End of year 12 A level maths exam anomaly?? What’s going on?

[Whywhenwhy]

DS has been working consistently during year 12, good report from school etc. He started revising for end of year exams in good time and we also decided to get him a tutor to make sure he was on track as he needs high grades for the course he wants to donat university. He was consistently getting As on all test and past papers during this time. Come the actual exam and he found it really hard. It was written by a teacher at school. He got a grade D. We questioned how good the tutor was and have now got another one who also teaches a level maths full time. He set DS a diagnostic exam and again he got an A. He’s been working with DS and thinks he’s good at maths. School refuses to give DS the exam paper for maths as apparently it’s confidential so we can’t see what happened. Can anyone understand.

I think it’s odd that they won’t let you see the paper. I’m an A level teacher and we always give papers back with personalised feedback and msrkscheme. I teach English which can be a tad subjective but Maths should be very straightforward. Does he not know exactly where he lost marks? I would expect the teacher to have gone through it with the class.

How do they know how to improve if they don't see their exam papers? Ds is now at uni but for all maths papers they were given the mark schemes to go through to see where they could improve their marks. Why are the papers confidential? It isn't like he is asking to see other student's exam papers.

Does he know what everyone else got? Ds didn't get names but they did get a list of how many achieved what grade and then a separate list of who was on target, exceeding target or below target.

Has he been given his predicted grades for UCAS yet? What does that say?

DS was given the exam paper back and went over it briefly during the lesson but can’t remember really what was on it. Some DC did well, others badly too but DS not sure.
We actually spoke to the teacher and asked for the paper but teacher refused. He said he would have expected DS to have one of the highest marks in the class but now wonders if he’s been Googling answers. DS is obviously really hurt by this as he definitely hasn’t been and tutor’s know that’s true. No predicted grades yet.

If some did well, and DS didn't then either there was an admin error (DS's paper getting mixed up with someone else's, but as he saw his paper I don't think that can be the case), or DS just had an off day / was unlucky with the paper / didn't revise properly.

I can't understand the teacher not letting him have the paper or at least take pictures of it.

Yes it’s really frustrating. DS convinced it was nothing like a normal past paper and thinks there was stuff they’ve not been taught. I think the dc who did well are doing further maths but he’s not sure of results in general. Teacher flat refused to let us see it so completely unhelpful really. Just seems odd when he’s been getting high marks on everything else he’s done with tutors and past paper practice during his revision. It’s completely knocked his confidence.

Hi there

Could it be that they are keeping tests as evidence for school data? Even so, why not give the students a copy? During my son's A levels (awaiting results) they had to keep tests in case exams were cancelled but they gave them copies if they asked (they also went through in classes). I hope you can get this sorted!

The only reason I can think of that they might refuse to hand over the question paper is if there are students who haven't sat it yet - which really shouldn't be the case by the end of the year. They might be concerned about next year's students, but end of Y12 papers should normally be the previous year's secure AS paper. That it was one written by a teacher at the school raises questions about the validity in terms of determining grades.

This could normally be shook off as an 'I'll show them in the real thing' situation, however end of Y12 exams would normally inform UCAS grades so this could be a real issue.

In this situation I would go above the teacher's head to once again request a copy of the paper so that your DS can identify and work on his areas to improve. I would also ask what opportunity there would be for him to improve his UCAS grade given that the teacher has effectively accused him of having cheated for the rest of his assessments.

I wonder if there's any possibility that the teacher screwed up and put FM questions on the paper, which others didn't notice if they are doing FM? That might also explain reluctance to hand over. But that doesn't seem very likely surely?

You'd expect FM students to do better on the maths exam because they are generally the best maths students.

'We haven't been taught that' doesn't necessarily mean that the student hasn't been taught it, it could be that the context was unfamiliar, or that it required a bit of creative thinking.

That's a fair comment noble .

Thanks for the suggestions. It’s really annoying but I know no one can actually say for sure what happened without seeing the paper. It’s just so odd when he consistently does well with his tutors who feel he knows it well and also worrying for ucas predictions. Teacher did imply that he would still predict DS an A but we’ll have to see.

They won't she you thenpaper because they don't want you the aggro of being pulled up on poor marking or unfair questions