Oxbridge 2020 (thread 10) - the path to the first term (just one slight hurdle to clear first)

[DadDadDad]

For better or worse, there is a bit of a bond of mutual experience between parents whose DC go through the Oxbridge application process. Thank you for your companionship so far - and thank you to others who started the earlier threads in this series.

This thread should take us to the start of the first term (whatever form that takes). All welcome here, but for many of us hopefully this will be the place for practical support as we help prepare these peculiar* young adults to spread their wings.

But the first item on the agenda appears to be the small matter of judgement...

*or for those who chose Oxford, very peculiar.

Couldn't possibly get through the next few days without you fine people. Oh boy this is feeling very real now.

Welcome, AChickenCalledDaal. I think your iced coffee is best left on the last thread. Anyone wanting to study Maths at Cambridge is esteemed by me, so good to have you here.

Thank you for the new thread DadDadDad. It’s the final frontier...

...or final countdown to the final frontier...

Aw thanks DadDadDad. It's still quite nice when someone doesn't go "Maths? Rather her than me!"

And I'm here. DS1 is feeling ill tempered tonight because one of his siblings ate his cucumber and the other ate the triple cooked chips from the Co-op. It doesn't take much to tip that boy over the edge...

[[Ministers bid to quell revolt over exams by allowing mock results

www.theguardian.com/education/2020/aug/11/keir-starmer-england-must-alter-course-on-a-level-grades?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard]]

Did that link not work? Story in the Guardian - Gavin Williamson says students can use mocks grades if they are unhappy with moderated grades. How on earth is this going to work?

Here too chaps, we few , we happy few, err, maybe not the happy bit. Gave the yoga teacher plenty to work with tonight! DD is preternaturally calm, not a trait she inherited from her mother. Trying to read a book on medieval medicine but the concentration span is non existent.

Ministers bid to quell revolt over exams by allowing mock results

www.theguardian.com/education/2020/aug/11/keir-starmer-england-must-alter-course-on-a-level-grades?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

JulesJulss that’s the first I’d heard of this. Incredible. I showed it to DS who commented that he just loves the way grading is being decided two days before results day. Not five months ago. What a fiasco.

@hobbema - I raise you 'King Leopold's Ghost' - very worthy but oh my it's dry,

I showed it to DS who commented that he just loves the way grading is being decided two days before results day.

Nail on the head - this making things up on the hoof is a disaster. I think it would be much more sensible to say we'll broaden the scope of appeals, then use that to focus on any cases that appear to have fallen foul of statistical moderation.

OfQual kept trotting out the line that they wouldn't allow appeals of the actual grade itself (just on failings of process), because the teacher is best placed to assess the pupil. So, the appeal process should be able to address the gap - where the CAG is different to the moderated grade, the exam board should have to look at the evidence on which the teacher formed their assessment. Schools should be able to appeal where they feel exceptional pupils have been overlooked.

Chapeau @sandybayley! Honestly, its just words, red mist, more words, expletives, fate of my babies, what was that sentence again? right now. Cant help but think this is politics at its worst. Calm heads called for. Poor universities. Going to try to sleep. And when I wake up I want DadDadDad to tell us we dreamed this all, like Dallas.

Completely agree @DadDadDad - I just can't see this is a viable alternative, mocks aren't standardised, schools use them in different ways etc. D1's mocks only covered part of the syllabus. They haven't mentioned NEAs. Maybe they haven't heard of them.

This is mental. What about kids who didn’t take mocks, as some didn’t because schools shut down before them. What do they get? The certificated result of their year 5 spelling test plus a socially-distanced dip in a bran tub? Barking.

Honestly, if you told me next that Boris has decided they will allow Student Assessed Grades, where candidates write down the grade they think they would have got ("be honest!"), I would have to think long and hard whether you were being serious or not.

DadDadDad I laughed out loud at that!! But it’s quite believable actually.

I thought the other thread was a bit quiet. DS got percentage marks back for most of his mocks but had not yet received the grades when the school closed in March, and still hasn't.

Greetings all.

I have DS hoping for Engineering at C.

He b*ggered up his mocks (didn’t bother, + clash with C interviews) so no hope for us from today’s surreal announcement.

DD2 got 2 of her GCSE results today (CIE which comes through early) which were good, and a relief (was a worry that as a private candidate she wouldn’t get any grades at all). So I’m trying to see that as a good omen.

Aargh!

I don't know if it's more worrying that Gavin Williamson spoke to a few headteachers and/or experts at OfQual and they told him that mocks were a good basis for showing final grades, or that he didn't bother speaking to any such person before making this announcement.

It’s all just lunacy . Ds at a sixth form where mocks were purposefully hard and marked super harshly so they could learn from mistakes . And now his friends at a different school who were told mock topics in advance get straight A*? How does that help address unfairness

Very good point @Curtaincard

My DS had 20% coursework for one his subjects and left a lot to the last minute, so he deliberately focused on that rather than revising for his impending mocks. He got a C in that mock, but his coursework was good, and after that he was clearly honing his exam technique to the A grade standard he needs.

So mock results are no help to him, but why hasn't GW mentioned coursework - a piece of work marked to external criteria knowing it would be moderated by the exam board? Surely, if mocks are good enough then coursework should be considered?

(As it happens DS2 is getting his GCSE results next week and his strongest subject was 50% coursework for which he got pretty much full marks, so I'd definitely be happy if they took that into account).

DD did exactly the same. Her EPQ, English and history were all due in between December (let's go to Oxford for 4 days) and the end of January (let's fret over decisions). Throw in a half hearted set of exams (described on the general thread) and it was a recipe for disaster. Ho hum. 32 hours to go, unless they delay.