Medicine 2021 - Part 4

[MaddieElla]

Fingers crossed for those final offers coming in!

Hope no one minds me starting the new thread...

I totally agree with other posters that this thread has been a godsend .... and a big shout-out to all the experienced mums who have shared their tips, trials and tribulations.

We have a fab bunch of virtual buddies to share our ups and downs with - 'cos really we all know that if you haven't/aren't going through a medical school application, you can't really grasp the stress involved!

This thread is so helpful through this. It's great to know there are others going through this along with me
Does anyone know about rules for a level assessments this year - DD school saying that the same evidence needs to be used for each pupil in a subject? Is this true? It differs from what one of the teachers said to me on the phone. I'm not going to quote her obviously as I know teachers can get into hot water for discussing grades (which she was careful not to - just the system)
DD has had her first set of exams and another in 3 weeks time.

That's my understanding @WithIcePlease i.e. that the same evidence needs to be submitted for the whole cohort to avoid picking and mixing individual students' best scores. @mumsneedwine will know much more about this than I do though.

I'm back 😂. Didn't want to get in the way but glad I've been a bit of help in what has been a bumpy old year.
Yes the cohorts results are all sent in at same time. We have had to produce evidence for every subject how we have come to each grade, what we have used and how each paper we've used has been produced. It's quite complicated as they need to contain the correct amount of each AO (assessment objective) and also things like maths skills, deduction skills etc. It has taken hours and hours.

@WithIcePlease if school is doing it as the guidance suggests then the same evidence must be used for every student.

@SATSmadness tell your DD she should try and go for it next year. She is so much wiser to the system now and she's been so unlucky to have been hit by all that covid has changed. Next year she'll have experience and can use the year to earn some money and maybe work as an HCA. My DD said it's made her clinical placements so much easier as she had some basic skills already.
And I have a feeling that pre clearing might be busy this year. Get all the phone numbers of any Unis she fancies and call the medicine admissions 5 days before results to say she's just interested if they have any vacancies. Unis get the grades first ! Then on results day ring again at 9am. Over the years we've got a few in doing this. No idea if this year it will work but worth a try.

Found the document whilst looking for something else...

Centres should make students aware of the sources of evidence that will form the basis of the grades submitted, although students should not be told the final grade that is submitted to the exam board. As far as possible, the sources of evidence should be consistent across a class or cohort of students, and centres should record the reasons for their selection. The centre will make the final judgement about what is to be included and will need to document the rationale for any instances where consistent evidence is not used for a whole class or cohort. (p.6)

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/972387/6768-4_Information_for_heads_of_centre__heads_of_department_and_teachers_on_the_submission_of_teacher_assessed_grades-_summer_2021.pdf

@MarchingFrogs yup, that's what we are all working to. An exception for us includes the A level student who has had COVID for a week now and has missed 2 of the assessments we are using. So for them we will use previous stuff and document why.

(And sorry, not the parent of a current Medicine applicant, just an Elephant's Child wandering 't interwebs - hence the serendipitous finding of the above. And being here. Am actually hoping faith in DS2's school to do the right thing without me knowing precisely what the right thing in is not misplaced...).

@mumsneedwine, DS2 has a chronic health issue, but Sod's Law operating, managed to miss one of his assessments due neither to it, nor C19, but a completely unrelated acute illness - he was offered the opportunity to take it on his return, but told that it wasn't crucial that he did, hence my hope that whatever they are doing, it is acceptable

@MarchingFrogs if they evidence what's happened then they can use that paper. But if he's been ill that should be used as a mitigating factor for his final grade (schools should set these holistically). In a normal year we would ask for medical evidence, submit this to the exam board and they would adjust grade as appropriate. As schools are doing it this year we have asked for the evidence and will use this to decide how much effect it's had (yes, we are now also doctors, as well as exam boards and markers).

@MarchingFrogs sorry, meant use any other paper he's done 😊

This was one of their timed essays in the classroom, rather than the formal exams he sat a couple of weeks ago (which definitely form one of the official pieces of evidence for the two subjects concerned - his third subject being Art, so no written exam and for which he spent a whole day of study periods this week perfecting his 'personal space'), so fingers crossed.

Thanks for clarifying re exams

Whoops, this thread dropped off my I’m On page so I didn’t realise there had been (many) updates.

Nobody needs to go anywhere as I have loved these threads and all the knowledge people bring to a novice like myself. No one in our family has been to Uni so I have needed some steering - bring medicine into the mix and everyone’s input is invaluable.

London was never on our radar so I just floated past those posts, but some may have found it helpful.

DD sitting her last set of assessments as we speak; chemistry today. As I’ve said before we’re only really worried about Physics and I’m unsure whether she needs an A Star to average out at an A (March assessments was B) Or it might be that the final assessment’s grade is the grade they are given, no idea how they’re actually formulating the grades or coming to a decision. Trying to keep positive and hopefully for August results day.

Good luck to everyone that this hurdle works out for our DCs.

And I’ve had a name change fail.

Gosh @cantsitwithus going from no one in the family having been to University to DD applying for medicine is a huge leap ! Even bigger congrats to your DD and to you for your supporting part in the process.

Was it the additional cost of London that kept it off your DD's radar or is it small town girl to huge city type transition aversion ?

We're not over endowed with graduates in the family either, just me !

I think a bit of both, although yes, the main reason was that she didn't want to be miles away from home. Notts, Sheffield, Lincoln etc are all really accessible from where we live and London just seemed really far. It may sound ignorant of me but I also worried about how safe she'd be in the capital as opposed to Nottingham or Lincoln. That really does come from us living in a small town/village all our lives.

Yes it's certainly been a learning curve; we really knew nothing although it's been less daunting than I thought with regards to student finance etc. When it came to strategically applying though these threads have been amazing as some information just isn't there on the Uni websites. Cut off scores etc, I'd never have known.

I'd also like to add my thanks to every poster on this thread who has helped me through am awful year.

We are knee deep in exams here, its all very stressful. Every department within the school seems to be doing things differently. Ds got what school call tracker grades based on 3 specifically chosen assessments for one of his subjects. In the 3 chosen assessments for this subject he scored BAA (frustrating as the b was from last Oct, and since then all his assessments have been a or a*.). Based on the BAA his tracker grade was a B for the subject. It's been on my mind for 2 weeks so today I emailed the school to ask how they arrived at a tracker b grade based on assessments of BAA. The b was also awarded for a test he did whilst at home poorly with covid. The tracker mark is not his final mark but it's really mocked his confidence when he's worked hard in every assessments since Sept. Others in the class with BAA assessments marks were given a trackermark A. I hate emailing school for clarification but I just find their approach so inconsistent and so much rides on the grades this year.

@powergower - there must be some way you can "submit information on specific individual circumstances relevant to one of the Strands" they are using as evidence. DS's school sent round a link to a form - asking for this, and specifically said that if for one of the exams or whatever they are using you had specific circumstances - and I think one of the examples they gave were ill/recovering from Covid, please specify. Surely you ought to be able to do that for that B assessment?

Luckly DS hasn't had/needed any specific individual circumstances, so I ignored the form, but it is there for a reason, and every school should be doing that. If someone did an assessment at home when they were poorly with covid, it is just not appropriate that that assessment be used as the basis for the grade. And they need to use something else for that student.

@Powergower

I'd also like to add my thanks to every poster on this thread who has helped me through am awful year.

We are knee deep in exams here, its all very stressful. Every department within the school seems to be doing things differently. Ds got what school call tracker grades based on 3 specifically chosen assessments for one of his subjects. In the 3 chosen assessments for this subject he scored BAA (frustrating as the b was from last Oct, and since then all his assessments have been a or a*.). Based on the BAA his tracker grade was a B for the subject. It's been on my mind for 2 weeks so today I emailed the school to ask how they arrived at a tracker b grade based on assessments of BAA. The b was also awarded for a test he did whilst at home poorly with covid. The tracker mark is not his final mark but it's really mocked his confidence when he's worked hard in every assessments since Sept. Others in the class with BAA assessments marks were given a trackermark A. I hate emailing school for clarification but I just find their approach so inconsistent and so much rides on the grades this year.

hi Have you heard back anything from School? I have not heard of this tracker grade . DD s school has talked about green orange assessments . Recent mocks and topic assessments being given more weightage. Recently they have been asked to produce hard copy of evidence from last year( mostly binned unfortunately , only a few could be retrieved from piles of papers). Its very unnerving to hear about these new system of awarding grades. Did your school give out grades from recent mocks?

So Kings say they will be giving out offers till the 20th but they have an offer holders open day tomorrow? Do you think that means it’s unlikely any more offers now?

I wouldn't say that's the end of the offers. They may put on another open day later on.

They all seem worried about exceeding targets this year. I suppose they have made offers to their top candidates and will try to persuade them at the offer day to select then as firm, but they won't know until 10th June how many have made them their firm choice. I think there will be quite a few offers to people on reserve lists after 10th June, I don't know how the ones which do not use reserve lists will do it. Usually they can manage their numbers by deciding which applicants to accept with missed grades but, although you are anxious about grades for your DC, we know that the general intention is that they will get the grades they would have got on a good day, so not many will miss the grades.