To be angry at school predicted A level grade

[user29]

How can DD be predicted a lower grade than she has proved she is capable of achieving (by a margin) in her mock?

Assume your daughter has discussed with the teacher. What was their rationale?

Well, have you asked?? Is her performance consistent? Is she working that well week to week in school?? What was her gcse grade??

How do they work out the UCAS grade? For D's, they said they use 3 pieces of information

1. Their mock exam results
2. The evidence from their homework and other tests from thoighout y12
3. The projection according to their GCSE results for that subject (they showed us tables of, if your child got a 9 in this subject, 30% of pupils went on to get an A star, 40% an A and so on).

They also the grades should be achievable and aspirational

We got lots of information about how their grades were made up, and they also have one additional attempt at a mock exam to improve their grade if they'd like to try.

What have your school said?

Was it a fluke?

Was the mock a full set of A level papers? Did they know topics in advance? Was it similar to work they had done recently? Might diligent students who have completed every past paper question available online (which nowadays includes the 'locked' papers schools save for mocks) and marked them have seen these questions before?

There are a number of reasons why it might be, it's worth a conversation. There must be a reason, no one would deliberately under predict. Especially for a UCAS grade.

Docked about in class? Showed a poor attitude? They're not all angels OP.

I'm presuming shes at least 17...

Encourage her to go and ask her teacher how she can improve?

I'm guessing the upset is based on university applications and her desired courses?

Quality of coursework that might be worth a certain percent? Weaker performance on other units not assessed in the mocks?

Are you sure it's not a minimum acceptable standard, as in if her work drops below it there will be interventions?

Also perhaps the mock was a good paper and she struggled with other aspects of the course?

Could be an admin error?

Just ask.

Don't worry the real test will prove what she is capable of

Did you m to type that in an email to the teacher? No one can tell her apart from the person/people who made the predictions

It will be too late by then, though!

No as a matter of principle.

As a matter of principle you've decided not to ask the teacher about the predicted grade that seems low based on previous assessments and have decided to moan on MN instead?

It depends what the mock was on and how much of the final paper it covered, also if it was held in conjunction with other exams.
Doing 3 A-level at the same time is hard, if her mock was partial papers or on an incomplete course, they will have to take that into account for prediction. They will also consider her attainment across the rest of the year.

From experience universities will still make conditional offers to students who don’t have the grades they ask for. They just make the offer at the grades they want, it’s up to the student to achieve them or not. Make sure the rest of her application is strong; the other skills are important too. Lots of apprentice providers are similar - in fact they focus much more on soft skills than grades.

If she doesn’t get the offers (for uni or apprenticeship or whatever she wants) she can apply the following year once she has her grades at the required level. They don’t have to go into training/uni etc. the moment they leave school. There are other opportunities for them.

She also could go through Adjustment if she does perform significantly better than her 1st and 2nd choices (this only applies to uni, I have no idea what she wants to do). UCAS has lots of advice on how to do this.

When my dc were going through all this it seemed really common for students to get low mock grades. They’re marked internally and I think they’re harsh on purpose to send the message that the kids have to work hard to get the grades they want/need.

Students can perform very well in one task, having just been taught how and having had weeks of practice.

They can do less well in a higher pressured exam designed to test many skills, with a whole series of exams in the subject (plus others) over a short period of time, or in a completely different element (which could be worth more as a percentage of the whole grade).

If she's 'proven', for example, that she can gain a particular grade number of marks needed proportionally for a certain grade in only one question, one section, or just one module, that's not an indicator of likelihood of achieving the grade overall.

2022 was the last year for adjustment. Ucas said it had a very low take up .

Well that's madness, you or your daughter need to ask. There might be a reason that she needs to improve upon. Totally silly not to ask why.

Given her age, I'd expect her to ask if she's not happy.

DD was given a C in one of her A levels as her UCAS predicted grade. DD asked for it to be changed to a B, the school happily changed it and it’s also the grade she achieved this summer.

What prediction? Teacher prediction? Prediction generated from GSCE grades?

The mock in question, was sat last term and was a real AS paper based on teh full years work they had done. The grade boundaries in raw marks D 51,c61, B71,A 81 and she scored 94, so i can't see how thi doesnt mean the AS equivalnt of an A She got 9 at GCSE. She has ben predicted A in Maths , FM,Chem and biology but it is biology she wants to study and needs an A* in it

These are adults in a position of power who Students have been drilled for 13 years not to question. It is not an equal relationship.
I think I am going to pull together lots of data to support our case and hope the squeakiest wheel gets oiled

the AS equivalent of A*

YABVU to not ask the teacher!!

It's a prediction though not set in stone 🤷‍♀️