How will prior attainment be used to calculate A-Level grades?

[Iris2212]

I'm guessing it means GCSEs, in which my son got four 9s, three 8s, and two 7s, as well as 9 in a short-course.

He's been getting As and As in all big mocks.
In smaller class tests, he's been getting As, As, and a few Bs earlier on in the year, with one recent U due to a panic attack.

A teacher online was suggesting using some Alps system which would suggest he would be given As based on prior attainment (GCSEs), even though he's been aiming for As and has A in his coursework.

No, they won’t use GCSE grades to directly calculate A-level grades otherwise that negates any work (or lack of work) that they’ve done for the past two years.

What I would suspect that they will do is use GCSE grades on a cohort level to check that the school isn’t taking the piss with their predicted grades.

Like ‘You have predicted Iris DS an A* and he has got good GCSE results and mock results so this seems reasonable’.
Versus ‘You have predicted Iris DS an A* but he got 5s in his GCSE and a U in his mocks, hahaha we don’t think so’

But not just on an individual level - you predicted your Y13s results which seem reasonable given their GCSE grades, so although it looks like Iris DS should be getting a lower A-level grade based on his GCSE results, because we trust the school and his mock grades support this, we will give him an A*.

It is a worry isn’t it. DD got 2x8, 5x7, 6 and 5 for GCSES but is predicted AAA for her A-levels.

@aibutohavethisusername I just hope the exam boards realise that people can easily improve from GCSEs. They better not put that much
weighting on prior attainment.

It's not like my son's or your daughter's GCSEs are bad, but these systems don't take into account how much work people but in.

A predicted grade for each subject would have been completed on every UCAS form. They will most likely then look at GCSE grades to see if comsistant. They may ask schools for mock grade for each subject. I taught A level for many years and was examiner and my predicted grades were well over 90 per cent accurate. The other 10 per cent were usually one grade either side of prediction and close to grade boundary. GCSE grades are much harder to validate.

Don't forget they can always ask school to send in mock papers for inspection.

Good luck with that, we don’t have ours, the kids got them back ages ago.

We were frantically getting in as many mock papers as we could before school finished but inevitably missed some. Luckily we keep all the GCSE mocks in a folder til just before the exams. I was doing internal estimated grades for year 11 yesterday and was so relieved to be able to go back through all their papers. It's such a crappy situation!

@caringcarer Not everyone student would use UCAS though as they don't all apply to university.

Nobody knows yet. We should know more in April they've said. It's all speculation at moment - unless someone on her leads OFQUAL ?

@Iris2212 At my school we still had to do reference and predicted grades in case they changed their mind.

Sorry, just come in to vent really as I’m so worried. My DS hasn’t applied to uni and was hoping to get an apprenticeship(has applied to a couple, though not many around). I keep seeing lots of info about unis but not much about those who needs grades to try and get a decent job. DS had a really bad start at sixth form college. One teacher tried to motivate him by picking on him and making fun of his dyslexia. I think he thought DS would somehow rise to the challenge and improve what the teacher saw as careless errors and prove him wrong but it had the exact opposite effect. DS ended up missing lessons due to having panic attacks but also became quite sullen and started hanging round with kids outside college who weren’t really the most motivated, so didn’t exactly endear himself to the other teachers. We did get his class changed (so he was with a different, and really supportive, teacher) but he never really came back from it. We recently got him to see a counsellor which did seem to help a bit. His grades aren’t great due to him hating college, but he had finally started revising and I think would have brought his grades up by working in the last few weeks. I just feel so sad that he has no way to pull it back, even though I do get that he should have worked all the way through. Plus I’m worried as without the grades to find something to motivate him, what is there to get him away from the friends he has who seem to bring out the worst in him? I feel bad about feeling so sad when there’s so much else going on in the world at the moment, but I just feel that after him flogging himself all through secondary and getting great grades at GCSE, it’s all gone to pot.

I have now read Ofqal has decided that students will not be allowed to query their grades this year. Instead they will be allowed to sit their exams when schools resume in autumn.

I have now read Ofqal has decided that students will not be allowed to query their grades this year. Instead they will be allowed to sit their exams when schools resume in autumn.

This is still under consultation (until 29 Apr). At present Ofqual is recommending it, rather than having decided it. Schools would still be able to appeal on students' behalf, although this could only be on the grounds that the exam board had used the wrong information.

Of course, if they sit their exams in the autumn it's very unlikely that they will have their grades in time to start university in the coming academic year, unless someone decides to put back the start of the university year to January (which would have all sorts of unintended consequences).

This could be a real issue for some students - I've just posted a new thread in the Higher Education forum covering this area.

See also www.crowdjustice.com/case/challenge-ofqual/

Using GCSE results wouldn't work for my DD. 2 out of her 3 A levels she didn't even do at GCSE.

Prior attainment is looking at the whole cohort' s prior attainment as a group and expected grades rather than on an individual basis.