Is it too early for an A level support thread!

[HereWeGo2023]

Hello all, apologies if there is already a thread but I can’t find one.
May had finally rolled around and the first exam is a mere 2 weeks away. Exam stress has hit our house! It’s feels like everything is about waiting at the moment - waiting for the predicted grades, waiting for the uni offers, waiting for the exams to start, and then the long wait for the results!
This is our youngest DD but the first one in further education so would love to chat to other parents going through this

It isn’t as simple as that though is it. Ds is also predicted A stars but predictions are based on looking at previous grade boundaries. The stated position is that they are aiming for the same
Number of A stars as 2019 which means that if they all score highly the grade boundaries will have to lift..

However they are anticipating that this cohort will actually do worse than the 2019 cohort and so the grade boundaries will be lower than 2019 in order to get the same
number of A stars

Glad I've found you as I'm getting stressed. DD has just texted to say she is studying with a friend after spending the afternoon with bf.
First is history next week. They have finally finished the course this week and start study leave on Monday. She has been doing a couple hours each evening but when she goes out she is out and takes the next day to recover. I'm not sure if she has done enough but I'm trying to back off now. What will be, will be.

Yes I have several colleagues, friends and family who mark for one of the exam boards and they’ve all been told to expect lower grade boundaries this year - I’ve heard from people who mark for English Lit, English Lang (GCSE), Politics, History, Food & Nutrition (GCSE) and RS and they have all been told that. My friend who marks Maths GCSE is desperately hoping grade boundaries are higher this year than last as they were dire last year and he really fears that kids are getting GCSE passes knowing very little.

Yes. Our school newsletter just mentioned a link to a statement from the government with a brief statement about 'grade protection'

Statement here

https://ofqual.blog.gov.uk/2023/05/10/summer-exams-are-starting/

“This year GCSEs, AS and A levels are returning to pre-pandemic grading arrangements, with protection for students to recognise the disruption they have faced. This means Ofqual expects national results this year to be similar to those in pre-pandemic years. The protection means that a typical student who would have achieved, for example, a B grade in A level geography before the pandemic will be just as likely to get a B in geography in 2023, even if their performance in the assessments is a little weaker than it would have been before the pandemic.”

basically they seem to be expecting that students affected by COVID will do
slightly worse in terms of raw performance than the equivalent pre COVID cohort but will end up with a similar range of grades.

Will the outcome be that there’s more of a gap between students whose schools
dealt well with online learning/ catch up and those who didn’t this year, than the last couple of years when there was grade inflation and everyone reasonably smart got good grades regardless of how well their schools coped with lockdown?

I think you are right that the inequality which was worse in Covid will show up in the results. But that I guess would be true whatever they do. It’s not fair.

I haven’t had a lot of feedback about yesterday’s exam - moving onto the next one now and only other before half term. Everyone is wishing that they could have timetabled the whole of economics before half term to get it out off the way but there is one more when they get back. At least Chemistry is all quite a bit later in the period.

My daughter watches YouTube for GCSEs stuff. The school even link to some science videos on there.

It seems to be a great resource for her.

Yes there is a lot of good educational content on YouTube.

DD first exam this morning, psychology. She's very nervous and is feeling the pressure of needing certain grades for Uni.

My DS also has Psychology this morning. He is stressed because they haven’t had a teacher since Feb half term so we got a Tutor who has had to basically retract the entire course in a couple of months as there were so many gaps. He needs an A star so got everything crossed!

Hello everyone, just found this thread! DS had the dreaded Edexcel Geography paper 1 on Wednesday and has Psychology paper 1 today. Politics and Psychology paper 2 next week. My eldest didn't start exams until after half term (2017) so I think they are more spread out now. I've forgotten how stressful it is - I think I am more nervous than him!

@mrsconradfisher & @ono40 not long to wait now. Also waiting to hear from DS for maths GCSE. I think we might treat ourselves to a takeaway tonight, lol!

Just setting off to pick him up now, can't settle to do any work this morning. We have a brunch booked for 12 to mark the end of the first week :)

@ono40 that's a lovely idea!
My daughter also doing Psychology today. After that she has a Tudors revision session for History exam nextt week (and 2nd Psychology). Then she will be more than halfway done as she had her Art A level at the beginning of May.
First time getting extra time (due to MS diagnosis last month), so not out yet.

Lots of people coming out of the AQA Psychology in tears apparently. DS said there were three 16 markers instead of two (why would exam boards change the structure?) and that they were on quite niche topics. Overall he thinks it was ok but it has made him worried for Politics next week which is his hardest subject

Sorry to hear AQA psychology was difficult. Dd just came out of edexcel psychology and said it went well but she struggled with tiredness towards the end and couldn't think as well as she would have liked. Probably partially down to the early start and poor sleep through nerves. Luckily the last 2 exams are in the afternoon.

Can I join you - hadn't realised there was a thread!

Dd just came out of AQA Psychology and said that although they were a bit shocked by three 16 markers, she thinks it went OK. She was NOT happy after the Edexcel Geography exam on Weds though (and she's taking it at uni, hopefully!) but I'm reassured that others on here have had DCs saying similar things.

I'm finding this year far more stressful, despite DS last year sitting on a Cambridge offer and needing stellar grades, including an A star in FM. He more or less predicted what marks he'd got after each exam because he knew exactly where he'd dropped them, but with DD doing Geog, Psych and Biology it all seems a bit more subjective..I'm so glad we haven't got A levels next year, just GCSEs 🤪

I don't understand why the exam boards wouldn't warn if they are going to change the structure of the exams - it's not meant to be a test of 'have you prepared for every possible structure of exam paper'.

My DS has messaged saying that he loved the Psychology paper, he had already planned all 3 of the 16 marker questions with his tutor so he felt it went really well. Much much better than the horrific Edexcel Geography paper on Wednesday…

DD AQA psychology said it went ok. She was surprised at the 3x16 markers and said it sent the timing plan out the window. 3 shorter questions they hadn't covered so that was unhelpful.

Apparently there were 3x16markers last year too. I’ve been told by teacher friend that there are 6x16markers across the three papers, so they will find only 1 on one of the other papers coming up.

I invigilated AQA Psychology this morning and the students seemed to take it in their stride, nobody in tears, mainly cheerful faces at the end. Fingers crossed for all the Psychologists on this thread.

That's interesting @AfingeroffudgeisNOTenough I guess DD hadn't seen last years paper. When she mentioned her surprise to her teacher afterwards, the teacher said it happens quite often - might've been helpful to impart that information during the weeks leading up to the exam!

Definitely @Neversaygoodbye! My friend had definitely warned her pupils of the range of formats and always tells them 20min per 16marker so regardless of how many they have, they can figure it out timing wise. My DD’s subjects seem to be set format-wise which I’m glad of!