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.

Totally agree @Dobbyisahouseelf. It's an absolute shit show. We've just found out there will be more assessments in May. This is after my daughter took her part time job back on thinking she was done with revision.

@Longtimenewsee @chocolatesaltyballs22
Thank you both. I think it would be less stressful if A levels were just going ahead too. Good luck to all the year 13's.

I have one in year 11 and one in year 13.
The school have said they will pay no attention to any work done during the year other than formal coursework. They have two lots of exams, all in formal conditions, and their grades will be based on these. I think, if they are vastly different from the predictions we had last September (for the year 13 student ie pre UCAS submission) they might ask for additional evidence - I'm not sure.
Otherwise we will not get any information about marks and grades till August.
I appreciate it is stressful but I don't see that it's much more stressful than in normal times if I'm honest. If someone doesn't do well in exams then this year will be no worse for them. If they do then they're getting a chance to show it.
I expect there to be similar numbers of "happy" and "unhappy" surprises in August as in any normal year.
I know of schools where the policy is to inform students of their predictions and then allow them to try and increase those in the assessments but not risk decreasing them. Some teachers at those schools are very unhappy that actually that's not fair - students should be able to justify the grades they are given.
The big difference for my GCSE child compared to when the other one did GCSEs is that there is less course content being examined and that the exams are shorter with more choices of questions.
I think for the A level one the exams are almost identical to what she would have been sitting.
None of the teachers know what the students "need" for uni which I think is a very good thing.

State school by the way ^

We will have to agree to disagree on that one @Chilldonaldchill. There are so many factors this year which are making it worse than a normal year. To name but a few:-

• 8 months of face to face teaching lost with no consistency across schools in how they were dealing with online teaching
• Lack of consistency between schools on how students are being assessed
• Exams being sat with much less time to prepare than in a normal year

Not to mention the mental stress which the kids have been under over the past 12 months which is bound to impact on their ability to study. I think that saying this year is no worse than any other year in terms of stress is massively wrong.

I suppose I mean that it is a different type of stress.
Current year 13 DC revised 8 hours a day for 2 months for GCSEs. Neither child has done anywhere near that for this year because they didn't even know the exams were happening till recently. Therefore, since the ease of lockdown they have seen friends and had better social lives than I think either would have chosen to have had had this year been "normal".
Both scenarios were/are undoubtedly stressful but everyone this year has had disruption to learning etc in the same circumstances so I suppose I don't perceive it as inherently more stressful, just different.
I appreciate not all students are the same though.

Chilldonaldchill, isn't the point that schools all seem to be doing it rather differently? I can see why the situation you've described isn't much more stressful than ordinary A levels, because there's very little difference.

I'm not sure it's really what was envisaged in the guidance, but my sons would both have preferred standard exams so would grab the option you describe with open arms.

Their school has gone assessment crazy, possibly because they are concerned they have very little other 'evidence' to point to as they didn't manage to fit a single set of exams into the 6th form.

Even then it varies between subjects. Some, like History and English, are doing 6 x 1 hour assessments, which pretty much works out at the same amount of time the exams would have taken, so that's not too bad, if a little bitty. It's basically 6 timed essays, and if you're good at writing essays is perfectly doable.

One of my sons chose chemistry as a 3rd A -level, a decision he curses on a daily basis anyway, but he's been having 2× assessments a week since the week before the Easter holidays. Some are relatively short, more like 40-45 minutes than an hour, so he's finding it really hard to get into his stride.

He will have done about 14 of these tests by the time they finish, which is more exam in absolute terms than they'd have had with the 3 (I think) standard exam papers. Except, because they started in March, without the time they'd normally have had to revise. And they're covering the entire course content, despite the department having provided almost no live teaching during either lockdown.

@LoonvanBoon yes you're right - that does sound a lot more stressful.
I think the lack of consistency is problematic.
Most schools I know seem to be doing less than ours in terms of assessment so I was using them as my benchmark.

Also lets not forget that if every school is doing things differently the grades this year will be completely unfair - your child's A grade might be my child's C grade. When you consider that grades are the sole criteria for university entry, this is a huge issue!

Absolutely, chocolatesaltyballs. The school where DH works is doing it totally differently from our sons' school and it's being organized much more on a whole school basis: so 3 assessment weeks for Year 13s and no assessments before Easter. But even then there seem to be anomalies: he was told by a student that one department is letting the students redo assessments (with different questions, obviously) and the department will use whichever one is better as evidence.

Are other people's children being told their marks? DH's school is giving out marks but not grades or grade boundaries. DTs' school didn't seem to be except they've just heard that one subject is...

Are other people's children being told their marks? DH's school is giving out marks but not grades or grade boundaries. DTs' school didn't seem to be except they've just heard that one subject is...

My daughter is getting marks but not grade boundaries. It's impossible for them to give grade boundaries anyway is it all has to be adjudicated etc. So they could say to a student 'you're on track for a B' or whatever, and then it could get adjusted upwards or downwards once it's been through all of the stages of checks etc that they have to go through.

When I raised the issue of inconsistency between schools on parents eve, I was advised that many of the teachers have been or are examiners and have a good idea what for example an A grade piece of work should be like. However I thought every year the grade boundaries change according to the performance of that cohort? So you still cannot compare between schools. Plus not every school will have examiners as teachers either ......

@chopc

When I raised the issue of inconsistency between schools on parents eve, I was advised that many of the teachers have been or are examiners and have a good idea what for example an A grade piece of work should be like. However I thought every year the grade boundaries change according to the performance of that cohort? So you still cannot compare between schools. Plus not every school will have examiners as teachers either ......

The government minister who cancelled exams decided in doing so that there would be massive inconsistency between the results from one school and another. There was of course unfairness in continuing with exams, but would that actually be more unfair? At least if exams had gone ahead it would not have been possible for parents to say correctly complain me that if their child had gone to another local school instead they would have got better grades as that school gave everyone high grades as occurred last year and will probably happen again.

This guidance was published by Ofqual this week

gov.uk website

Unfortunately schools aren’t allowed to say “you’re on track for a...”
Any school that does this is risking a lot as it’s been spelled out to them explicitly.
It’s tough for the students I know, but schools are just following what they’ve been told to do.

DS is doing just 1 A level as he's in yr12. School have said grades will be based on 4 assessments (mini exam style) over 4 weeks this half-term. No other work/homework will be used as most was in lockdown where they had access to devices. They are being tested on 80% of the syllabus and it's not open book. School do not plan to share any information on grades with students - silence until Aug.

My DD has just completed her A level mocks and she has received a percentage and a grade. My understanding is that her teachers are basing her grades on 2017, 2018 and 2019 boundaries and not 2020.

A recent update from school is that they need a minimum of 4 pieces of evidence per subject but a maximum of 10. Mocks and next set of assessments in May/June are the main evidence plus NEA's if appropriate.

Several schools around here the year 13's have finished already. Not sure how they have managed to complete all the assessments but just shows how different schools are doing different things.

My Y13 DS has 9 exams for 4 A-levels spread over four weeks - all pretty much the same as if the A-levels were going ahead as normal, most of them lasting 2-2:30 hours. The difference being - he would have had 10 exams had there have been the usual A-levels. After his last exam school is over for him. Teachers have told the students that they will not be receiving any information re:marks and have to wait for August. DS didn’t receive any indication how he has done in his two NEAs either. Their overall marks will be based on end of Y12 exams which they did in September after a term out of school and a long summer holiday and the exams now. Very stressful time for these young people. The Y13s and Y11s are the worst affected by the pandemic in my opinion.

I've hit the point of sticking my head in the sand and hoping for the best with my DS. His btec is in the bag so he knows he's on track for a distinction star in that, but maths and physics are still up for grabs. He needs As to get his firm uni choice and has actually been revising for the assessments they've been doing (one for each subject every week for six weeks). We know these will be part of the overall grade but I'm hoping they take other things into account as well.

DD is doing constant assessments for GCSEs, she was disappointed when the exams got cancelled because she doesn't feel this approach gives her the chance to do her best. However, she's that conscientious that I wouldn't have worried about her either way, I know whatever she gets will reflect her very best efforts unlike her lazy arse big brother

This is exactly my issue. My DD goes to a high performing school ( 9 out of 15 in her biology class have been offered places for medicine). She is having two sets of exams and having achieved 74% in one paper (one of the exam boards own ) was told that this was a D ( so the D becomes part of the evidence ). This is because many in the class got high 80/90%. I don’t think this is fair as in this subject 2019 national grade boundaries were 56% for an A.
A friends DS who goes to local 6th college got similar in their exam same subject, and was told it was an A. How can someone be punished just because of who they happen to share a classroom with?! When we asked we were told that the exam board set the grading , but this is patently untrue. I just don’t know what to do about it, she won’t get her uni place if this stands. I wish they had just taken the exams tbh.

@Minnie56 You need to challenge this with your school as surely 74% can't be a D grade. If I understand things correctly year 13 will be awarded a grade on where they are performing now, from a range of evidence. So it shouldn't matter what everyone else is doing in her class. Our teachers are looking at grade boundaries from 2017, 2018 and 2019 NOT 2020.

Last year the teachers allocated a grade that they thought their pupils would achieve on their best day. Then they ranked them in order of ability in the class. Which means that some lost out depending where the grade boundaries fell.

Perhaps a teacher could give more insight. Has school not sent out the government document of how grades will be decided? Your poor DD must be so stressed.

My DD seems to be holding up then something small sets her off and she is in tears. It is almost a release of the pressure to get back on focus for these final few weeks. I think mine will sleep for a week after her final exams are all done.

Thanks @Dobbyisahouseelf - I agree is sounds bonkers. The school day this is AQA grading for the paper but I don’t think that’s correct so we are going back for another go - just straight logic dictates 74% in anything can’t be a D. It just makes you feel like a pushy parent though!! Yes DD was in tears and I’m at my wits end. 16 exams in three weeks - like you I can’t wait for it to be over...

I think i would be that pushy parent @Minnie56 I've just Googled the grade boundaries for Biology A level AQA for 2019 and raw score of 178/260 so 68% is an A *

Good luck to your DD. This type of nonsense causes so much stress and it just unfair on the year 13's.

Gosh @Minnie56 that sounds nuts!! How stressful for you all! I hope you get it sorted

This is crazy. I thought the conclusion of the consultation meant that peers would not be compared and put into order, they would be graded on their merits alone. However, the whole monitoring process seems to be causing a lot of anxiety for schools - dd had an assessment the other week where a significant proportion got a star but the teacher then said she couldn't use those grades because it didn't match their normal range of results at that school and so would flag up as being unusual for any monitoring authority.
On one hand they are being told that they are being given the opportunity to prove what they are capable of achieving but on the other hand they are told they mustn't perform too well. So still crippled by what a school is normally expected to achieve without any understanding of the individual.