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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Original poster

October A levels anyone?

356 replies

Skerryberry · 13/08/2020 20:44

With so many getting results they were disappointed with, are any DS/DD's choosing to take the October A levels ?

Are they taking all their A levels or just one or two?

How are they planning to motivate themselves with exams only 50 days away? DC has not opened a book since March... eek!

I may need some hand holding!!

OP posts:
GlennRheeismyfavourite · 14/08/2020 08:05

Our board said the October papers would be the ones they didn't use in the June series, so no worries there. In terms of prep, get I. Contact with your school, ask if there's any provision for extra lessons (I know my school will bend over backwards to do this) or attending year 12/13 lessons. Get revision notes in order (this should already be done) so past papers. They need time with teachers too - teachers need to review past papers with them so if schools not offering - find tutors swiftly!!!

RufustheSniggeringReindeer · 14/08/2020 08:32

all teachers had to go on was past performance and if they had no evidence that the student has ever done better they couldn't predict higher

I appreciate what you are saying...ive even told ds2 the same as he potentially has A levels next year

But dd worked at a B level through most of the year In both her A levels, got a B in mocks and would have got a B...maybe an A in one as she still had months of revision left, but the teachers put her at a B which is fair enough, and she STILL got downgraded

Original poster
Skerryberry · 14/08/2020 08:34

Thank you for the sage advice.

DS up and about to start working. School say they cannot offer any support apart from emailing teachers on an ad hoc basis. They are not even sure if DS will be able to access resources on the student VLE. DS has emailed teachers to see if he can borrow the course text books until October as all those were given back.

We organised a maths tutor yesterday and booked in for 2 lessons next week. He is a maths teacher at local Grammar and does the same maths exam board. That maths teacher is helping to source a physics tutor for us too.

DS is signing up to 'Physicsonline' this morning. He got a 9 at GCSE and was awarded a D yesterday. He is hoping to get a B in October.

The plan so far is 3 hours of maths, 3 hours of physics and 2 hours of Geography a day. Everything has been cancelled- DS's weekend away with friends in a fortnight etc. DS is quite upbeat and seeing this as a challenge and is desperate to do well and get to university next year.

OP posts:
Peaseblossom22 · 14/08/2020 08:38

@nutellatoast that may be right but many schools around here told the students to bring all their text books back plus any school property and go and get jobs if possible . They waved them off on 20March and have not engaged since ( not our school) they also made it very clear that they would not be providing any support at all for resits, and of course there was a period in May when it looked like they would scrap resits.

kitnkaboodle · 14/08/2020 08:50

Skerryberry - hats off to your DS. Mine asked me to wake him an hour earlier than the 'lockdown normal' today, which is a good sign. I won't reveal when that is!! Maths and Physics here too, plus Chemistry. All 8s and 9s at GCSE, nothing higher than a C yesterday, but that's with a lot of extenuating circumstances in Y12 too Sad. We had a meeting at school yesterday, where they said they 'hoped' to offer some resit sessions out of good will. I didn't have any more discussions with him after that - we were all too knackered.

Original poster
Skerryberry · 14/08/2020 11:57

@Kitnkaboodle That sounds like a similar profile to my son. (8 A stars and 2 As at GCSE- in old money!)

We had a discussion this morning about speaking to the admission's tutor of his chosen course (it is in clearing) and sitting the maths A level locally the week after university starts. However, DS is in the mindset that he is going to sit the A levels and go to university with the required grades next year.

OP posts:
loveyouradvice · 14/08/2020 13:35

We are in the same boat... looking at one or two of Maths and Physics. Challenge is DD needs an A* in one - predicted for Maths but know it is tough.... so will probably start with both and may leave Physics to the summer. Like many, NO schoolwork done in 5 months... I think they'll all be shocked by how long it takes to get their brains going again

So decisions -

  1. How much is reasonable amount to work each day? I'd thought 7 hours - friend who is tutor said 5 hours would be very demanding and to aim for that
  2. How likely is an A* in Maths, given she is able but not genius.... will October exams be different in their scales of marking?

Anyone any idea how many Maths students get A*? I was a bit stunned to find out it was over 50% for most MFL and only around 10% for Eng Literature....

notquiteruralbliss · 14/08/2020 14:51

DD has always been planning to resit anything that wasn’t at least an A so has continued to do at least some work, including a weekly session with a tutor in her weakest subject, where she had a horrible mock. She plans to do more targeted revision over the next few weeks and has booked on a couple of online weekend courses.

blametheparents · 14/08/2020 14:56

I’ve seen at least one state school charging students exam fees who want to take October exams.
In a way, not surprising in that they have paid for summer exams and they won’t be getting any extra budget for all these new exam fees, but yet another kick in the teeth for the students.

kitnkaboodle · 14/08/2020 15:00

DS hadn't done UCAS yet, luckily due to missing quite a lit of Y12. Was going to wait until this autumn and apply 'with grades in hand'. Still the plan but it will now be at the eleventh hour, whenever these Oct exams are marked. Teachers telling him to think about lowering his uni aspirations, which is a bitter pill but probably sensible advice.

loveyouradvice: 7 hours seems too long to me. It might seem like a good idea now - but sustained over 7 weeks?? Probably best just to plan out all the stuff she needs to cover, plot it out over so many weeks and leave time for practice papers at the end. An A* in Maths is hard, I think, unless you are a real Maths/Physics nerd. Do you know what grade her teachers have her (the Centre Assessed Grade)??

kitnkaboodle · 14/08/2020 15:02

blametheparents- I think that's wrong. I don't think there will be any charge for Oct exams. Thought the govt were paying

blametheparents · 14/08/2020 15:05

@kitnkaboodle - Happy to be corrected, that’s great for those that need to sit exams in October.
I must have got hold of the wrong end of the stick with the information I saw.

Coffeeandbeans · 14/08/2020 15:23

I had to write out a cheque this morning for the economics resit in October. I’m hoping the school will reimburse but it had to be submitted with the form.

kitnkaboodle · 14/08/2020 15:41
Shock
Original poster
Skerryberry · 14/08/2020 17:31

From TES two days ago:

Who will pay for students to enter the autumn exams?

The guidance makes it clear that students will not be asked to pay to resit their exams.

"Schools and colleges will also be able to claim funding through the service if their autumn fees exceed any fee savings that awarding organisations are returning to them, following cancellation of summer exams.

"We expect schools and colleges to pay fees for all students who were due to sit exams in the summer, rather than passing the cost on to students or their families."

Most of the children who have been affected are bright children from poor backgrounds. It would cost me £400 for my DS to sit these A levels for the first time (they are not re-sits). For many families the cost of sitting even the cheapest A level (£86) is the difference between the whole family eating that week or not. I hope they don't do Music Tech, that is £176! Ouch. DS's school has not charged; his form went off today.

OP posts:
CarrieErbag · 14/08/2020 17:35

Is it a dead cert that the October resits will be taking place given the speculation about Autumn/Winter second wave of the virus?

MrsKeats · 14/08/2020 17:44

I'm an online English tutor if anybody is interested. I teach Lang and lit at A level.

nutellatoast · 14/08/2020 17:44

I'm so shocked at the abandonment of these kids by their schools! At the very least they should have been able to keep their text books until they knew whether or not they would need to do the October exam. I would not expect subject teachers to give guidance/support now but they ought to have given direction to pupils back in the spring that there was a clear risk, particularly to those who leave things to the last minute, that they might not achieve the results expected and should therefore keep some revision up in case they need to sit the exam. Although to a teenager that leaves things to the last minute that may have fallen on deaf ears..... tough life lesson - don't leave things to the last minute!
NB - Clearly this would have been no help to the student who has been working hard for nearly two years and has just been downgraded to fit in with the school's historical distribution of results.

loveyouradvice · 14/08/2020 18:08

notquiterural Love to know more about the online weekend courses - what are they?

Agree re teachers not preparing students - seems mad since there would always have been some who needed to do them... so yes a couple of weeks of prep for those who wanted it back in April online would have been a good idea.....

Coffeeandbeans · 14/08/2020 18:20

Yes I’m interested in weekend online revision courses please.

Coffeeandbeans · 14/08/2020 18:25

Our local private college is charging £900 per subject for 8 hrs tuition per week for three weeks for the October exams.

clary · 14/08/2020 19:33

Sorry OP, I meant to post back before.

I was going to say this is what you might look at:

  1. Did they cover all content before the end of school in March? Hopefully but not necessarily. If not, start with that task.
  2. What areas are they weak on? Best person to ask is your child's subject teacher. tbh I can see why they are not rushing to offer support, they will have a full teaching timetable in Sept anyway. But I am sure most friendly teachers will at least send back an email replying to that question.
  3. Look at revision on the weakest areas. Do as many practice questions as possible. Get someone to mark them and feed back to you. This could be another A level student maybe?
  4. Do past papers. Do them to time and have someone else mark them. Mark schemes are online tho I do appreciate it might be hard for a non-expert to do.
  5. Consider finding a tutor, especially if there are areas of weakness/non-understanding.

BTW to the poster who was shocked at 50% of MFL results being A/A* - if that is true, it's because there is a disproportionate number of students who are native speakers taking MFL. This swings the figures and makes the grade boundaries higher, so that it's even harder for non native speakers to do well, so fewer of them take MFL, so it gets even worse. Sigh. MFL is my subject btw!

MrsKeats · 14/08/2020 22:54

Pm me if that was to me coffee

Original poster
Skerryberry · 14/08/2020 22:59

@clary. Thank you for the advice. DS had a good first day of revision and getting things in order.

OP posts:
TheMarzipanDildo · 14/08/2020 23:08

“The plan so far is 3 hours of maths, 3 hours of physics and 2 hours of Geography a day.”

I feel like this probably won’t last! A normal working day feels like an aeon when it’s revision. For some reason.