misses the grade they deserved.

We weren't allowed to inflate. But not doing assessments in the usual way meant that kids who write slower/ go to pieces/ freeze up/ get overwhelmed/ can't cope in the exam hall/ screw up one question for to prove what they could actually do, over a longer period of time. We moderated like mad and were robust. As a result, there were some absolutely cracking essays.

@CaptainThe95thRifles

*A realistic BBB student who was predicted AAA will struggle with a medicine or Veterinary Science degree for example and his or her degree classification will reflect this.

It will all come out in the wash eventually.*

Quite - but I do feel for students who may end up struggling and failing at tougher university courses due to their results this year, or those who don't go to university and are subject to the assumptions of employers who think they didn't deserve their grades.

There isn't a better system at present but it's damnably difficult for universities and employers to distinguish at the top end of the scale if over 40% of students are receiving A/A grades. That is actually why they introduced A grades at A Level in the first place - to be able to distinguish the most academic candidates from their peers.

Of course I completely agree with all your points, especially the first paragraph.

You make a good point about those who choose not to go to university. For those who do go, their degree will be the deciding factor so will give employers an honest reflection of their ability so inflation at A-level stage is less of a problem as it will be re-corrected and calibrated by their degree but you’re right about those who don’t go to uni so A-levels and GCSEs are all their employers have to go on. Especially as almost all employers (of graduates or non graduates) require at least CCC in Maths, English and Science

I’m a teacher. I awarded my A-level students fairly on the performance I’ve rather course and the timed assessments they completed in April. All evidence was moderated and a sample called from the exam boards - all schools would have followed this process.

I am very proud of my students’ performance. They spent more time learning remotely than face to face and not once did they complain. They attended each lesson and worked hard. They deserve their grades.

*during the course

Only really an issue due to the shortage of uni places as a result and the large number of deferrals that will affect the current year 12s applying for entry to university in 2022 with significantly fewer places available to them and a government that won't expand places properly to take account of this 'unprecedented' situation

Plus a shortage of degree-level apprenticeships that the students are supposed to be considering instead of degrees. Not nearly enough, many only at a lower level below degree. Plus school careers office pretty clueless about them

I agree that some inflation will be down to grades being given that reflect what the candidate could have got on a reasonable day with luck and a fair wind, and no reading the question wrong, panicking, bereavement, fluey cold, row with the boyfriend.

But could some mot be down to the fact that there have been fewer distractions like parties, events, holidays, socialising? Life has been so boring that maybe they had nothing else to do?

DD here is getting G.C.S.E results Thursday.

It's a stressful time and I'd like to pat on back all students and parents/carers who made it through.

If anything I'm thinking future employers/staff at universities will consider this to have been a particularly challenging year, and will respect the resilience of all those students who have consistently worked to get through, regardless of grade etc.

I was always told that continuous assessments are harder than exams and it never lets up. That is certaintly what our experience has been.