A level re-sits and independent candidates

[kitnkaboodle]

I see Gavin is currently talking about teacher assessments again for this year's A levels. My DS sat A level papers in October and, while he got decent grades in those, was toying with the idea of re-sitting in June to try to improve them further (having nothing else to do for the next six months ...).
I guess there are others in much worse situations than him - private summer candidates or re-sitters with no teachers to give them CAGs. Just felt we needed a support/information thread so try to pool anything that we might be able to glean for this forgotten group. As my DS's results came on December 18th (a day after official results day as his school chose to POST them out!), he isn't even registered for summer resits, so I guess he won't really have any option now.
But interested to hear others' thoughts and ideas - I'm sure there are a lot of worried students out there.

The worst off are the ones who were resitting privately last year and who decided to resit this summer rather than doing the autumn exams.

@Ellmau I know. They are probably a small group but I feel for them at the moment. They must feel as if they are in a neverending loop. There must surely be some provision made for them this time.

Or ones who did the autumn exams - which in my DS's case was an extremely lonely, stressful and unsupported experience - didn't do too well as a result, and were looking forward to a final go in the summer.

Watching with ... interest.

Bloody shambles, beyond awful for the poor students involved.

I would stick with grades he has and focus on courses he is most likely to get unconditional offers for.

@LIZS Yes, sure. He is relatively fortunate in that he now has grades in hand. Resitting was just an option he was considering which now seems to have disappeared. I'm just curious to see how others are dealing with this and what provision will be made for private candidates who are actually registered to do the summer exams (but won't necessarily be studying or preparing with a teacher).
Even a set of exams in the autumn again would be better than nothing.

@Ellmau yep my DS is in exactly that position! His CAGs last year were not great and needed to resist two out of his three A levels with a view to applying to uni this year. He sat one resit in October but rather sensibly (I thought) decided not to two at the same time and pushed one back to summer '21. Now, he's in the position where he doesn't have his critical maths grade that he needs! I'm at my wits ends. If last year hadn't been enough to contend with, he seems he's been *!at on twice! To add insult to injury he's paid for online tutoring at £400 to help him achieve what he needed and now they are refusing to refund him!

@Linus33 I'm sorry to hear that and am sure there will be others in the same position. If hes been having lessons with a tutor though, I'd stick with them for now because they might be able to provide CAGs?
I don't know where to look for guidance on this, but I guess it's still up in the air at the moment and nobody knows any details yet ..

Thank you kitnkaboodle. If they could provide a CAG or teacher assessment that would be a result. He's going to contact the unis he's applied to see what his options are. It'll be interesting to see what their position is.

If you are in London or somewhere like Oxford and can afford it, it might be worth check what private tutorial colleges like DLD and MPW are doing. They may well be doing international A levels, which may not be as affected (because these are the papers people on places like Singapore or the Gulf sit) and the syllabi may not be too different.

And indeed teaching might now be available on line.

It may not be your solution but perhaps worth a try. Teaching at crammers can be very efficient.

Although nothing has been confirmed by ofqual over how the grades are going to be given this year, I would find an exam centre that will allow for a private tutor to give them evidence so they can give you a grade. There are ones that will do this (you can PM me as I don't think I should mention on here as it might come across as advertising - I don't work for one of these places btw, am just in the same position). However, as I said, nothing has been confirmed and Gavin Williamson actually mentioned external candidates yesterday in Q&A, so I would sit tightish until we know how the fiasco is going to unfold this year.

We had a crammer (bricks and mortar one) lined up in case DD decided to resit. His problem is that he isn't even yet registered for the summer exams, so I would expect it's a non-starter for him? We were going to sort/decide this in the next couple of weeks.

I know that the registration date for summer exams wasn't until Feb some time, but I doubt very much that DS could register for exams that have now been cancelled?? Who knows ...?

@burneydenr - what did he say about external candidates?

Have you asked the crammer, or done a ring round of those who might be offering on line.

Colleges like DLD are large and have large numbers of overseas students who sit Alevels as part of the process of applying to British Universities. I would be surprised if they dont offer a variety of options.

I'd seen that Ofqual mentioned that they would be more info next week for external candidates so I think sitting tight for now is right. He's signed up for an online programme to support him (before the cancellation of exams) we had this news and they've been reassuring but not saying much beyond 'sit tight and wait for news'.

We would look into the crammers if they might be a solution.

@Needmoresleep I will contact the crammer tomorrow. They have a special short re-sit course running January-June that was a possibility for DS. They were giving him til mid-January to sign up or not, so it will be interesting to see if that course will disappear now or if they will offer anything else.

kitnkaboodle he didn't say much about external candidates, just acknowledged they were an issue that needed to be considered. Fingers crossed.

OP - good luck.

My assumption is that crammers will have the students wanting to learn and the tutors wanting to teach, plus on line resources, so something will happen.

People end up in crammers for all sorts of reasons. We have seen good results from students changing their minds about courses so needing to take an extra A level in their gap year and older teenager moving to the UK and needing more personalised help in order to adapt to a new educational system, as well as the more traditional re-takers and overseas students. Some use international A levels, in part because of the flexibility of two sittings a year. These, presumably, will still be set as they are not under the same British Government control and will be needed elsewhere in the world. (And like iGCSE are accepted by British Universities.) My tip is to look for a crammer that is interested in how motivated a student is. Some are surprisingly selective, looking for students who will commit - some way away from the memories some may have of MPW in its heyday of boarding school retakers and expellees hitting London for the first time.

The only problem may be the different syllabus, and the cost.

The only problem may be the different syllabus, and the cost.

Pfft!

We have already budgeted for the cost of resitting 2 subjects at local independent college 🤯. If DS (currently in negotiation with unis) decides he doesn't need to resit - or if he is denied that chance - then we can go on a luxury holiday instead.
Oh ... wait a minute ....

@kitnkaboodle my DS is receiving offers from the unis he's applied to with lower grades than anticipated. They are conditional though on him achieving an A in his outstanding A-level

@Linus33 ah that's interesting. DS is still doing his UCAS (luckily now got an extra 2 weeks) and has been messaging his preferred unis to see if they will consider an application with the grades he has, as he doesn't want to waste any choices. Very few actually responding though - the timing is all very unfortunate - so it might well just be the usual case of applying to a wide spread and hoping for the best

Hi

I really feel for all students with A Level cancellation. But in particular those from last year who had exams cancelled & didn’t get their expected grades and were working towards resitting this year. With my DD I kicked up a huge fuss in September when her 6th form tried to wash their hands of her and not allow her back, I managed to get her to resit the year as 6th form didn’t take into account reasonable adjustments when calculating her CAGs. However the reality is that it’s meant she is literally repeating exactly what she did last year and now she is experiencing full on flashbacks to last year’s exam cancellation. Ruddy Groundhog Day.

My sympathies, Anamarav. I'm impressed with your persuasive powers, both as regards the sixth form and with your daughter ...

@Anamarav - do you mean she is back at school repeating the year? If so, I agree with the last poster - congratulations on that. I haven't heard of anyone else whose school let them do that. A previous 'October A levels' thread is full of people whose DC's schools washed their hands of them completely after the CAGs, neither offering to let them sit in on lessons in September nor even helping them with revision resources. My DS's school were full of promises on August CAGs results day, but then fell silent and often wouldn't respond to messages. Sorry if your DD is worrying about another round of CAGs, but maybe the rumour of some sort of external tests might be hopeful for her now.

Hi yes she is back but it is a bit of a poisoned chalice. I was appalled that sixth formers were not being let back on last autumn, others in her original cohort were experiencing the same issues - as before I only managed to get DD to resit because the school had botched up and not taken into consideration that she required extra time in exams and they didn’t provide it during mocks which went on to calculate CAGs.

If it’s a case of pure physical space- then I don’t understand why they don’t at least allow retakers to attend online. A few of the teachers were shielding and delivered online lessons to the class and when anyone had any slight Covid symptom - they were expected to attend online anyway. Now the entire thing is online lessons. So there was no real reason to wash hands of last year’s cohort. And the ones who did go to Uni had an horrific time from my DD’s cohort- missing out on their original choice and/or having to isolate in halls. I’ve written to my local MP regarding this whole fiasco. I’m considering putting mine & DDs opinion to OFQUAL as even though we feel slightly better that there are some form of tests to come - this is now 3 years of doing A Levels - that is building up to one set up of exams at the end of 3 years. Just allow students who want to do exams to do them. Other countries, eg South Korea managed to run exams safely and fairly. Why can’t we?

This document came out yesterday as a consultation on the summer exams.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/953000/6743-1_GCSE__AS_and_A_level_grades_should_be_awarded_in_summer_2021.pdf

Page 31 outlines the proposals for private candidates.

This is the consultation response questionnaire:

www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/8BYI4T/