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?

I don't agree with the school / college doing this but I understand why.

The reason is that if it happens in the actual A Level the entire cohort is under suspicion and may lose their grades.

I suspect they will have an idea of who was cheating and that peer pressure will be applied. As I said I don't agree with it.

Could you ask if they will also take her first exam into account? So she retakes but her final mark is whichever was highest. They would be able to do this on the quiet without other students knowing- as long as she didn’t tell anyone. At least then she doesn’t need to worry too much about the second exam?

But if she already has other exams that dsy, she may get a lower mark than the “ practice,” Then she looks like the cheat.

The problem is it involves the school guessing who the cheats are.

I don’t think they have a basis to treat op’s dd as an exception.

How do they know that DD is not the cheat, though? If they genuinely cannot narrow it down objectively, they cannot treat anyone’s paper as “true”

@SheilaFentiman

I completely disagree. I do of course understand that OP may not want to release more info on this thread to likes of us!

But where's your investigative spirit? 😉
How hard is it for a HoY to look at the toilet activity, question a few people that they guess aren't cheaters, which will provide lots of info re who the cheaters might be. And then follow it up. Not hard.

You don't need to be Poirot or Miss Marple to put a bit of effort into an investigation, and thus then able to eliminate quite a few of the cohort who it couldn't have been.

I think if I were you I would sell it as excellent exam practice, jolly her along. I know that’s what I would have done with my DDs. You fighting and raging against it isn’t going to help her. You’ve tried to do something about it, now might be the time to just get on with it.

sorry I know that’s not what you want to hear but I’m not sure what your options are if the school won’t budge.

There you go then! Phone usage! Not exactly hard to confirm which students handed their's in, thus eliminated. Then if you had your phone with you by accident but didn't use it, phone usage will quickly prove that too.

come on! That narrows it down to only a few. And if my ds definitely didn't use his phone but was struggling to prove so, to be eliminated from the questioning, I'd be fighting hard, right?

Then you find it ends up with only a few cheaters, who can be punished. Correctly.

instead of unfair banal ban of the whole cohort.

which was my point entirely re my recent experience with ds2 😉

why aren't the people investigating doing a more thorough job to find the actual culprits. Because they can't be bothered and this is the easier option.

Not ok with me.

DD had her head down and didn’t see who used their phones ...... "but her classmates did see, so they know exactly who was cheating and who wasn’t."

there you go then. Easy peasy.
lazy by the school.

Didn’t the invigilator notice people had their phones out ?? I’d say this was a college problem.

That’s the problem.

It's a mock.

I don't get the drama about it being such a big deal. She just gets on with it. The end.

You feeding the drama by saying it's a big deal and she should complain is the problem.

A friend was saying that their child had been involved in a case in an exam where a student had a phone.

They had their result nullified for cheating.

All the children sitting around that child also were investigated as per the examination rules - in case they had been shown something by the cheat on their phone. They were all cleared in the end though.

So even the kids who didn't cheat, are at risk of a single child takes a phone into a final. The school is therefore correct in getting the whole cohort to resit if they are unable to establish whether wider cheating might have been going on.

It's reflecting the rules.

There is also an element of time here.

If they do the second mock, then do an investigation which is conclusive, they could just mark the first mock.

But if they don’t do a second mock and then the investigation isn’t conclusive, they have lost the opportunity to have any mock results.

If the school know the cheats, they are making the whole class suffer because of their own cowardice.

DD had her head down and didn’t see who used their phones but her classmates did see, so they know exactly who was cheating and who wasn’t.

Perhaps @AlphaApple would clarify whether the 'they' who 'know exactly who was cheating' is the school - because all the students who witnessed phone use and are absolutely certain that what they witnessed was the totality of the cheating (did none of them actually spend any time at all completing the paper themselves?) have told an invigilator / a tutor / the examinations officer what they saw - or the students claiming to have seen the cheating?

Some students saw other students using their phones during the exam. After the exam, a student told a member of staff who investigated the process for handing in phones, which was not robust, so they could not rule out any student having access to their phones, even though most students did not have their phone on them. Hope that is clear.

Hmm.. so any student accused of cheating by another student, not actually witnessed by an invigilator, could potentially just say that they hadn't handed in their phone because they hadn't taken it in with them that day?

What did your DD decide to do about the resit, @AlphaApple ?

Its mocks. I suspect very much they are all taking the exam at the same time anyway and there is no need for supervision.

@Spirallingdownwards no, Op’s Dd has two exams that day already: it’s pretty common to have clashes in mocks and for the odd student to need to be supervised
over lunch so they can do a morning exam in the afternoon etc. Shoehorning in a lastminute resit will certainly result in clashes

The whole cohort are retaking the exam. if this is the "exam" where they were cheating I am pretty sure the school will ensure they sit it at the same time. Indeed it would probably be the first exam of the day.

If they aren't then yes they will supervise.

Even though during A levels only 2 are scheduled (with the possibility of 3 if there are clashes and they fall within the time limits) we frequently schedule 3 a day foe mocks. It really isn't that unusual.

If they squeeze the Chemistry (or whatever) resit into the morning then some resit students will have to be supervised anyway because their Biology or other scheduled morning exam will have “gone ahead without them”

I agree that three exams in a day with clashes is unusual but not unheard of.

"All these things will pass".
If she has to do it then she has to do it. If she's an A/B student and this time she gets a B it will be fine. It matters hugely to her( and you it seems) at the moment. In a year it won't matter at all. Head down/ do it/ get it done. She will most likely go on to a lovely life. The cheaters won't.

Just to update, she's decided not to sit it, the college knows and understands. They can deal with the fallout. The wellbeing team has been great. It won't affect her academic future greatly.

It's a shame as it's marred a very happy year for everyone. No doubt the cheating students are already regretting their actions and will learn from them.