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?

Oxbridge deadline is sometime in October isn't it? With predicted grades a bit earlier, but you don't need them right now. Get your sixth former to ask the teacher to leave it until the deadline (to give max time assessing work in Upper sixth) and see if she can get the prediction revised.

Oops sorry, I missed that you said it was Oxbridge. My fault for replying in between taxiing dd around

So you know your DD’s predicted grade but she doesn’t? I’ll say again, it would be so much better for this conversation to be between her and her teacher….

Part of that conversation would be to ask how an A star prediction could be achieved. I never minded being asked this. The answer was never that it was solely on a mock exam which was AS material, it would have required exceptional work in all areas of the course so far, including extension work / more challenging class tests, etc. Her teacher will have an answer for this, let them give it….to your DD.

To add to that, yes, it would better (for herself and her sense of autonomy) if your daughter approaches the school/college first but I certainly have had emails from parents and I am happy to answer them.

But Oxbridge don't need an A star in Bio for Bio/NatSci so not really clear what the problem is.

My dd has had this exact issue last week - needed a star in a particular subject but her prediction was an a. She wrote an email to the head of sixth form explaining rationally why she felt it should be moved to an a star, and provided evidence that she was working at the required level with all her recent test results. The school make a point of not changing predictions easily, but after taking a week to consider it and talking to all her subject teachers, they agreed to put the prediction up to a star. So it is worth asking!

I've never recovered from Ds2's B in art when he was always an A star !
I hated the exam board for years

I hope you didn't accuse a student of that with no evidence! They may just have not bothered revising til the exam

I've never recovered from Ds2's B in art when he was always an A star !
I hated the exam board for years

If he got a lower grade in his real exams than he was used to/predicted then it’s most likely because of nerves on the day.

The amount of students who mess up exams simply because they’re so nervous is so sad.

It’s trying to find the line between encouraging them to try hard but also not pressure them so they don’t feel too nervous on the day.

Quite often, predicted grades are a more cautious prediction. Teachers get absolutely slated if their predictions are over, so it could be that she is averaging an A at the moment (even though she scored the equivalent of an A* in the mock) based on that set of papers and other bits of work & assessments completed over the year. A predicted grade is never just based on one assessment.

The sensible thing to do would be to ask her teacher if you’d like clarification. I’m sure they’d be more than happy to explain it to you.

Yes if she got a high A star on her mock I would think they would predict that.
In our school we were told that they try to be optimistic but realistic. So if a student was borderline but in other aspects had indicated they were capable of the higher grade they would predict that, but not if a student was solidly in the lower grade as no point.
My daughter got an A star on her Psychology mock, but the teacher warned her she 'just' made it over the boundary so she still had work to do, but he did predict the A Star.
However another teacher predicted a grade lower than he thought she was capable of (Art, so not exam based), and said she'd get an A if she pulled her finger out.
They don't submit the grades yet so there is room to discuss. I'd be asking the teacher why, if she did do so well, they are down grading her.

My son was cool about his B grade
I wasn't! It's irrational , but they were harsh

Sorry I realise that you didn't actually say she got an A star, I just read it that way. But my reasoning applies no matter what.

Then she needs to ask. If she hasn't got the guts to ask for a review then she's probably lacking what it takes for the top uni's anyway.

I suspect OP doesn’t know how uni admissions work and thinks a prediction exceeding the stated ‘typical offer’ guidance will get her child a place.

OP ring the head of sixth form or the school’s uni admissions person in the morning and get advice on what you actually need and how to accomplish it.

Bear in mind oxbridge will look at so much more than grades and might not be the right place for your child, too.

As has been explained, A level is harder than AS and the really challenging content hasn’t been taught yet. What exam board was it? In my school (we do AQA), our Head of Science did some tracking scores and found that the students who achieved A star at A level had almost invariably scored over 100 across the two papers at AS.

The first step is for DD to talk to her teacher. Obviously it isn’t a relationship of equals, but that doesn’t mean she can’t ask a question. If the school and teachers are so horrid that she can’t speak to them, why on Earth didn’t she move schools after GCSE?! If she’s simply a person who doesn’t like questioning authority this is a really good opportunity for her to practise.

Personally, I wouldn’t give predicted grades to parents until after they had been discussed with the student and (if necessary) the reference writer (usually form tutor). In my current school we are asked to make a judgement call rather than being too optimistic and the reference writer deals with any grades being moved up.

Op your daughter needs to be doing this.
if she wants to go to to a top uni then she needs to have a simple discussion with her teacher regarding her grade.

Ask. A test on the topic is not the same as a past paper though

@user29 That is the point, most don't get predicted A*s. And she hasn't completed a real exam series, despite doing a few. This has been explained on here before but the reason most TAGs were higher than previous years results were because a student wasn't 'allowed' to have a bad day, as they were tested and tested to gain the evidence. This removed the normal element of nerves, anxiety, feeling unwell etc that does impact the results of a cohort. Your daughter could be one of those students, and she gained exceptionally high results for that reason. She also could react that way in her A Level exams. She could also misinterpret just one question and not gain the marks for (what we predict) will be high grade boundaries.

Also, in some schools teaching staff will be crucified for overpredicting, so would naturally be cautious around the very high end grades.

Finally, you mentioned to another poster that they shouldn't accuse a student with surprisingly high results; you can tell they have seen a mark scheme, so do not need 'evidence'. Each student has a particular writing style and it will never be mark scheme perfect. Especially when you are looking at Maths and the Sciences, because not showing any working is the biggest pointer to cheating, which is why we drill into them about showing all of their working (as well as to secure them marks if their answer is incorrect).

Trust me as a teacher, you can tell when I pupil cheats. I have seen students cpy exam codes like "awrt" which is an abbreviation used ( answers which round to) would never ever need to be written in an exam by a student. They use lines of working out that feel wrong or have mistakes but then correct final answers. Questions on non calculator papers which are impossible to do in your head, and they get correct answers. Students who cheat are rarely as clever as they think

They should take account of trajectory not an avearge. they should have a schoolwide policy ie not chemistry and maths doing it one way and biology doing it a different way

You clearly have no understanding of pupil progression.

the school, by not having a clear method , and communicating it to students in advance, risk opening themselves up to accusations or and actual prejudice

Jesus- what drama! Just tell her to ask if it can be changed.
I presume she isn’t going to school in the 1800’s? If not just ask!!!

Christ on a bike!!!

When i was at school i used to pull it out of the hat in exams, the rest of the time i CBA