A level Results - 18 days - anxiety rising....anyone else??

[Poppledopple]

Maybe because it is August tomorrow - but seems to have come round quickly. Had a nice break not thinking about anything since last exam and after full on year choosing, applying, getting rejected, getting offers etc....

Might as well switch off and try and get distracted for the next 18 days....as either way it will be v busy few days/weeks after results to get started on next phase of his life.

PFB -- any old hands out there want to give me a slap?

hairy it sounds like he might do better if the workload would be different in another year....resitting might not be an option financially though....

If he does get in with grades below the offers then he should also know that he will need to spend some time working to fill the gaps, otherwise he could crash out in the first year.

We took some people recently with near misses and to be honest I am not sure it was a good choice for them. They really struggled and many dropped out or failed out, or scrapped through with 3rds etc.

They could very well have been better off on different courses, or re-sitting rather than scrapping in.

zaza that's really tough, but it sounds as though clerical checks/remarks are quite hopeful for her?

zazas totally feel for you we are in a similar situation looking at clearing now it's so hard to know what to do - I've just said why couldn't it have been simple-accepted place out for lunch to celebrate etc but oh no nothing is ever straightforward! Good luck helping your daughter

Thanks ice this concerns me too although we are looking at foundation courses so I think that would help?

yes - i think foundations courses can be really good. Of course they can also be the other thing. It is perhaps hard to work out which ones have a good communication with the degree they are prepping for and which ones don't.

I think the key thing is whether the foundation course is established in the uni programme or just some sort of bolted on after thought.

I absolutely wouldn't recommend some of the foundation courses at my uni because they are minority affairs with the over whelming majority of students going straight in.

In other places that isn't the case, and a lot of the class have done a foundation year and it all works much much better.

hairymairyfromthedairy - I know, it was what we were expecting too. It has been such a long journey to get here and the exams went so well (or so she thought)...we are also away tomorrow for a week with her younger siblings (DD staying behind for Leeds Festival) but I know I won't feel happy leaving her in this state... With remarks it might all end up OK - but we could all do without this.

My dd got grades ABB and now off to her first choice of uni - University of Kent to study Psychology!

Congratulations to those who received good grades and good luck to those with clearing.

ice what questions should we ask to make sure it's the right thing for him please?
zazas same feeling here - he feels like he's wasted 2 years right now, he's also off to a festival tomorrow so could do with getting sorted today without feeling we're rushing him into something

Loads of Oxbridge people have missed their offers and gone to Durham... They're holding a place for the re-marks, but I don't know what's going to happen.

It's so annoying because one of his grades is two levels higher than he needed!

HairyMairy

We looked at some foundation years for DD last year for maths/science but have no actual expertise.

We asked
*Size of course
*Number of contact hours (and grilled them about what it meant)
*Number of international students as if it too high can change the feel of the course
*how examined, coursework Vs exams
*drop out rate
*pass rate
*number who proceed to associated degree within same Uni
*degree outcome of foundation students on degree course
*who the lecturers are, are they same/different to those teaching on the associated degree
*location of classes as some are off site (eg Liverpool ...I think)

DD ended up with better grades after AS and A level do didn't end up applying for a foundation course but we were impressed with some of them. In particular Nottingham and Manchester. other places like Brunel were surprisingly rigorous - they had a high drop out rate but if you were prepared to work it looked like a good course.

Some of the foundation course lecturers were immensely proud of how well some of their old students had done in their degrees.

Thanks pokemon that's very useful thank you

I just want to say for the record that we have a shit attitude to learning in this country that totally over emphasises getting to the set point at the default time. People end up feeling they are total disasters because it took them a year longer to get where they wanted to be! This is total nonsense. An A level grade is worth the same in terms of learning and ability no matter when you get it.

In other countries there is nowhere near the same pressure to achieve to a preset timescale - and those places are far far better at disability equality, gender equality, racial equality, background equality at higher ed level than we are.

This is because it may well take an extra year or 2 or 3 for someone with a problematic situation or background to achieve the level their ability allows. Our hurry hurry now or never is horribly discriminatory.

Yep - seconding poke, I think a high drop out rate is actually a good indicator in some ways. We had a high pass rate but then a huge drop our rate in after progression onto the degree which is not at all good.

Asking the success rate of people from foundations once transferred would be ideal but I doubt many uni's would have that data available.

Can someone clarify the re-mark position with me?

I have queried one of my son's Geography module marks with school - a D compared to As in practice papers - all class got low marks in that module. The head of 6th form is telling me that she will get it looked at by Geography dept (why hasn't it been already) but only clerical re-marks are now possible anyway, examiner marks can no longer be questioned. Is that true?

My son has his firm offer confirmed, so I am not bothered about a re-mark, but when all module marks for a class are low, it suggests either low marking or poor marking of practice papers!! (and I fully accept it may be the latter).

Those of you whose DC are considering re-marks: just bear in mind that Ofqual have changed the rules on appeals from this summer, making it less likely that results will change as a result of a marking "review" - it's not even officially called a re-mark any more.

"Students sitting GCSEs, AS-levels and A-levels this summer could find it harder to successfully appeal against results following changes to the rules governing exam remarks and appeals.

The exam regulator Ofqual said too many students had been getting extra marks, and possibly a higher grade as a result, after requesting an exam remark when the original mark was “perfectly appropriate”.

From this summer, however, examiners are being told to only change a mark if there is a clear marking error rather than simply a difference of interpretation, which is likely to result in substantially fewer successful challenges."

Full article here

x-post kath

Can someone clarify the re-mark position with me?

I have queried one of my son's Geography module marks with school - a D compared to As in practice papers - all class got low marks in that module. The head of 6th form is telling me that she will get it looked at by Geography dept (why hasn't it been already) but only clerical re-marks are now possible anyway, examiner marks can no longer be questioned. Is that true?

My son has his firm offer confirmed, so I am not bothered about a re-mark, but when all module marks for a class are low, it suggests either low marking or poor marking of practice papers!! (and I fully accept it may be the latter).

oops, sorry for duplicate post.

This article explains the changes to re-marks quite clearly.

Thanks for that post, but it still sounds as if a remark is possible, "if there is a clear marking error", whereas I have been told only clerical re-marks are possible - which suggests just adding up of marks, not checking for any marking errors?!

mmmm - doesn't affect my DS, but may affect DD with GCSEs next week.

Apparently the remark system has changed in order to reduce the number of requests submitted in the vague hope of an upgrade. Far more faith is being placed in the markers. You can still get a remark but the timing is such that return of scripts would be after the deadline for requests. Initially it would just be a retot up of allocated marks rather than a review of the full script. Ds has two Bs fairly near the A boundary but we felt not worth the potential uncertainty of a remark as his uni place was secure.

No, the clerical re-mark means checking that marks have been added up correctly, and that all questions have been marked, but it also allows the reviewer to check that the mark scheme has been properly applied.

Here's an example of how it's changed. I teach English. Imagine Johnny had gained 24/30 for one of his essays in the exam. Roughly speaking, that places him in the B band. If I appealed Johnny's mark, and the reviewer thought it was worth 26/30, he couldn't change it - because that still places Johnny in the B band. Both the original examiner and the reviewer thought Johnny's essay fulfilled the criteria for a B - one just rated it more highly. So Johnny's original mark doesn't change (because the change would be based on subjective opinion).

However, if the reviewer thought Johnny's essay was worth 28/30, he could alter the mark. Because that would place the essay in the A band, and would therefore mean the original marker had not applied the mark scheme correctly because he had not acknowledged all the criteria Johnny's essay was fulfilling.

Does that make ANY sense? It's what I understand the new process to be, anyway.

As LIZS says, it's to try to stem the tide of speculative requests for re-marks just on the off-chance, not because you think there has been an actual marking error, but because the mark is very close to the boundary above.

Thanks for taking the time to advise Laura and eatyourveg - we have followed both sets of advice! As far as Sheffield know he is going there and has applied for the accommodation he wants. Leeds have given him till the 31st to see what happens with the remark. We shall just wait and see - either way he will be okay. We hadn't even considered applying elsewhere for the MEng year, so that was a really good point thank you. He has always said he fancies studying in the US so maybe that is a possibility for the future. Best wishes to you all xx

Also thanks paxmanfan and 2Rebecca for your wise words. DS and myself dithered for ages about pressing any buttons on his UCAS offer (insurance choice) whilst he was thinking about the remark, but there weren't any (accept/reject) options, just a link to the welcome email saying that it is a binding contract! We will have to ask them to release him if he is able/wants to trade to his first choice if anything comes from the remark. We shall see - I am almost calm again...