University 2020 :4: The wait for grades and better days ahead

[MillicentMartha]

New thread for us. Interesting times.

Old thread here

@Millicent his sixth form college gave him a reference and a predicted grade. Unfortunately he couldn’t do the A level there as he already had 3 A levels. I’m not sure they would have given him a predicted grade normally but his Maths teacher taught F Maths and gave him lots of advice re doing F Maths before DS left. He did say that most people he taught got similar grades for Maths as F Maths.
DS didn’t choose his old sixth form as his exam centre. Otherwise I think things would have been more straightforward now. Instead he chose one that was easiest to get to but doesn’t know him at all.

I hope his other universities are as sympathetic and he ends up having some good options, FabTab. 🤞

Did you see A level grades will be 13 August? I wish they hadn’t raised the false hope that they would be earlier

Has anyone tried to apply for student finance in the past few days? We have just tried and it says the centres are closed and you cannot apply?

We applied successfully a couple of days ago. The first couple of times it said that there were technical problems on the website. We then tried quite late at night and it went through with no problem.

My daughter is quite pessimistic about grades - is it going to be too subjective? Teachers' perceptions are, by definition 'subjective' - but then she told me about 'dropout studies' - amusing podcast that tickled her fancy, and mine - apple.co/2TaDeZc - she'd definitely get an A in that!

@Lazyparent to cheer you DD up it won't be subjective. There will be v clear criteria as to how grades are awarded and it will be based on data. Not sure of the criteria yet but it won't allow for much teacher speculation. I am assuming it will look at grades achieved in all exams in sixth form, GCSE results and a small pinch of uplift for the study time lost. I'm dreading doing it ☹️

A question on finance. Dd isn’t sure if she will go this year and may ask to defer (I understand they may say no). Do we have to apply for finance now given that she won’t decide whether to go until Aug? Is there no package avail then?

Apply then cancel if needs be, it is very straightforward. Tbh given the need for unis to get bums on seats this year I suspect requests to defer will not be agreed.

Thanks Lizs - so cancelling is an option? I’ll get on with it then

Ps I’m sure unis won’t want them to defer but not sure all unis will have that luxury - teens facing 30k fees may take their debt elsewhere

@mumsneedwine I don’t understand how it’s going to work in practice looking at both grades achieved in all exams in sixth form and GCSE results. If you have a pupil who got, for the sake of argument, 10 grades 9s and another who got 10 grade 6s but the second pupil got better results in every test who gets to be above the other on the list? I don’t see how you can put them in order using both metrics.

@JufusMum we tried to apply yesterday snd got the same message. I wondered if perhaps they were working on the website over the weekend and decided we’d try again in the week.

I don’t think the guidance mentions GCSEs for use by the teachers in predicting A level grades. Only 6th form tests/mocks/teacher assessments. GCSEs will be used by the exam boards to help them apply the statistical model to adjust grades up or down but that will be looking at the cohort’s GCSEs not an individual’s. There has been plenty of guidance issued including the recent consultation.

@FabTab so GCSEs individually will not be looked at but will be used to decide the cohort profile. From that schools can use ALPS data to decide how many of each grade they should be able to justify. Then it's looking at each student individually and ranking them within that grade, using the data we have, so mocks, tests and classwork/homework throughout 6th form. The ranking bit is what I'm dreading as so many students get v similar grades.

I think we’re saying the same thing in different ways, mumsneedwine.

@MillicentMartha & the recent consultation has made things less clear as everything is now subject to change, pending the consultation. A levels will be easier than GCSEs where I have 17 grade choices for students. And have to decide my classes grades with 2 other teachers and then rank them when I don't teach every student in the year. But we'll do our very best to make it fair.

@MillicentMartha yes think we definitely agree 😊.

And I don’t envy you the task!

Ooooh I'm glad I found this thread!

My son applied for student finance on Friday last week, it went through fine. I had to add my section which took a lot of remembering on my part to log in 😆

DS has been rejected from two physio courses, accepted for one cardiac physiology. We are now currently looking at 'other' courses and he feels a bit deflated he wasn't successful for his first/second choices.

Physiotherapy is so competitive, a bit like nursing. You can have all the grades required but there just aren’t enough places for all those who apply. Could he take a gap year and reapply with grades in hand and try to get some relevant work experience? Or is he keen to get started this year?

We applied for finance last Monday. DD did the application, and then I replied straight away to the email asking me for supporting information; it involved me posting some stuff too, which I did by recorded delivery. She got her letter confirming it all yesterday. I was impressed with the speed actually, and thought it would take much longer. So hopefully the issues some of you are experiencing are short-lived technical ones rather than something to worry about.

Hi, I'd be grateful for thoughts about how much the predicted grades for A level will take into account the student's trajectory? My DD was predicted an A in her third subject from the start of sixth form, but was consistently at Grade B even up will mocks in January. However, since then, she has made a huge effort and was reliably getting As in tests and homework before school shut. Her GCSE results were very good and the school has never changed its predicted A grade for her on her termly reports. She really needs the A for her uni choice. Any teachers/others able to shed any light please?

@MillicentMartha yes I tried telling him the same, he really had his heart set on it! We did discuss a gap year but he wants to continue studying in September.
It’s such a difficult time, regardless of the lockdown going on!

@blimppy, what subject is it? I think in some it’s more usual to get better and better throughout the two years, while others are more like separate topics so your results in topic tests are more consistent. I’m not a teacher, but I work in a physics dept. The teachers there see some improvement as the student’s maths improves but not that much over Y13. Whereas something more essay based might see more improvement?