How far do I push this - whole cohort forced to retake a mock exam

[AlphaApple]

A Level mock exam yesterday. First year of A Levels so counts for predicted grades. It has "come to light" that one or more students cheated, but they cannot identify who. Whole class has been told they must re-sit on Thursday.

DD is distraught. She has two other exams already on Thursday, is tired and stressed and cannot fathom sitting three mocks in one day.

My initial request to her tutor to reconsider has been turned down. I have asked them to escalate.

DD emphatically did not cheat, nor was she even aware of what others were doing. She had her head down for the whole exam.

Does anyone have any advice?

One of my kids had this but frustratingly the school seemed to know who the cheats were, yet instead of giving them zero and moving on, everyone had to resist. I’m still scratching my head over that many years later. These things are just a blip in time in reality though.

It doesn't seem reasonable to have 3 exams in 1 day so they'll have to come up woth a solution surely

If she already has 2 exams on the same day then I'd be questioning not only the value of resitting the mock, but also the logistics - how is she going to be supervised between the exams so she has no contact with other students who take it earlier in the day.

The school will likely retort with something about predicting grades - they can still do this without a single mark for this resit.

Up to the school to tighten their security around cheating in exams - it would be ridiculous to suggest a whole cohort resits NEXT year if they can't ensure cheating hasn't been identified during a mock.

Well, she obviously can’t sit it on Thurs. there won’t be time. They can do her predictions without her mock result, but if they insist, they will need to find another day.

@Whyherewego this is their last week at college before they break up for work experience week and then the end of term. So it has to happen on Thursday or, I guess maybe Friday?

@HoppingPavlova I know that in five years' time this will seem like a blip but DD is melting down right now!

It does seem unfair to get them to resit on the same day as two other exams. I don't think it's unreasonable to get them all to resit but I don't understand why they wouldn't give them the best chance to do well by letting them do it after the other ones have finished. Maybe try to speak to other parents - if you all object that might have more weight. Otherwise your dd is just going to have to do her best and hope she doesn't need the results of the exam next year.

It’s a mock. It’s good exam practice. And she has already done the revision anyway so no need to do any extra work. Tell her to count the first mock as a revision session and this is the real one.

Advise (which I know may not be popular)? Accept that in life these things aren't fair and suck a lot and put your energy and mindset into the retake instead of fighting an almighty battle you most certainly win.

If they can’t prove or know who cheated then yes everyone has to redo the exam. You don’t know the circumstances. What if it was a piece of cheat paper - they may not know who’s it is. Etc.

Its the only fair way.

That sounds really unfair on your DD @AlphaApple. But how did they discover the cheating yet not discover who the cheats were?

You can have two or three exams scheduled during a day in the actual timetable. Maybe suggest it is food practice. Otherwise she will need to be supervised overnight to take another day. Surely you would prefer her result to be correctly benchmarked within the cohort?

@LIZS she can be correctly benchmarked within her cohort based on her first attempt.

She's fairly robust but this has thrown her. I can't imagine how this would go down with people with additional challenges.

If some cheated and achieved inflated results then she may be undergraded. What subject is it?

I don't know exactly, there are some details I have left out for anonymity so I can understand how cheating was possible. The college did not make adequate provision to prevent cheating (although of course the responsibility lies with the students).

My DS had 3 GCSEs in one day a couple of weeks ago ... there was a clash with different exam boards and he had to do 1 in the morning and then 2 in the afternoon with only a 15 minute break between them.
These are his real GCSEs, not mocks.

So it can be done and may be good practice for the curveball life throws at us.

Agree that it seems unfair to make them all resit though.

I’m sorry this has thrown her, but it is quite possible other students will have three mocks in a day and be supervised during breaks as they are sitting at a different time to the cohort.

The mock will inform the predicted grade, it won’t be the sole determinant, so if she does slightly worse because of the scheduling, teachers will be aware of this.

I understand you and your DD maybe frustrated, but as they don't know who cheated then they have no option but to make everyone resist it. It is only a mock and they probably have limited time to fit it in before the end of the week.

I would just tell DD that these things happen and you just have to get on with it. As others have said she's already done the revision so it shouldn't be to difficult. DD had a clash of exams in her mocks, they just kept her in a room with a teacher between exams so she couldn't talk to any other students.

Mock papers may be as short as 90 mins long so there may well be time.

She is not going to do particularly well after sitting two other exams.

I'm sure that they can come up with another solution if they put their mind to it.

The only other solution is moving the whole group to take the exam next week, say, which may be very difficult for timetabling.

Otherwise they will be looking to the slot which minimises clashes for the cohort, and to adjust for the “unlucky” ones with the clashes in the predictions.

Does it actually matter if she doesn't do as well as possible in the extra exam? These are just mocks and primarily useful to gauge your own level; if she knows she'd have done better then it still gives her that guide.

I’d refuse. She didn’t cheat so why should she be punished and potentially do worse in the other two exams on Thursday? How ridiculous. The college sounds dreadful.

How do they not know who cheated? A quick scan of the papers will tell you the culprits!

Not necessarily - the cheating could be eg a formula sheet/list of quotes that should have been memorised but was brought into the room and then dropped. Reviewing the papers would give no indication as many students would have memorised as required.

Because if she refuses to sit the mock, the college will have to predict her a grade without it. They won't use the 'suspect' paper because they don't know who the cheat was.

She's consistently an A/B student in this subject so maybe she should just not do the paper and they can go on her previous assessments.

Having to resit a two hour paper is overkill.