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?

Are they thus aware that the prediction could impact her application?

That should say “are they aware that she thinks the prediction could impact” etc.

Assuming that it’s she who thinks this not you.

There’s no obfuscation - I’ve actually given a few examples of what a teacher’s professional judgment might involve.

OP I agree with you. Teachers should actually support their too students trying to get into Oxbridge, not ruin their chances. When I was applying to Cambridge Law many moons ago, one if my teachers was extremely supportive, another was an absolute cow. I still got invited for an interview though but messed that up 🫣

Their top students*

the AS equivalent of A*

I don't believe you can get A* at AS level. So A is highest grade possible.

We usually have a predicted grade and UCAS grade. Often the students will push for higher UCAS grade than they got in mock. Maybe they can check with teacher & ask if they can push UCAS grade up a bit? If you don't ask you don't get.

A grade 9 two years ago was Teacher Assessed so it's hard to know if they are really at that level.

That would be a waste of an AIBU thread though wouldn't it? As would actually talking to the teacher! 🤷‍♀️

Maybe the daughter can’t ask because she’s got a slightly frightening mum contracting her teachers demanding to know her predicted grades ahead of publication, and then going off on one about it? Just a thought…

When was the mock? How was the mock exam constructed? If she is in the second year she still had a considerable amount of the coursework to complete so it makes sense that the mock up not include questions on the topics she has not yet been exposed to. She might be graded at a high grade of she had learned the material that she had been exposed to so far. The teacher, who may well have been testing their subject for a good many years to hundreds, possibly thousands of students will have a pretty good idea how your daughter is likely to perform when compared against all of those other students. I doubt think you do your daughter any favours at all by reacting so angrily when you not smart enough to go and ask about things that you do not understand - go and ask for things to be explained before you get yourself and your daughter all wound up for no good reason.

OP your paranoia is showing. From what you've written throughout the thread you seem to be convinced that the teachers are deliberately doing your DD down. They are not obliged to predict DD an A* just because you she wants one. You will only get an answer of you actually ask the question so why are you holding back? Is it because you fear they will give you a perfectly fair and rational explanation that you won't be able to argue with?

Hi OP, your post reminded me that, a few years ago when clearing out some papers, my mum found and gave to me, a copy of the letter she had written to my school challenging my predicted A-level grade (more than 20 years ago).

My mum was a teacher, so knew her stuff. I’d had a couple of early mock papers at a B grade, and had been predicted a B. From what I remember, my mum’s argument rested on the data/trajectory - she basically said that, given my test scores throughout school, if they genuinely thought I was only going to get a B then they needed to think hard about what was going on with the teaching.

The tone of the letter was really respectful tho - saying she supported the school, and hadn’t told me she was writing because I would have been mortified (correct). I recall I was really upset about it at the time (had lots of other things going on in the background) but absolutely no way would I have dared challenge the teacher. Was nice to see, years later, that my mum had had my back - in a classy way, that didn’t make things awkward for me at school.

They did change my predicted grade - though i didn’t know why at the time (and I got an A in the end!).

If there’s anything I’d take from that is that it’s worth challenging, and might get a better outcome for your DD generally if you’re not too guns blazing?

Can I please ask… and I don’t mean to high jack your thread op forgive me. But is it harder to get an a* at a level than it is to get a 9 in gcse?

@Ihavethisthingwithcolour absolutely. In my new year 12 biology cohorts i have lots and lots of students with 9s ( partly the adjustment effect tbh). Not all of them will get A* by any means. A bright enough kid can get 9s at GCSE without needing to work too hard. At A level they all need to put a shift in.

Yeps @Ihavethisthingwithcolour I agree, much harder to achieve an A* than a 9. A-levels are so challenging. My DC gained 9s in their best subjects but B and A at A level in those same subjects.

Students having an A at GCSE will not necessarily get a Grade A at AS level, and definitely not at A level. The leap from GCSE to AS then A level is huge. Teachers will use a battery of data to make their predictions for UCAS, needing to be fair to the student, the universities to which they are applying and the school. Teachers are accountable for their predictions, if they are too generous or too harsh they will be taken to task, do it's not something they do without thought. Talk to the teacher not Mumsnet.

My DS was applying to Cambridge and his predicted grade wasn't high enough either despite him getting an average of 95% in all his practise papers including his mocks. He just spoke to the teacher and explained the situation, they changed it.

@Piggywaspushed

"Actually , this is lawnmower parenting... not just hovering anxiously but forcibly clearing all obstacles from the child's path."

Hey Piggy. Live the definition: Lawnmower parenting. Love it.

Does the school have a track record of helping students to get into Oxford/Cambridge?

My DD's school just didnt have the experience of that. On the whole students, post sixth form, went onto apprenticeships or the local (ex poly) university. Teaching and therefore grade prediction reflected that. Teaching and predicting to the C grade. The school did not have a culture of fostering ambition.

It will depend on the school she's applying from though.

OP - I'd be annoyed too. But don't sound annoyed when you query it tomorrow.
Be factual. Ask him/her to look at the grade again and mention the 9 at GCSE, the 94 points at AS paper and say that you understand that an A* is difficult to achieve, but that UCAS recommends that predicted grades need to be achievable - of which you have documented evidence from her mock paper and aspirational.

I spent my entire school career dicking about in class and showing a poor attitude.

I got away with it purely because my grades were both predicted top and indeed turned out like that, so doubtful. The schools primary interest is always in students who can achieve the best grades for their stats.

With respect She doesn't sound like she's cut out for Oxbridge. You need to be incredibly strong, resilient, a fighter, determined. She doesn't seem to have the necessary qualities. And that's before we even start getting to academic ability.

Agree with Gnome. What's of school is she at. Are they good. Our school is a Catholic school in Surrey and they are beyond superb. (Piggy and I are dropping our dc off at Uni next week, so we do have current experience). DS1 did not apply to Oxbridge. But many of his friends did and his school is absolutely superb and has a very very high success rate of getting nearly all of them in. Preparation starts early in year 12 they have meetings for parents to attend, to discuss all the tests and exams they need to do, they're making sure they've already got enough work experience and have shown themselves in the best light and what to do in the next year to make their personal statement the best it can be etc. they have mini exams and tests , tips to improve, and help and support and suggestions for what to do in the Uni tests and also at interview.

It's a bit late in the day for your child to be only thinking about these things now surely applications will be in soon because I know the normal University applications are in soon and Oxbridge is always a week or two weeks before, so with respect a bit late in the day to be thinking about all of this.

With respect She doesn't sound like she's cut out for Oxbridge. You need to be incredibly strong, resilient, a fighter, determined. She doesn't seem to have the necessary qualities. And that's before we even start getting to academic ability.

On the basis of what? OP hasn’t said anything about DD’s character. The fact that mum is concerned about her prediction to post here, has no bearing on what her DD will do or what kind of personality she has.

She only found out her grade from me when she got home from school yesterday. What do you expect her to have done? Good old Mn. You gotta love it!

“With respect She doesn't sound like she's cut out for Oxbridge. You need to be incredibly strong, resilient, a fighter, determined. She doesn't seem to have the necessary qualities. And that's before we even start getting to academic ability.”

Wow. I’ve read all the OPs posts, and I cannot fathom where you could come to such a conclusion from based on what she’s written so far.

Once DCs are in sixth form part of our job as parents is helping our DCs to challenge, politely, when it is in their interests to do so.

As OP has pointed out, so much of school up until GCSEs is about conforming. It is difficult to break those habits. They are told repeatedly that 'school knows best'. When it comes to university application school doesn't necessarily know best.

@

Hi OP,

Hope you and your daughter are able to resolve this. I had this happen to me with my predicted grades and Oxford application (way back in the 90s). Teacher predicted me a B (highest was an A back then), and I needed an A prediction to have any chance of getting an offer.

I'd got an A at GCSE, and consistently throughout A Levels work, but she said she never predicted As (some spurious rationale about anything could happen on the day). Anyway, I fought my case, as did the other 2 people applying for the subject (wasn't that sort of school really - just a coincidence!), and she saw the point we were making and changed our predictions. Hope you have a similar outcome.