To wonder what will happen if exams are impacted by Corona

[B1gbluehouse]

Starting to think they aren’t going to want halls filled with 100s of kids if it spreads more.

What will happen to GCSE and A level students if they can’t take their exams?

The only feasible thing to do at this stage imo is for schools to carry on as normal, what ever is decided it won't be up to the schools so they might as well proceed on the basis that the exams will take place as normal. No point in stressing about the unpredictables, the whole cohorts of GCSE and A levels students are in the same boat, no one knows anything or can predict the future so I'd leave it to the exam authorities to come uo with a contingency plan. One of my DC is in an exam year and afaik this hadn't even beem mentioned as an issue.

Maybe they'll have 2 sittings, one at the time we know and a further one early August?

But the second sitting would have a big advantage.

True, hadn't considered that. Tbh it's concerning. If they go off predicted grades that's great for my dd but what about the exams she'll sit in the future having had no experience of these ones. I would like clarification of what the plan is if I'm being honest

I’d have thought they’d try and keep secondaries open for those in exam years. You’d have a big impact by closing primary schools and possibly even closing for years 7-9 but I’d be surprised if students at 15 plus were any different to university students in terms of spreader status. I don’t think using mocks or untested online systems would be fair. Whatever happens I feel sorry for current exam years as there will most likely be some disruption (best case).

Closing primary schools will have a massive impact on school staffing. A great many teachers have primary-aged children so there’s that to consider.

Look at me on SIMs, bumping up all my predicted grades.

There’s zero chance that they’ll give kids their predicted grades.

They do have backup papers written and ready to go in the case of leaks etc, so I suppose it would be technically possible to have two sittings.

For A Levels it wouldn't have to be exactly the predicted grades, they will have data going back years to show the school predicted and real grades for each subject in each school, they could used this to model grades based on the school predicted grades.

Schools/subjects that over predict will have grades lowered through the modelling.

I am not saying this is ideal, nothing is ideal if exams can't be held though.

Why do you think the second sitting would have an advantage, OP?

@SachaStark

Last year some papers were leaked online almost straight away after the exam was sat. Sites like TSR also host discussion threads where students discuss their answers- if it were sat with the same paper, and not a back up paper for the second lot of exams, then students in the second sitting would obviously have an advantage.

They wouldn’t use the same paper for two sittings, not a chance.

if it were sat with the same paper, and not a back up paper for the second lot of exams, then students in the second sitting would obviously have an advantage

Well obviously that's not going to happen is it, no one thinks that do they?

But of course they wouldn’t use the same exam paper twice! Like the November resits, which already take place every year, they have a fresh set of papers.

oh my, not mocks. My DCs took them in October. They hadn't even finished the syllabus in some subjects.

Interestingly I just watched the press conference in full and the chief medical and scientific officers were saying that the trade-offs may be that schools closures aren’t the most effective measures for this virus as children don’t seem to be as affected. It’s really worth a watch (I found it on YouTube) as it’s much more reassuring listening to the experts directly than the press reporting.

children don’t seem to be as affected

Thats what i heard

Teachers and invigilators will be

And lunch staff and caretaking

Ive a child doing A levels...i know its wrong but i bloody hope its based on predicted!!!

I think they will have 2 sittings. The scheduled exams and then another sitting in August (for those who may have the coronavirus/ towns in lockdown during the original)
Yes, that may mean that students who have holidays booked in August may not be able to go but that is just life. Many people are having to cancel holidays due to the virus and there isn't a perfect solution in regards to what to do about exams!

Obviously papers would be different.

Online exams would be a nightmare. I can just imagine all the parents who want little Johnny to get in to their first choice of uni sat next to them in order to get them top grades.

There isn't a perfect solution but I think the above is what they may do.

The logistics for 2 sittings will be horrendous

how would you be able to do online? A candidate could have a whole team of people working with them to answer questions. Seems ridiculous

Good call OP

I hadn't thought of this . DS3 is due to sit his GCSEs this year.

My son told me this evening that they have been told they will likely be given their mock results as their gcse results. I hope to goodness that this is not the case as he has achieved 5s almost across the board despite being predicted 7s.
Mind you, if he doesn’t pull his finger out and start studying, he’s going to get crap results anyway and will have wasted all that time and effort that the teachers have poured into him over the past 11 years 😩

Surely, if they use mock results they will add a grade on - obviously you'd expect children to improve over the course of a few months? If my DD has to use her mock A'level results she will lose both her first choice and her back-up, and won't be going to university at all. She's expecting to get her back-up, with a fair chance of getting her first choice, assuming the exams go ahead.

I’m not sure arbitrarily sticking an extra grade on everything will be any fairer, really.

It seems very unfair to freeze results at January, when the exams are in May to June. How can people not improve over that period of time, which includes all the revision time at the end of the course? University expectations are based on several months' more work.