A level marks but not grades... yet

[Fairyfield]

Anyone else had marks but not grades?

Y13 DC was invited back into school on Monday for a review of marks from their recent assessments. They were given their marks for the papers they did in early May (one 2hr 15 min paper per subject)and allowed to see the marking on each paper. The hint was to look at 2019 grade boundaries if you want an idea what the marks might mean.

The school said Y12 mock (June 2020), March assessment and May assessment will be looked at for evidence of the grade to be awarded. DC is worried about one grade, They got 74% in March and 64% in May. They need 69.8% for an A grade (I think Y12 mock was 68%) .

It is going to be a long wait til August.

How are other schools sharing assessment marks?

They aren’t in our case. We won’t hear anything until August 10th

My DD finished her exams this week. From what I understand her school are going through the latest round of exams next week so she will get a raw score and percentage, not sure about grade.

I understand that teachers are looking at grade boundaries from 2017, 2018 and 2019 but not 2020 and they need a minimum of four pieces of evidence, maximum of ten.To be honest I'm exhausted with this academic year as it my DD. The year 13's have been tested throughout the year with formal mocks in September and Easter and then final exams end of May/beginning of June. I trust my DD's teachers to give her a fair grade. Fingers crossed for 10th August!

@Fairyfield I think your daughter's school need to be very careful, they are dangerously close to malpractice there. Schools should not be giving grades out at all. I am heavily involved in the process at a number of schools and in lots of cases students haven't been given marks at all.

@thefemaleJoshLyman I read @Fairyfield 'a post differently. They were given the raw marks but not their grades. But also given an idea what the marks may translate to

@chopc I picked that up, it was the suggestion that they look at a specific set of grade boundaries to compare that was problematic for me. This process has been horrible for all involved. I am really concerned about some schools not following processes properly which disadvantages students in schools where the process has been really strict. I hope all your DCs get the grades they need for progression and that their hard work deserves.

Grades or an indication of grade to be awarded has certainly not been given. Just raw marks eg 77/110 and an opportunity to look at the marked paper and query anything.

In all three sets of exams, just raw marks were given. Sorry if I did not make that clear.

The school I work in has done similar, sharing marks but not grades. It’s partly to prevent undue pressure from overly pushy parents. It’s such a hard job the teachers have been given to try to be a completely fair as possible with their grading. They really want the best for their students but have to back up every grade with evidence to submit to the exam boards if requested. I really hope your DC gets what they need to progress.

I think DD’s school are going with the idea that the less information they give out, the less they have to justify. I don’t blame them, but I wish all schools were following 1 procedure. Hearing about schools giving out marks and actively hinting at grade boundaries etc when DD’s school stated months ago that they would absolutely not give out any grades ( for pieces of work, parents evening, assessments or anything) makes me feel jittery as a parent.

Good luck to ALL our dc. What a time they’ve had. My older dc was a bit of a lazy arse at 6th form a few years ago and I think that even kids like him probably deserve a bit of a leg up and to be given the benefit of the doubt this year after the year / 18 months they’ve all had.

@Longtimenewsee

They aren’t in our case. We won’t hear anything until August 10th

Same as this for my ds.

We had an email suggesting they might give out raw marks at one point (they are only using exams and not looking at previous data) but we've not heard anything since and both children (years 13 and 11) are certain that's not happening.
To be honest I think that's better - not knowing how they'll decide grade boundaries etc wouldn't make it any less stressful. It would potentially raise hopes or dash them without any basis in reality.

We haven't been given anything at all for the most recent May assessments but both my DC (at different schools) were given marks and indeed grades from earlier ones which are being included in the evidence submitted. But this was just before exams were cancelled. For example both my DD (A'levels) and DS (GCSE's) did proper formal exam hall assessments and mocks (respectively) back in late Nov. Would they change the grade boundaries for these? They also received marks but not grades for March and April assessments but nothing given back for May ones. I'm presuming the they got papers back in March and April to help pupils see where they might be going wrong and help improve for later performances. The only thing we don't know is the weighting attributed to any of the evidence. It is certainly possible to have a vague idea of grade from the marks you get though as long as you aren't borderline and it is easier to predict if they are at the top end of the scale. I think 1 exam board for my DC has forbidden anything being given out (Cambridge board?) so completely in the dark here.

Centres can't give grades because we don't know whether the grades we submit will go through as is or be changed up or down. Not a clue! And with all due respect, students and parents are in exactly the same position they would normally be in at this time of year. If they were sitting exams you wouldn't find out their results until August and all the mocks and predicted grades in the world don't actually tell you what they're going to get. Students also usually have only the flimiest idea of the weighting given to different elements of their course (this is not kept secret, far from it, but they never in my experience remember or care very much anyway!). Even with coursework only an indication of grade can ever be given so that doesn't help much.

We got raw marks today. Checking against the 2019 grade boundaries gives a rough idea of the grades he might get although I would expect these to be the lowest possible grades he could get in August. We're looking at A*, D, E here so it's unlikely he'll get the CCD he needs for uni.

@Jalfrezi, if they’ve already given out grades for some of the assessments already carried out, they probably won’t change them. They may change the weighting of that assessment out of the work to be used if the school felt it was a long time ago and the students had progressed significantly since then.

We haven't given out any marks or grades for assessments completed this term. I think the guidance came out on 29th March, so anything since then.

Of course, our y11s had proper mock exams in November/December under exam conditions with external invigilators and they were given the marks and feedback for them. Y13 did some in class when we returned in March.

We have had 2 blocks of assessments between Easter and the May half term holiday. Anything completed or submitted then has been marked and moderated but nothing shared with the students. Our school has given us strict instructions for the awarding of grades, including looking at previous cohorts. However, the exam boards can still request evidence of the Centre Assessed Grades and as a result of them, can change a student's grade(s). Giving them raw marks is completely unfair in my opinion because you could be setting them up to expect a particular grade that they then don't achieve.

We've been given raw marks and told not to make any attempts to work out grades.

We are not giving out any information on the most recent round of assessments at all. Sharing raw marks and hinting at boundaries used would be very much against the rules!
Parents and students know the grades for previous assessments and that they will be taken into account, so they should all have a vague idea of whereabouts they will be.

My DD was not given any scores for the most recent assessments, so we have no idea. The school told them they were not able to share them with them.

It has been inconsistent amongst all the schools round here. Some have and some haven't.

DS school did one set of assessments, in the format of each A level for each subject. These had been timetabled as their May mock, since the beginning of the academic year. School sent us their brief (which had been approved by the required outside authority) re awarding grades; we have been told ‘strong’ consideration will be given to these tests as 1. Most recent evidence 2. Sat in full exam conditions and 3. They covered the whole exam syllabus. So....DS basically did his A levels.

DS state school have given no Mark's or grade boundaries for the 3 sets of exams they have sat.Indeed no feedback at all and we have been told not to discuss any grading with teachers. I was under the impression this was the guidelines that all schools should be following? Why are some schools giving out marks and hints and having kids back in school to discuss these? Is your childs school private op? Are certain private schools operating under a different set of rules to state schools or rather interpreting them to suit themselves?

The school I work in is a state one, @nancypineapple, so I don’t think it’s a state/private thing. The guidance is very woolly and open to interpretation. Giving raw scores isn’t the same as giving grades. My school’s assessments were put together by the school to stop students looking up mark schemes on past papers to ensure the assessments gave valid results, so there are no grade boundaries they could look up. Grades have been assessed by the teachers according to the grade descriptors provided by the boards as much as possible, even though some of these were just, ‘an 8 is better than a 7 but worse than a 9.’

It hasn’t been an easy process.

I can’t believe some schools are giving out “raw marks.” I thought this wasn’t allowed? DS school will categorically not do this. They have been told which components will go towards the final grade (basically the three sets of exams they did between March and May, plus NEAs where applicable), but that’s it.

Every school is doing it’s own thing and this sounds like madness to me, to be perfectly honest. GW has just shirked all responsibility so if it all kicks off in August, it’s schools that will have to deal with it.

DS’ school is a large, selective independent in London, for what it’s worth. No independents I’m aware of round here are calling students in to tell them their raw scores.

It is absolutely allowed to share raw scores and/or estimated grades for individual pieces of work. The only thing forbidden is sharing the final grade to be submitted. So only a few subjects where the final grade is only based on one piece of work/mark (e.g. Extended Project Qualification) would not be able to share information about performance in individual assessments.
Reading between the lines I think JCQ are hoping schools share as much as possible with students now to make the process as transparent as possible and to limit appeals. However, there is a fair amount of flexibility built into the process meaning that schools have designed different approaches.

Re my post above about how DS’s school have done one assessment mock (full A level papers for each subject), to be given ‘strong’ consideration in awarding final grade; they have been give their raw score for each paper - so yes, I suppose they could look at grade boundaries for 2019/18 and get a good idea of what they are going to get. I was surprised they were sharing these results. State school.