A Level Grades and STRESS!!

[chocolatesaltyballs22]

I just wondered if any of you with children in Y13 have had info from their school on how they are going to asses their grades. I'm feeling a bit in the dark and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

My daughter doesn't do well in exams and she just got the results from some 'mocks' which she sat last week which are not where she expected her to be. Her teachers have said they know she is working at a higher level than this but obviously they can't give her any info on how they intend to grade her. She's stressing out massively as she needs good grades for preferred university.

We can't be the only ones in this position. Oh and she's in a private school and I just feel like they're not keeping us informed. Her GCSE results were very good but she's struggling so much with any exam type scenario at A level. The pressure they're under this year is just awful.

Any advice on your own experiences would be welcomed.

I think everyone is slightly in the dark chocolate. In a year when exams were “cancelled” they certainly seem to be doing tests to the max. At DS’ school there are 3 rounds of exams, but it’s not clear how much weighting is being placed on these. I think they need “evidence” if called in by moderators to justify TAGs, But it all seems very variable between schools and just hoping for the best really.

My yr 13 ds goes to a local comp and having 3 sets of exams. Teachers are giving no feedback or marks /grades which is really ridiculous if you ask me. How are students to improve if given no clue as to what they are getting right or wrong! I understand teachers dont want kids asking constantly what grades they are being awarded but giving no feedback at all is wrong. So yes I feel your stress-not sure how exams are "cancelled" when ds has to sit 3 sets of them.

Have a very stressed y13 here :( currently having ‘assessments’ under exam conditions exams are between 1-2 hours and she will do 6 exams.
Frustrating as it’s not a level playing field across the sixth form colleges. Local private school is doing open book exams, another local state school are doing small end of week assessment after covering topics revision in classes.
We can’t work out why our school are putting the students under this stress.
Assessment result will link 100% to grade given :( regardless of work completed through the year. Excluding subjects with coursework.

It's the not knowing. Intuitively you feel that of course the school wants its A level students to do well, and I'm sure that from an outside perspective it seems as if Y11s and 13s are having an easy ride compared to the traditional external exam timetable. It certainly doesn't feel like that, and I have been through 3 normal exam seasons with my DC. The school have sent out lengthy but largely meaningless explanations, which mostly detail what they won't be doing, and answer none of the questions you'd want answering.

We have just had the information from our school (DS is in Y12 doing AS but it's the same for Y11 and Y13). Have copied the bit about how they decide on grades below in case it's helpful. AW = assessment week. Looks to me as though they are giving themselves as much room as possible to award the best grades they can, but it does all have to be justified to the exam board.

They are going to issue provisional grades in June, then there is a short window for appeals, then the grades go off to the exam board and then official results in August.

4.4 Determing Grades (CDG): Assessment Approach for Qualifications in 2021

^Teachers will be required to consider the context in which any assessments were completed to ensure fairness and consistency:

1. NEAs
2. Previous assessments (prior to enforced school closure in December 2020),
3. AW1 performance
4. AW2 performance
5. Relevant Practical Performances

There will be no formal weighting of the 5 areas above and teachers will be able to call on other evidence alongside these where appropriate. Teachers will make holistic, best‐fit judgements that are compensatory, acknowledging the impact of remote learning and other additional considerations outlined in 4.4.^

Ds was told before Easter how they would be making their decisions but then the sixth form have always been very organised and pro-active.

They take their top 5 highest grades from their previous end of topic assessments that they did in year 12 and 13 whilst in school, so in class under exam conditions anyway. This makes up 20%. If they have an NEA then that is also 20%.

After that it is 2 exams per subject, they can be one seen and one unseen or both unseen papers. These will make up either 80% or 60% if an NEA exists. By seen I think they mean that they will narrow down the subject matter. Ds is doing unseens in all of his.

They will take place in May and I think he gets a week off for revision. It isn't a level playing field with other colleges but there is nothing that we can do about it. All Ds is doing is revising to get the highest grades he can. If they are not as high as he hopes, we will cross that bridge when we come to it. I think not knowing makes it harder. I don't know if the exams they are doing are graded on a cohort curve or not.

Didn't think we'd be the only ones - so frustrating. And the lack of consistency between schools/colleges is also going to cause chaos. She's got meetings set up with her teachers today to see what she can do to pull things back so will see what news that brings.

It is exceptionally unclear and unsettling here too. I think at the end of the process if their predictions were fair and they get something around that then it will be ok and I just hope unis will be flexible.

Dc has 6 exams over a 2 week period . No idea of the weighting of these exams has been given. No feedback is currently being given. Dc is pretty fed up with the situation as I imagine the teachers are too.

My y13 has had 3 sets of mocks and is clueless how much they'll count towards her final grade. It's a fucking shit show- they would have been better off having exams (one shot)

Yes, it is awful. We were told it was going to be an holistic look at their past grades with new tests to support that but dd has been told by her teacher that after getting a B in a test last week she has to gets A in her next 2 tests to get awarded the A she needs. I didn't think they were supposed to know the grades they were getting in the tests, just their marks. And I was hoping for some teacher led moderation of the grade boundaries for that cohort at the end of the process.
I just don't know what's going on. She is working manically and very stressed as am I by the whole situation.

The word 'holistic' seems to crop up an awful lot, not backed up by much in the way of how any marks will be awarded outside very narrow and limited parameters.

So how come some schools are giving feedback and others aren't? How is this any fairer than the main A level exams in May? Why isn't the Dept of ed setting out clear guidelines that every school private or state need to follow? Once again state educated kids are at a massive disadvantage if their schools are not giving any feedback or advice. Just out of interest on this thread is anyone's state educated yr 13's getting individual meetings or feedback on these so called mini exams?

I honestly don't think it's a state vs private thing though. It's as clear as mud for everyone. My daughter's had marks from previous exams but no clue as to what grade that represents and where the grade boundaries are.

I'd be interested to hear from any teachers reading this...I know it's not easy for them either.

I have a year 11 and 13 so double stress. And having watched DS1 go through GCSE's 'the normal way' two years ago I can tell you that was a walk in the park compared to the shambles and uncertainty for these poor cohorts this year. Any high grades will be very highly earned in comparison.
Whatever work grades are based on will either be that done prior to Dec 2020 where students still thought they were sitting summer exams so possibly not working at their best, and was mostly taught through remote learning and punctured with repeated self isolation. Or after Dec 2020 when exams were scrapped and it was panic stations and uncertainty. DS1 is still on blended learning, in fact, most of his A levels will have been done remotely. He hasn't done a full week in college for over 12 months.
Lose lose all round.

@DahliaMacNamara, yes I should have really put apostrophes around the word holistic

I'd forgotten what I'd written there, and thought I might have accidentally gone all grammar tyrant on you, as if you were my DH.

I wonder if the teachers saying that the results will be purely based on current exams is a tactic to protect them from a barrage of questioning between now and June? They might be taking a more holistic view, but not necessarily letting on about it?

In any case, it seems like every school is going their own thing which seems crazy. Mine are in independent schools (one GCSE and one A-level) and, apart from exam dates, nobody is any the wiser. The one doing A-levels is currently in two-weeks of study leave and only going in for exams. He did the first round of exams before Easter and there’s another one in the week before half-term. Then he’s left school. Amidst this, he has a “week of reflection” in the week after the May bank-holiday. I wonder what this means and if they will give them a clue then as to whether they’re on target? Are any other schools doing this “week of reflection?”

No week of reflection here... we've been told she won't be needed in school after May half term.

I have a year 13 and we have a presentation from school later this week about how they will be awarding grades.

As soon as the government announced TAGs our school stopped issuing working at grades so it's very hard to work out if he's on track. I guess I can understand why they did that in order to prevent lots of appeals or pressure on teachers, but it makes it incredibly difficult for the kids.

DS had to hand a big NEA in yesterday that, in normal times would have been 50% of his grade for that subject. We don't know if that will still be the case.

He has a controlled essay in class today and one next week for another subject. They don't know what the question will be and he's a bit concerned that his class have the first essay today but the other class for this subject isn't until later this week. If they get asked the same question that doesn't seem terribly fair as it's bound to get out.

Then in two weeks time they have exams over a 2 and a half week period. 2 per subject. Then they're finished. Last day in school in 20th May.

We haven't heard anything about if they'll all be getting the one-one meeting that the Ofqual document talked about. But maybe that will be something they announce in the presentation.

There's a lot of stress and the uncertainty is really tough. I totally agree with other posters about how hard this is for them. Yet the narrative everywhere seems to be that exams are cancelled and it's easier than normal. That's certainly not our experience of what's going on.

Seems like one of the teachers has given incorrect information around the grade boundaries for one of the papers she sat last week and a huge panic over a C/D could now turn into a B/C which is a world of difference! So stressful for them.

I agree that this is more stressful than "normal" exams!

DD has been told that 75% of the TAG has to be taken from timed assessments, so they are basically doing several assessments each week between now and the end of May. And like others, there's no specific feedback from teachers now, just general class feedback, as the assessments all count and they can't tell them their grades.

Argghh!! Massively feel for all our Y13s, but also all their teachers who are also feeling their way through all of the changing guidelines, whilst also doing all the marking and assessment that exam boards and markers usually do.

My year 13 is very stressed this week. Just finished 10 days of mocks with more assessments end of May and beginning of June.

I thought our school was very good at communicating that they wanted lots of evidence to back up grades submitted. So results from mocks, exams, NEA and timed essays in class etc. All was going well until one department has just come out and said all down to mocks and exams in May. The other departments are calming the year 13's down as they have been tested regularly from the moment they went back in September.

Not happy at all with one teacher who has sat on an NEA for 6 weeks and although it is of a good standard has finally given feedback and final copy needs to be in this week!

So many schools doing different things it is very unfair. I just hope my DD gets the grades she needs for uni, firm or insurance.

Just to add don't get me started on the perception of how easy the year 11's and year 13's are having it according to the media. My DD has worked at maximum pace all year and hopefully her school allocate a fair grade to her ability/achievement. If you believe everything in the media they are all going to get grades 9/A*.

I agree @Dobbyisahouseelf... they’ve had such a tough year! My dc would have happily taken real exams rather than these endless assessments which feel like exams by stealth.