Whole class has done badly in mock A’level. Covid related?

[billyblueblood]

DD is devastated. She’s a very hardworking kid, has to put in a lot of effort to get good grades but has done a lot of revising. Apparently most of the class have done badly so not sure what is going on. Not sure if it’s a result of a lack of exams during covid or something else. How’s your year 13 doing?

Isn't the difficulty of the subject subjective?
After all most A level maths/FM students are good at maths in the first place. DD excelled at STEM subjects at GCSE and A level, but she found English literature less easy. She prefers subjects that have clear right or wrong answers and isn't very good at waffle.

At GCSE she achieved her highest UMS marks in physics out of the three science subjects, but didn't understand it at all. She just mmorised everything and did loads of past papers to practice on.

This year group have been impacted by COVID, yes. The tests they did in lieu of actual GCSEs were not the same as they didn't cover the whole spec in one go. Also they may not have been taught the whole syllabus for GCSE so have gaps. In sciences, many did very little practical work as even when schools reopened the restrictions made it very difficult.

Surely the current year 13s will have had a full set of internal exams at the end of year 12? Everything was pretty much back to normal last year.

As some schools were not able to finish the GCSE syllabus that has affected some A level study. If they didn't cover an area at GCSE then they need to cover it and add extra info on top for A level.

Internal exams are not the same as having the experience of a proper external exam.
Less pressure. More idea of what is going to be on the paper. May not even be sat in the exam hall, as some schools don't have the room to do that with year 12 so they are just in classrooms.

At dds school in some departments they put the hardest questions that they can find in the mock .
Has not done any real past papers to get a more realistic idea?

In subjects that build on previous knowledge like maths, sciences and languages missing 40% ie 2/5 terms of the gcse course made a significant difference to their A level starting point.In things like history and geography it would not make much difference

My year 13’s are struggling with the sheer amount of stuff they need to revise. They didn’t have to do it at GCSE because of the way their exams worked and it’s a really steep learning curve 🤷🏻‍♀️

My dd is in y13 - they all did shockingly bad in their mocks too. I assume it is a factor that this is because this is the first exams they've ever sat and they have no experience in sitting proper exams in proper exam conditions. The teachers don't seem too concerned though. (The kids are all completely anxious about they).

But a mock isn't a 'proper external exam' either.

There were school closures in January/Feb 2021 as well, and they did not sit normal GCSEs...

Autumn 2020 was massively impacted in some schools as well because this was still the stage of sending home whole year groups for self isolation if a few tested positive.

Many current Y13s have been significantly impacted by this.

I think it's really harsh that this year's A levels are being marked using 2019 standards and boundaries. The current year 13 are still massively hindered by their Covid experience, and haven't ever sat proper external exams. My DS barely went to school in 2020 due to lockdowns and class isolations. One of his A levels is a language and they didn't have any spoken language assessment at all for GCSE, so the idea that he is as well prepared as a 2019 candidate is ridiculous.

I'm guessing you didn't have a child in year 10 during Covid. They essentially missed about half the syllabus, and because time ran out, schools were allowed to assess them based on just a proportion of the actual course. This meant that they started their A level courses having not fully covered the GCSE course, which of course has disadvantaged them hugely.

I think it's really harsh that this year's A levels are being marked using 2019 standards and boundaries.

They're not. They're being marked using the 2019 grade distribution. This means that roughly the same percentage of pupils will get an A or whatever grade as did in 2019. Obviously during the pandemic, the percentage of pupils getting an A and other top grades shot up due to different assessment methods being used, so the percentages needed to be brought back down. This was done so that last year the percentage of A*s were about halfway between 2019 and 2021, and this year they'll be back to normal.

Given that, as you say, these pupils will have been affected by covid, the standard of work that they will achieve could well be lower than the cohort in 2019, but they will get the same spread of grades that they did. The grade boundaries will be set after the exams to fit the grade distribution needed, not the other way around. (This always happens in normal years to prevent grade inflation).

The bold bit shouldn't be bold, it should have been two lots of A*

Also the current y13 spent all their y11 not knowing how their gcse grades were going to assessed.As my dd put it, everyday was an exam day because they just did not know which tests, which pieces of work might be used.I know the sixth form team say this year group has had the worst mental health of any they have ever known

The last public exam this year group took was the year six SATS. And many went into year 12 not even having completed the GCSE syllabus because of COVID disruption. DS2 is doing science A levels yet spent the first part of year 12 playing catch-up on topics not covered.
Yet no allowances made for this cohort.

Yet no allowances made for this cohort.

They are being judged against their cohort who have all been disadvantaged by covid. Obviously they will have had varying experiences, but it's not the same as judging them by pre-covid standards.

My whole class did badly at the mocks for an A Level subject. It turned out the teacher was teaching his version of the subject, not the exam syllabus.

We all got shit marks on the real exams too and it messed up our university choices.

I think the lack of exams at GCSE level will have been a factor. Exam technique and not having nerves can go a long way. I can think even many years ago of people in my class at school as good as me or better who ended up with lower grades because of nerves or lack of exam technique.

I actually think the inequalities between different schools provision has been accentuated by Covid. In normal times there'd be good schools and bad schools , private schools and state schools, but ultimately they'd have roughly similar experiences in that their learning will have consisted of teachers in classrooms. Pupils sit and listen, teachers stand and talk. Same basic model.
During Covid the educational provision ranged from back to back online interactive live lessons, to work being set on platforms that some pupils couldn't even access at all.

For that reason I personally feel that allowances should be made for this year group and probably next years too.

@cptartapp hang on sorry, I'm getting the year groups mixed up. It's my year 9 kid who missed SATs! So many lockdowns, I get confused!!

Dd in a similar boat, she got a C in her mocks and needs a B/predicted a B. She is feeling very worried about it but all she can do is carry on doing her best...!

Try not to worry, my dd got ccba in her mocks (Jan) and a*aab in the real exams 4 years ago. It's normal to underperform in the mocks, I think schools mark harshly to give them a proverbial kick