Exams

[MrsElijahMikaelson1]

DD is distraught, she has worked so so hard. I really feel for this cohort of students who won’t have their chance to shine and will miss all those special times.

DD has had me order revision guides for the A levels she wants to do so that she can front load knowledge

I'm going to ask the school to clarify. My concern is my child has only been back at school for 3 weeks after being excluded since November.....lots of work missed and was struggling before that....

Does anyone know what will happen with borderline 3/4, students, and will a clear 9 still happen or will teachers not want to award them the same.
I have one at both ends

No idea but in true MN form, DD was due a raft of 9’s but who knows? We would certainly appeal if that wasn’t the case

My DD is also due a raft of 9s but is being very realistic about it all. As far as she sees it, so long as she gets at least 7s, she can still move on to her chosen 6th form and A-levels. 9s would be lovely but she doesn't actually need them.
She is a ridiculously sensible child.

How can anyone predict a raft of 9’s? They’re allocated with reference to the entire cohort, not just the child’s class.

At DS's grammar school, they did set a mark in mocks which = 9.

Based on what grade boundaries?

I don’t know of course, I just know that there was a mark set for each paper that gave a 9.

I wonder what affect SATs marks will have on GCSE judgements. GCSEs were predicted against SATs and some other diagnostics. What anchoring affect will they have?

Just because they’ve set a mark doesn’t mean it’s actually meaningful though. Lot’s of schools won’t predict them because of this.

Difficult to see how they are going to work this when it comes to 9s.

Just because they’ve set a mark doesn’t mean it’s actually meaningful though
Of course, but that is true of all grade boundaries surely?

I'm wondering how they'll deal with the saw tooth effect? Don't forget we've only had 9-1 grades for two years. Similarly the last lot of A levels were only decoupled last year.

Apparently this years exam results will not be made public.

Who has said they won't be published? DofEd?

I can see the reasons why they might not be - as it's not by examination, they are useless for year on year comparison

I read that on the relevant page on the gov.uk website.

Thanks!!

Two updates on this topic from me on things I heard today

• a school who today provided the teacher assessed grades which will be submitted for GCSEs
• a school (private) doing tests this week at home but 'under exam conditions' where pupils are told these results may result in a better grade. I think the data used in teacher assessments should have a cut off date.

My son’s school originally told us he needed to carry on working on his DT coursework until Easter holidays. Yesterday we received another email basically saying tough but all assessments are being made on info upto yesterday and it’s too late to submit any further course work. It mentioned that it was just too stressful for teachers to be organising remote learning, assessments and sorting out kids coursework.

DD was asked to do a past paper for English at quite short notice, so am wondering whether they decided they needed one more piece of evidence before they could submit their grades.

Had an email from the college today saying that they hadn't been given any information yet about when the final collection of predicted grades will be. Anyone heard anything?

It will be predicted grades. The exam board will fit those into the distributor curve, in the same way they do for marked exam scripts.

The 3/4 borderlines will be heartbreaking as they are hard to predict and the progress in the 2 months before the exams for those students is really variable.

Predicted grades by who/when? Is there a definite cut off date of when work matters?

I would imagine it will be the last set of predicted grades teachers entered. Potentially plus teacher assessment - ie a teacher saying “yes, I still think that’s what they would’ve got” or “no, I want to revise that because X evidence”. HoDs will agree them/moderate decisions/exam boards will distribute.

It won’t be work since the shut down because of the vastly differing support students get at home plus these is no standard way schools have been directed to deliver work.

This is really unfair. That private school doing tests unfair exam conditions. 😱I will be creating Merry hell under appeals if needs be re the unfairness. This just isn’t work able. Of course the private’s are going to do everything to give out better grades, the parents are paying their wages. If others are basically having mini exams now I want that for my dc. And what about the support they’re getting online before these extra tests?