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Higher education

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Original poster

A Level Anxiety

895 replies

Toffee22 · 14/08/2011 22:42

Only 4 more "sleeps" until the A level results come out - not that I will be doing much sleeping...

Eldest son wants to study medicine. 3 "A's" required no slip ups allowed. Have just checked and most medical schools don't accept re-sits. How can I face looking at the cold hard facts at some point on Thursday. I'm sure it will be difficult for my son too! When I tried to talk to him about it today instead of a response he said he would do an "impression of a tree". It wasn't even a very good impression. What does this mean?

OP posts:
cricketballs · 19/08/2011 11:59

sometimes it is not just about finding marks; we have had papers where basic adding the marks up were incorrect! Your school will be best to advise, and will generally first ask for a copy of the paper (every step of this process costs a fortune!) and then go from there

sieglinde · 19/08/2011 12:01

Oxford is doing its best to create a bursary scheme with the help of private donors, but it can't come from the 9k as it is all needed to make up for the even more massive cut in funding.

mi55moppett · 19/08/2011 12:03

Thanks- I'll be on to the school asap!

saggarmakersbottomknocker · 19/08/2011 12:05

Mrswoodentop - dd got an E in the second AS history paper after an A in the January one. Her knowledge is good - I think she just cocked up that particular paper - it was a sources question which she's a bit iffy on. I think she's going to do a straight resit.

mrswoodentop · 19/08/2011 12:15

Sagger I think that's what we will end up doing,was it OCR ?Just clutching at straws to try and avoid resit .Also worried that if he didn't get the technique after one year of teaching what is going to change after a couple of resit lessons at school

Fififi · 19/08/2011 13:14

Mrs woodentop and (types very carefully!) saggarmakersbottomknocker- I'm sure there will be history teachers aplenty who may come to offer advice here but from a mum of two AS history students - the sources paper is marked on completely different criteria than the essay questions. It's not a question of what you know, it's how you answer the question. By way of illustration, DD1 managed a big fat ZERO marks for the "long" question in her AS paper two years ago since she somehow misread the question and answered referring to the wrong two sources ( ie sources A and C rather than B and D or something). The teachers got her paper back and said she'd written perfectly sensible stuff about the topic concerned but by having not referred to the correct sources got Nul Points. She retook it a year later with her A2s ( reasoning that very little revision required since it was a sources paper) and scored nigh on full marks this time round.

Meanwhile DS coming along a year later also commented that very little revision was required for the sources paper, a broad understanding of the key issues, key players was all that was necessary and instead the boys were brainwashed into remembering to READ the question and DOUBLE CHECK which sources were to be referenced ( perhaps DD1's mistake was more common than I'd allowed) and NOT try to write out all they knew on the subject, but use what was in the sources only and ABOVE ALL to cross refer to the sources and the key words of the question ( Reliability, utility, what can you learn...., how do the sources differ/agree) again and again and AGAIN in their answers.

It's a tricky thing though to pick up and practice makes perfect. DD2 is at a diferent school and struggles with sources at GCSE level, she much prefers the straight esay questions of the other paper. The sources paper is oen of the most widely resat papers of all at her school...

saggarmakersbottomknocker · 19/08/2011 13:17

Edexcel I think. dd wasn't keen on the resit either but I think she's warming to the idea now.

saggarmakersbottomknocker · 19/08/2011 13:22

Thanks for that Fififi. I do think you're right. I think dd may well have put in too much of her own knowledge and either not enough source or used the wrong ones. She loves Hisatory and probably just gets carried away. She dropped marks in her GCSE on the same thing. Thanks you for the tips.

sieglinde · 19/08/2011 13:43

Godsakes, I despair of this exam system! They write down something original and they FLUNK? Ridiculous.

dreamingofsun · 19/08/2011 13:53

sagger i agree with you ref 9k and subsidising poorer students. If the gov wants to do this fine, but it should come out of general taxation - not the money 2 of my kids will have to pay. Especially since they may be subsidising students who go on to earn loads more than them.

Fennel · 19/08/2011 14:03

Most of the 9k will just replace what the government funding currently gives universities per student. So the universities will have no more money than now. But students will be expecting a lot more.

Meanwhile some of our departmental libraries are shuttting down, all requests for expensees rejected, lecturing posts being cut, lots of admin and finance staff being made redundant. It's lots of fun just now in the university system Hmm. So the poor students will be paying all this extra money but the universities will be struggling by with fewer resources and fewer staff.

sieglinde · 19/08/2011 14:11

The universities will have LESS money than now. The fees will bring in LESS than the grant cut.

adamschic · 19/08/2011 14:16

Have a look at the mark scheme for the History source based exams. I'm sorry to say this but this exam is all about understanding the questions. FWIW DD did this one in Jan and got a U!!! I looked at her answer and couldn't believe it but once we looked very closely I could see that she had missed the point, but not completely, so very harsh marking. She did much better with her resit result, she got yesterday, but I had to help her to understand how to answer the question.

I was really chuffed with myself as some of the points I picked out were worthy of an A (described as being the more astute candidate answers).

As for people feeling they have failed their DC's, don't feel like this.

Mine is at a state school and her 6th form have weak depts., unfortunately for DD, mainly in the subjects she is studying. Some pupils did get A* A level results yesterday but you are talking exceptionally brainy and I suspect, in fact know, that their studying is topped up with private tutors, which being a low paid single mum I cannot afford to do.

Also you see good private schools where the majority of pupils get A grades and it really makes you aware of the inequalites of life, guess it's just a fact of life really, isn't it?

I've just bought DD a new dress to say well done, after all isn't a B grade at State School equivalent to an A at private Grin.

nickschick · 19/08/2011 14:19

A* Id say Grin.

My ds who is v gifted at history got a B in it too and i heard yesterday that another student who was expected to get a B got a D....

adamschic · 19/08/2011 14:28

nickschick a B in the source one is good. Or is that a private school B? Grin

Right no more of this, promise.

mrswoodentop · 19/08/2011 14:29

Thanks fifi that's really helpful,his paper was the Tudor crisis,actually there seemed to be a vast amount of facts to be assimilated but I think we may have similar children sagger ,mine is a natural historian I think he probably just gets carried away

nickschick · 19/08/2011 14:39

lol its a catholic 6th form college result - im not sure what you mean by 'source one' it was just the A2 history paper.

adamschic · 19/08/2011 14:41

I thought it was the 'source based' history paper. Ignore me as I don't even know if there is such a thing at A2 Blush.

saggarmakersbottomknocker · 19/08/2011 14:46

Thanks adamschic - yes dd's was the source based AS paper. As opposed to the A2. But I don't want to confuse you Grin

adamschic · 19/08/2011 15:07

Fiffi's advice is spot on and much better than mine.

The source based ones throw some strange results out. One lad got an A for his and the brainer ones were getting lower marks, then come the essay questions the results near enough reversed.

slowcookedtopside · 19/08/2011 15:17

I tink history is all about the teaching. 15 years ago my whole class got awful marks. One girl got a B - she had been at a different school for GCSE and teh GCSE syllabus there in part was similar to our A-level work. My friend and I - both by far the best students in the class (Oxbridge applicants - thank goodness we hadn't got offers!) - got Cs. Everybody else got D, E or U! In my other exams I got all As. I don't blame a lack of preparation on our part. I blame our teaching and by the look on the Head of 6th Forms face so did she.
Fortunately I got my university place. Offer was A in history and then BC. So I dropped two grades and still got in. Not sure that would have worked this year!

mrswoodentop · 19/08/2011 15:37

Yes iits the source based paper on the tudors at AS level

jgbmum · 19/08/2011 15:42

DS is 3/600 UMS points (equates to 0.5%) off an A in his A2s & has been rejected by his firm choice Uni. - so you probably wouldn't get in this year if you dropped 2 Grades Grin

MABS · 19/08/2011 16:24

where is he going to go Jgbmum?

Yellowstone · 19/08/2011 16:32

You're obviously not joking jgbmum but that's unbelievably harsh. No chance of a re-think? Or priority re-mark? I'm trying to remember from another thread, was in engineering at Nottingham? What will he do? There are quite a few hard cases amongst students I know, but that's the harshest yet.

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