Oxbridge Interviewees for 2021 Entry - The Journey Continues - Thread 5

[Baaaahhhhh]

New Thread from old one:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/4088426-Oxbridge-Aspirants-2021-New-Thread-4

Thanks all for the congratulations to DS. Our DC have been through so much in the last year, haven't they? And more uncertainty ahead...

Michael Gove this morning said AL and GCSE won't go ahead in the current format but will be replaced by assessments of a sort. They are still deciding what

Whatever it is it should be externally marked in my opinion

But there is no way to be fair to everyone sadly. The disadvantaged will only be further disadvantaged

This is so crap. Surely teachers will just award everyone top grades now as learned behaviour from last year...

It’s ridiculous that GW is not making a statement today. Instead it’s Gove confirming to the BBC that A-levels and GCSEs are cancelled. Surely there was a contingency plan for exam cancellation though? The mind boggles as to what GW is likely to suggest in his ‘series of meetings’ today.

My DC feels under immense pressure. Their mocks were not due until after half term but they don't know content etc

One thing I wonder about - not every student sits the exam under the same circumstances nor preparations - so simplistically isn't it more of the same this year?

So if previous years were "fair". Why are allowances being made because of the pandemic?

To be honest I think they cancelled because of the uncertainty and because they cannot predict the situation during exam time. So instead of cancelling last minute, they cancelled now

I think that the problem this year @chopc is that the inequality that is always present in the education system has been greatly exacerbated by school closures.

The inequality is massive. When you have some students who had live lessons from day 1 of the March lockdown, haven't missed any school this term, and now have flipped back to live lessons, that is incomparable with students who may not have spoken to a teacher between March and September, had multiple periods of self isolation during September-December, during which time they may have had little or no live teaching, and now doesn't have a data plan which allows them to engage with online learning, it makes no sense to pit them against each other in competition, which is essentially what GCSEs and A Levels do.

I only hope that SOMEONE with some common sense is in the room when they are working out what to do about this total mess.

And yy there is always inequality, but the people MOST impacted by this are the most vulnerable. Even the benefit of having a quiet personal space to learn in is huge, and not something lots of children have available.

Agree Bilberry!

I hope that they come up with a fair and evidence-based method for awarding grades this year. Surely the government will have learnt from last year’s fiasco

Why can’t they use UCAS predictions, and if teachers think a candidate deserves better, then supply concrete evidence?

If it’s just teacher assessment they will all predict top grades. There is nothing to lose by doing this as any computer-generated adjustment has already been judged to be unfair.

Dd was crying her eyes out yesterday. She doesn’t think she has got a place at Oxford, and now trying again looks hopeless if everyone achieves great grades.

@IrmaFayLear

Why can’t they use UCAS predictions, and if teachers think a candidate deserves better, then supply concrete evidence?

If it’s just teacher assessment they will all predict top grades. There is nothing to lose by doing this as any computer-generated adjustment has already been judged to be unfair.

Dd was crying her eyes out yesterday. She doesn’t think she has got a place at Oxford, and now trying again looks hopeless if everyone achieves great grades.

Because when exams are sat the majority of students do not achieve their predictions, so that would be a totally unrealistic strategy. Look at the stats on achievement vs predictions.

What time is the announcement today with the plan to award grades?

DD is certainly hoping that they use UCAS predictions.

She performs well in exams and her predicted grades reflected this.

It's a real shame that no one compiled a table showing school GCSE and A level results in 2020 v 2017-2109 averages.

So many schools abused the system last year by not following government guidelines on this. If the average grade inflation was around 40% and some schools reported none (as they followed the guidelines), there are obviously plenty of schools who had pie in the sky CAGS. The same schools will then do it again in 2021.

As I understand what was just said by Gavin Williamson in Parliament is that there will be some form of teacher assessed grades including the use of some sort of assessment in schools - but teachers will also receive support and training on how to award grades fairly

@MatureStudent21

As I understand what was just said by Gavin Williamson in Parliament is that there will be some form of teacher assessed grades including the use of some sort of assessment in schools - but teachers will also receive support and training on how to award grades fairly

Again - clear as mud....

This is like asking teachers to predict the exact placings of the Olympic 10,000m final. We all can predict who we think will get Gold Silver and Bronze but rarely does that outcome happen (never mind predict places 4th-22nd).

This year there is not going to be any system that is fair; it is not a normal year. Some will do better and be given a medal based on previous results, some will do worse when in the actual race they may have got a personal best.

DS has just showed me that on TSR there is an actual admissions person from a college called Peterhouse at Cambridge and he / she has come on to confirm that although the the university expects to offer the same number of places in 2021 as other years, “colleges are likely to be more cautious with the number of offers made” (or words to that effect).

So, looking at previous years, there are about 90 places for his course, for which they make about 120 offers. This year how many will they offer - 100 maybe, or something like that?

@quest1on - I’m also on the Oxford thread on the student room and I think the general feeling is that students who get this far into the process are hardworking, dedicated students with great grades - which is what makes selection so difficult in normal years. With teacher predicted grades most oxbrigde candidates will probably meet the grade requirement, so it would be very unlikely that they’d be able to over offer by more than the odd place here and there - as I’m guessing that most students who receive an offer use Oxford/Cambridge as their firm so if most students get their predicted grades they will meet their offer and accept a place - therefore there really is barely any give in the system as obviously in some years some students would miss the required grades and even in normal years they don’t over offer by much anyway

I wonder if they will weight the subject specific tests more strongly than usual?

Did anyone else's DC have an "at interview" assessment? (Cambridge)

chopc my dd had a couple of interviews (same day) shortly before christmas for cambridge if this is what you are asking about (as have many other dc on here). she appears to be one of the few dc on here going for english

re Cambridge & English - for some reason students get the results of their ELAT on Monday 11th.

It seems completely unnecessary to release these marks before an the offer/rejection date of the 25th.