A level choices based on GCSE mocks

[Dangermouse100]

Name changed

I’m a little concerned about my dd’s mock results as they aren’t as high as I’d expected and am wondering what a levels she’ll realistically be able to do. Any ideas would be much appreciated!

Originally thinking of maths,physics & geography (interested in engineering). however I’m not sure if this is a good idea given her mock results. Also interested in psychology.

            Actual  Prediction

maths 7. 7
english lit. 6. 6
english lang 6. 6
chem. 6. 7
bio. 6. 6
physics. 6. 7
geo. 7. 8
comp s. 5. 7
Spanish. 5. 6
Business. 6. 6

she is currently at a grammar school and needs 5 7s or above to stay and also a 7-9 in the a level subject chosen. She would love to stay but looks like it maybe borderline.

She has a good work ethic and puts a lot of effort into her work however I’m having a wobble! She is working to bring her physics grade up and we’ve got her a tutor for English Lit and Lang as her predicted grade has dropped from a 7 in these.

any advice would be appreciated as it’s the first time we’re going through this and I’m feeling wobbly!

They can't drop them but they can just stop putting any effort into them and focus on the other subjects.

Does anyone have thoughts on getting a tutor for physics? My worry is this may over inflate her grade and then if she ends up doing it for a level/uni she may struggle.

There is still time for a grade increase- many students jump a grade versus mocks, and schools can mark mocks on the hard rather than generous side, to ensure no complacency! But as others have said, she should absolutely love maths to do the A level as it is so hard, and even a grade 8 or 9 student can feel it's a stretch. Advice we got on Physics - the grade boundaries are such that, to achieve a 9 you "only" need something like 65-70% (i am making this figure up, just to make the point, I can't recall the exact range) - meaning that even a student who achieved a low grade 9 may not have achieved a high % score- or take a grade 7 student who may have achieved say 50% - meaning they didn't achieve 50% of the marks. This means A level could come as a big stretch to those not achieving the highest marks. When students are recommended to have 6s or 7s, this is in my view a failing of the current exam system. So much A level content has been moved down into science GCSEs, making them very hard, and presumably making A levels harder.
Teachers, correct me if my understanding here is wrong, but this is what my DC secondary teachers advised.

Echoing others dont do A level maths and get a proper timetable. Wind back on going out start the bignpush at easter all notes should be final by then. Use the timetable.to plan in social things which she does contingent on study being done.

A level maths is one of the hardest things i've ever done...I got a D at AS and resat everything.
It was so so so hard. I cannot overstate how hard it was and I breezed through gcse maths

Honestly OP Maths & Physics are HARD A Levels, really hard, if she is struggling to achieve those grades at GCSE I would really recommend having a proper think about those ones particularly.

If she is really keen on the engineering type route, then yes go ahead, a physics tutor should help her understand and focus on it - I don’t think it’s over inflation, it’s helping grow understanding. And looking at her grades, maths with a 7 is perfectly reasonable - probably most likely to map to a B at a level though of course it varies. Yes it’s hard but so are other subjects and a high 7 in mocks is very decent.

She should do what she’s best at, and is most interested in. Here’s the document that links gcse outcomes to a level outcomes: https://www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/Images/674348-progression-from-gcse-to-a-level-2018-2020.pdf (table 2 page 10).

@Dangermouse100 I think the best advice I can give is to work out why she is getting the grades she is getting. Mocks wise they should have gone over the papers in class to answer every question. At my children's school they had a green pen to write in anything they were missing to get the full mark. This was a helpful revision aid. If they cannot bring the papers home she can either photocopy them or take photos so you can see what she wrote for each question rather than relying on her relaying it back to you.

This makes is easier for the child to understand what the issue is, are they missing content, is it understanding or an exam technique. For my child it was exam technique and with the guidance of staff I was able to help at home.

There is still time to pull those grades up. I will copy paste something that I got from a StudyTuber (ie studying techniques on YouTube but mine had this for year 10 onwards) this will help with science papers but the same technique can be applied across all the papers, look at why they didn't get more marks.

You can also look up the past papers and mark schemes yourself, walk through it question by question and compare their answer to the mark scheme. This is how maths was taught at my children's school, both of mine did maths, further maths and physics A levels but came in on 9s. The mark schemes will point out specific words especially for science but as a parent gives you insight into the papers themselves.

The system is called MARCKS for science papers (I am sure this came from Unjaded Jade on YouTube)

Maths error - Did you make a mistake in your maths?
Application of knowledge - You know and understand the content but couldn’t apply it to foreign situation/this question
Read the question - Did you miss a key term such as explain rather than describe because of how you interpreted the question but ultimately you have the knowledge and understand the topic
Communication - You understood the application but the wording you used to communicate didn’t get the marks. Could be specific terminology especially in biology
Knowledge - Is your knowledge weak? Do you understand the concept?
Statements - If it’s 4 marks but you wrote 2 points and you can see that even though you filled all the lines you were lacking in points

Write one letter next to the answer to determine if there is a pattern to not getting full marks. This is smart revision. I hope this helps.

There’s a fair amount of overlap, or at least skills consolidation, with M and P A level, so M A level should support a slighter weaker P base.

Edited to add: Ox Brookes also offer a foundation year which could be a good plan B? https://www.brookes.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/engineering-foundation

Depends how good the school is (our secondary was OK, not brilliant) and how hard she is working (not an issue for us). I have 2DC at sixth form, the first got basically the same grades in her mocks and GCSEs (some went up, some went down) but has really locked in at sixth form (and the sixth form is excellent) and is now predicted Astar, Astar, A at A level for subjects she got 7s and 8s for at school. She now says she hadn't yet learnt how to effectively revise when doing GCSEs.

The other one massively improved her grades between her mocks and GCSEs and did way better than predicted. She's Y12 so still getting up to speed at sixth form butis doing OK so far.

Mocks Actual

English 7&6 8&8
Maths 7 8
Biology 6 8
Chemistry 7 9
Physics 7 9
Geography 7 7
Music 3 6
Spanish 7 7

A levels are a big jump from GCSEs but as long as the teaching is good and she works steadily at sixth form she should be OK.

Fair enough and in fact a valid tactic – a YP I know decided to sit F paper of a subject they were more than capable of getting a 6 in, just to take off the pressure.

I still think someone with these kinds of mock grades should be fine to complete 10 GCSEs tho. @Dangermouse100 it's a good plan IMHO to get a tutor – as a PP says, it’s more about helping her understand the concepts than giving her an artificial boost, surely. But yes, the GBs for physics are low (DS2 got an 8 and even said “no idea how I did that!”) so I am not sure if that helps with the jump to A level? if she loves it tho, give it her best shot and see where she is in August. Ideally physics and maths, psych and geog as a back up.

Good post @BobInABoat re seeing where she lost marks – GCSEs esp at this stage of year 11 are less about mastery of the subject in a high-value way and more about “where can I get 5 more marks” – you have to play the game a bit in terms of vocab you use, how you answer the questions etc. I know about MFL and English how to do this and I believe it's similar with sciences as well.

Yes my first reply on here was to say I thought she could definitely improve those grades, and also that they are a decent set of grades already.