Medicine 2021 - Part 4

[MaddieElla]

Fingers crossed for those final offers coming in!

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

Ours too. It's where they are now and not where they could have been.

On the one hand, DD's school are advising not to be at all hopeful of a reserve list place turning in to an offer this year because they believe most offer holders will end up with the grades they need.

They must be assuming/implying that a lot of "other" schools will award the grades their pupils require for their courses because they then contradict themselves by issuing statements along the lines of what @grrey posted as being the message put out at her DC's school.
Sort of a "We won't be doing that but we believe others will" when you combine the two statements.

I know it must be scary for people who have lost control of their results, but there really is a general expectation that there will be significant grade inflation again this year - www.theguardian.com/education/2021/may/09/a-level-and-gcse-grade-inflation-inevitable-in-english-system

“The system is fraught with problems,” added Sir Michael Wilshaw, the former head of Ofsted. “We know teachers err on the side of generosity. They will always give youngsters the benefit of the doubt and there will be grade inflation. It’s a question of how much. I think we will see roughly what we saw last year which was 10-12% grade inflation, somewhere in that region.”

@Monkey2001that just makes it even more tough, knowing that other schools will be way more lenient than our own :-(

We are in exactly the same boat that the message from DS school is loud and clear that they most certainly won't be inflating grades. I do believe them. They didn't inflate last year and were very stringent in their awarded grades. I have no reason to believe that DS won't hit his grades but the disconnect with the backdrop of general grade inflation still unnerves me.

I think where all schools will "inflate" a bit is where you have a candidate who gets A 75% of the time and A 25% of the time. If they had done exams, they might have got an A, but surely the school will give them an A if that is what they usually get and they have to be given the benefit of the doubt. I think everybody would expect that if somebody consistently got Bs, the school could not give them an A just because that is what their offer needs, so maybe that is what the schools mean.

I don't think you can make the assumption that alls school would inflate to an A star if a DC hit that grade only 75% of the time. In some schools yes, in others no and that is the fatal flaw in the system. We have been told that there is much higher weighting put on the most recent assessments. In this scenario, if you scored an A in the final assessment, even if you had scored A stars earlier in the year, the A would most likely be the awarded grade.

My DS has been contacted by a UCAT preparation institution to find out if he would be interested in doing UCAT online tutoring over the summer. He's quite keen as seems to be fairly flexible and better pay than other part-time jobs. Just wondering if anyone with older DC have done anything similar.

@opoponax How have they got his details to make contact ?

He took part in some competition they ran and they had his details and score from that.

It's gone very quiet on here - all stuck in exam (sorry, assessments - they're not exams apparently) hell like we are I assume!

Surprise offer from UEA yesterday - DD had given up hope on them, but better late than never. At least she is finally in a position to make her UCAS decisions now.

Congratulations on the UEA offer @IsThisNameTaken. Yes, exam hell here too. Ours at least are calling them exams, none of this pussyfooting around with assessment nonsense.
But this time next week it will be over! Actually Wednesday afternoon it will be over, even less than a week. Can't wait, and that is just me. Then they have to go in on the Friday as a last formal day (not clear what they are doing then, but not exams or assessments). And everything after that is apparently optional. And we are heading off to case out the joints at our two offers. Haven't been on a train in over a year, I think.

Congratulations @IsThisNameTaken! Thinking of you all going through the exam nightmare; DD2 is doing hers and it’s awful, a daily test for 3 weeks. She however is planning to do drama, so the stakes are a bit lower. Good luck to all your DCs and strength to all the parents.

Congratulations @IsThisNameTaken that's great news!

Does that change DD's thoughts on which to firm or is she still deciding? Exciting stuff!

@bimkom that will be really exciting! We had managed a trip to DD's choices last summer before applying, but in some ways I wish we still had that to do as it will be so exciting going, knowing you have an offer in the bag! When we went it was all still pre application! Enjoy the trip.

Assessments are all over with here so DD is making the most of her new found freedom and reminding herself what it is like to have a life! I think she's basically keeping busy to stop her dwelling on waiting for results.

@LaLaFlottes don't think it will change her mind, but it's always nice to have options. We're off to visit a couple of places in half term before making final decision.
Tomorrow is last assessment for DD - after that she will be 'mainly sleeping' she says!
Good luck to everyone still going through exams/assessments/tests

Congratulations thisnameistaken 🎉🎉🎉 a lovely surprise after all this time.

DD finishes next Friday. Then just the wait.
I've now got a plan b in case she needs to retake and reapply. But she has done piles of work on her maths which I've always been concerned about so fingers crossed for August.

Ah, we're having "assignments" rather than assessments or exams. But funnily enough, they are full length exam papers, in the exam hall, under examination conditions.... so 😆🤷🏻‍♀️

Congratulations @IsThisNameTaken that is really good news. Absolutely better late than never. Hope the trips are worthwhile and you can be sure of decisions.

DD has her last not-exam-but-definitely-an-exam tomorrow, biology and that's it. She isn't bothering with the formal last day so tomorrow will be the last time she leaves the school gates she's passed through for 7 years. It would be sad if they weren't all wishing year 13 was over.

She thinks she's got very near full marks in these last tests for all subjects. We're just hoping it makes up for that rogue B she got in her physics mocks. But who knows if they're giving an average or if the last mark wins.

Now just the long wait until August. 🤦‍♀️

Congratulations @IsThisNameTaken on the UEA offer.

I feel like these not-exams have been going on forever now, especially with other DC doing GCSE not-exams too. Over for both next week and they are both really looking forward to some downtime, fun social stuff and Uni visits. To me this feels like the longest half-term ever and I've not even been doing the not-exams.

I am marking all the not exams. Having written them. And then have to moderate them. Yet we are still paying the exam boards their full fee. Mmmmmmm

@mumsneedwine I really feel for teachers. It certainly seems like GW has pulled a blinder by passing the hot potato on to schools and teachers are left to sweep up the mess.

It's a travesty that the exam boards are being shown the money here.

DD finishes next Thursday and I'll be so glad to see the back of these assessments (exams). We're in Wales so schools are releasing provisional results in June. I think the reason for this is that appeals will happen during term time when teachers are in work, there's no guarantee that teachers would be around in August to investigate any appeals.

DD still isn't convinced that she'll get the grade for Chemistry, especially given that 12 of the 16 students in her Chemistry class 'need' an A grade, but keeping everything crossed. She's firmed and insured but needs to do student finance on the weekend.

I too am mid marking hell @mumsneedwine and getting angrier and angrier that all this pressure has been dumped on us teachers. My non exam years haven't had a look in since Easter. DD 2 is also mid GCSE assessments so our house is not a fun place to be at the moment!

Sending and and and to @mumsneedwine and @Card1gan and all other teachers

Pleased I have another 2 years before DS does GCSEs and praying we're back to 'normal' by then!