To be worried that this new year 12s are going to find A’levels a struggle

[Whywhywh]

DD2 has done GCSEs this year and luckily come out with some excellent grades and is starting at college next week for A’levels. DD1 did GCSEs in 2019. She spent weeks revising the syllabuses etc and came out with grades similar to DD2. She found the step up to A’levels a challenge despite I feel having had a much more thorough grasp of the subjects than DD2 who didn’t have to revise for everything, just short tests.
AIBU to think the government have set our dc up for a really tough time with their A’levels following their approach to GCSEs this year?

YANBU - the current year 12s basically finished “proper” schooling in March 2020 - so had 6 months max of traditional GCSE teaching.

And whilst schools should have been providing the same level of education and students should have been engaging with online learning at the same level as in person - we all know this hasn’t been the case for everyone.

So I do think some students are in for a bit of a shock.

However - one of the biggest struggles I noticed in the step up to A Levels was the need for independent learning - your not spoon fed the information in the same way as at GCSE’s - so the skills and self motivation students have gained in order to show up and engage with a virtual lesson should stand them in good stead!

Yanbu but at least the whole year group will be in the same boat.

Also it depends how they have spent the time. Some of them will have strengthened other skills which will balance the lack of exam experience. The extra weeks free gave my dd the chance to do a heck of a lot of reading and also to work, so she will go into A levels more mature and well informed than I was at her age, albeit without exam experience.

Yanbu however not just this years y12 (several year groups). Dc1 is y13 at college (not alevels) he missed gcse exams, had formal exams last year which were cancelled so has never done formal exams - it will be a shock to the system when he does them.
However on the positive side these dc will have picked up other skills. Dc1 only went into college for 10 days in a whole academic year he's definitely had to learn how to do independent learning which will help him going forward.
His education has definitely been affected some bits have been better most worse but what I have noticed is he doesn't believe he deserves his gcses or his grade for first year at college because he took no formal exams (because the media have said things about exam grades being upgraded) and some of his friends have the same belief. I think we have to focus on dcs confidence and skill sets but overall the majority of dc will come out of this with great skill sets (just perhaps slightly different to what would normally be expected), most will be more resilient and be more independent than expected.

I suspect they won’t all be in the same boat, though. Some schools did full-on exams covering the whole syllabus. Some schools didn’t even cover the full syllabus at all.

@daisypond

I suspect they won’t all be in the same boat, though. Some schools did full-on exams covering the whole syllabus. Some schools didn’t even cover the full syllabus at all.

True. Yet another way inequalities will be increased.

Dunno. My year 12 had full on mocks and then exams rather than mini tests. They covered the whole syllabus in most subjects (but not history or English literature). She did tons of revision, so hopefully that will stand her in good stead going forward.

I think the real challenge for sixth form teachers will be dealing with the wildly differing experiences at GCSE.

This is why I'm glad DS is staying on at school for a levels. At least the teachers will know if they have gaps from gcse because it's different for every school. I didn't really consider 6th form when looking around in Y5 but I realise now he is so lucky not to need to move establishments.

Yep, I think it is going to be very difficult.

My Ds goes to a ss grammar. They start GCSEs in year 9 and they managed pretty well the whole syllabus and did full length GCSE papers, in normal exam conditions in the hall.

His mate goes to a different school. Start GCSEs in year 10, they barely had any content covered when they went online and sat much shorter assessments in the class room, so no experience of full on exam conditions and no where near the full syllabus covered.

Imagine both of them turning up to the same sixth form college for the same a levels. It's desperately unfair.

@Maybeyesno yes my DD is also doubting her grades thinking they’re inflated. To be honest with you DD2 didn’t have to put in half as much effort to get the same grades as DD1 and her grasp of the subjects is nowhere near what DD1s was at this stage despite trying to do some work over summer. I’m trying not to let her know I’m a bit worried.

Not even considered that some dc have done full on exams. It’s certainly going to be difficult for teachers this year.

Agree with both points of view - that it will entrench inequalities but also that the y11s have come of age and reached public exam age in exceptional circumstances which has definitely given them all sorts of skills they can draw on in later life including in post 16 education. Even if they haven't got the syllabus content.

I'm really proud of all the ones I know as it goes. I think it's kind of amazing that they've got through at all.

Have you been watching that channel 4 series about how their year has gone? It's a fascinating record of just what they were up against.

@BigWhooper

Agree with both points of view - that it will entrench inequalities but also that the y11s have come of age and reached public exam age in exceptional circumstances which has definitely given them all sorts of skills they can draw on in later life including in post 16 education. Even if they haven't got the syllabus content.

I'm really proud of all the ones I know as it goes. I think it's kind of amazing that they've got through at all.

Have you been watching that channel 4 series about how their year has gone? It's a fascinating record of just what they were up against.

I'd like to watch this, @BigWhooper. What's it called, please?

Try not to let her see how worried you are, you'll just make her anxious. A levels are always a shock after GCSE's I think, they certainly were for me and that was 30 years ago! All she can do is her best in what has been a very difficult time.

@AlexaShutUp this is it. Channel 4 are pretty good at these fly on the school wall type of programmes I think which made them well placed to put these together. It opens with the start of year 12 and it's certainly a useful counterpoint to all of the stories about grade inflation which were running from 7.30 am on results day

www.channel4.com/programmes/sixteen-class-of-2021

@Tal45

Try not to let her see how worried you are, you'll just make her anxious. A levels are always a shock after GCSE's I think, they certainly were for me and that was 30 years ago! All she can do is her best in what has been a very difficult time.

I remember it feeling like a massive leap back in the mid 90s. I coasted through high school with the bare minimum of work and still got all As and Bs in my GCSEs back then. My first year of A levels was a total culture shock.

I agree

Fab, thank you @BigWhooper. Will definitely watch that!

I think they will be better off than current Y13's who lost at a minimum the whole of the spring term of Y12 to lockdown (2nd term of their two year A level course), and had disruption in the winter term preceding this - but will probably have to sit the full exams this year. Hopefully Year 12's will get an uninterrupted learning experience

@LimitIsUp

I think they will be better off than current Y13's who lost at a minimum the whole of the spring term of Y12 to lockdown (2nd term of their two year A level course), and had disruption in the winter term preceding this - but will probably have to sit the full exams this year. Hopefully Year 12's will get an uninterrupted learning experience

This ^^

Let's be honest, it affected 4 years of students greatly - those in last 2 years of their GCSEs up to those doing their A levels in 2020 (so years 10, 11, 12,13 in 2020 and 2021) AND anyone doing their degree at the time, and will to a slightly lesser extent affect those underneath in school years .

It has been a weird two academic years.

But it was a pandemic and it is what it is. It may take a while to get back to normal studies

It's the school and university years that did things differently and a story to tell their grandchildren. If they got through it unscathed. I know several children who are resting as online learning didn't work for them. I hope that future employers and universities / colleges are kind. To be a teenager and in lockdown for best part of 18 months has been a challenge at a time when most teens are stretching their wings. I think everyone did remarkably well and understand how many teens had emotional well-being problems arising from enforced staying in. It's hard enough as an adult to get over this, especially those with young children, but also for the teens.... and lonely older or disabled people.

I'm very proud of how well people have got through it in the whole, and how many volunteers came forward to try to help. Just the Tiktok and you tube helpful schooling or home fitness stuff was amazing

• resiting, not resting !

And for the students about to start uni for maths and science type courses…..if they haven’t covered the whole A level syllabus they might struggle and the unis aren’t going to have changed their curriculum.

They will be fine. My husband only did GCSEs at school as he hated education, he took A level Maths, Physics and Chemistry in 2019 so he could help his niece with her A-Levels and he did it at the age of 35.

Now sure they will not be breaking all records when they go back to doing proper exams, but the reality is no one in employment believes any of the last two years GCSE and A-Level results, employers regard them as worthless because of the grade inflation, only an actual sat exam will give anything close to a real representation.

I do think it's funny when people bang on about grade inflation. What were schools supposed to do? Fail them all?

@BigWhooper

I do think it's funny when people bang on about grade inflation. What were schools supposed to do? Fail them all?

If they were not capable of passing the yes. If you look at the levels of grade inflation it completely invalidates the grades. The teachers thinking seems to be: They are probably capable of a C, if they do really well maybe a B, so to be safe I will give them an A. From an employers perspective these grades as a whole are known to be far too generous for many who took the courses. The problem is that unless the person goes on to take qualifications with known valid results, they have no way of differentiating between the intelligent person who got an A and the person who can at best achieve a B, but was given an A* regardless.

When telling people about DD2s GCSEs I do get the feeling they don’t believe the grades this year or last and like I said I don’t think my dd thinks she actually earned the grades she was given. Don’t know what they could have instead though and I’m really proud of what she managed to achieve even if her grades weren’t accurate. Just hoping she knows enough to have a successful and not too stressful transition to 6th form.