Countdown to A level results day - 2023

[HereWeGo2023]

Following on from the A level support thread I thought I would create one for results day.
Hopefully you will all join me for the long nail biting wait and the big day at the end of it!

Absolutely worth trying if he gets those grades as I’d be very surprised if all the teens they’ve offered get the correct grades. They’ve likely over offered with this in mind but still…

I could have written your post.

Personally, I think there will be uproar if the grade boundaries increase from 2019 boundaries.

We need BBC grades here and I keep trying to convince myself all will be good on the day. I keep picturing dd face if she doesnt get the grades.

She felt that the exams all went well and is convinced her answers were textbook answers. We have barely seen her for the last 6 mths as shes been squirreled away in her room revising, but I am quite anxious now about her meeting terms of her offer.

Also starting to get very nervous here. DD needs AAA (was AAA but her EPQ was A so she got a reduced offer). Psychology at Cardiff is very popular so if she ends up with one dropped grade I don't see them giving her a place. She is not feeling so confident about her graphics alevel as although the coursework was brilliant her exam was just ok and she wasn't 100% happy with the finished product. Her insurance is still a good uni but her boyfriend is at Cardiff and she already loves the city (plus the course is better). Also Cardiff is so cheap - we will struggle more financially with the insurance as Brighton is not a cheap place to live!

DD has also said that her firm is becoming more and more important to her. She never mentions her insurance and constantly refers to her first choice. She’s already said that she’ll be hugely disappointed if doesn’t get her firm as she strongly believes it’s a much much better opportunity. Unfortunately I find it difficult to disagree with her but do highlight that the insurance is a great op too. Luckily there’s no accom allocation or uni issued prep as that would definitely concrete those hopes.

We haven’t really looked at clearing options. If she misses insurance by one grade she’s looking a BBB. There’s nothing at BBB that we could see when originally looking and I’m not sure if her insurance at ABB would consider a drop to BBB. I’ve no idea if it’d be worth her calling ABB tariffs on results day to see if they’d accept BBB. There are a few at BBC, which we could make a note of though. What are others thinking regarding their strategy for clearing.

@NotDonna DD is in a similar situation. First choice is just something she can’t bear thinking about missing out on. Her insurance is lovely but just not in same league as her first choice, especially teaching styles.

She has had a lovely letter from one of the Unis she put on UCAS that had lower grade requirements than her insurance that if she doesn’t make her grades to get in touch, they referenced particular parts of her PS and why she would be a good fit, so it feels like she has a double insurance but DD doesn’t know if she would want to go there.

There is no obvious reason DD won’t get the grades for her first choice, but there is no guarantee and as all her subjects are essay ones there is an element of subjectivity. We are on holiday now for a week so it is going to back of mind for at least that long.

Yes @PettsWoodParadise 3x essay subjects for DD too and definitely subjective elements! Fingers crossed for them all.

3 essay subjects here too - I think it’s hard for those doing STEM subjects to understand the subjectivity in marking when it comes to things like English and RS. There are stats somewhere about the accuracy of marking in different subjects and for English Lit it’s ridiculously low - I can’t remember the last figures I saw for CCEA board but I think it was somewhere around the 65% mark

DD also 3 essay subjects and the subjectivity element worries me, but she came out of each exam feeling she'd answered as well as she could so that's all anyone can do. Fingers x for results day.

I can’t believe it’s now less than 3 weeks.
my DD has pretty much banned all talk of results day. The problem we are having is with other people (particularly grandparents) saying ‘oh of course you’ll get the grades’ and trying to arrange a lunch on the day to celebrate, they won’t entertain the idea that she might not get what she needs.

She needs an A star and said, although she thinks the exams went well, she didn’t feel there was a paper where she could shine enough to get the A star.
None of us went to uni and DD was lucky enough to get an offer from Cambridge so the GPs are proudly telling everyone they know. DD is now panicking that she’s going to let everyone down. It’s too much pressure.
i can’t picture results day. The nerves before logging onto UCAS are going to be off the scale!
I know she will still be happy with her insurance but it’s the expectations of everyone else that has snowballed.

That sounds so stressful @HereWeGo2023 . Hope she gets the grades but it sounds like she has a good plan B and the grandparents should take the pressure off.

DS is definitely having a gap year so, fortunately for us, that reduces the pressure as, if the grades are higher or lower than expected he has lots of time to rethink and reapply. He has firmed at ABB so it could go either way. Time is both going fast and slow - horrible being in this limbo but also so great for them to be able to relax properly this summer.

Agreed @HereWeGo2023 can you have a word with the grandparents? These kids went through so much in their GCSE years, none of us can really know how they will do at A level. We just have to take it as it comes. I would hate it if anyone made DS feel like he'd let them down if his grades are lower than predicted.

I'm definitely starting to feel the nerves about logging on to UCAS in less than three weeks.

Anyone got any thoughts on grade boundaries?

School have been using 2019 ones. Ofqual say there will be a degree of grades protection for the kids but v vague.

Having seen the IB grade boundaries these were lower than 2019, so it is likely to be similar for A levels so although they may keep percentages of passes akin to 2019 the cohort ‘shouldn’t’ be penalised is what I think Ofqual are saying.

However I don’t think that quite reflects the different learning experiences that some of the young people got so my feeling is that those in schools that had good teaching and support during lockdown will get find it easier to get a top score if grade boundaries are lowered but I don’t understand the whole process clearly enough to know if my theory is just that, a theory.

The intention is for the proportion of grades awarded at each level to be sumilar to 2019.
Grade boundaries are to be decided on the basis of that. In other words, if the 2023 cohort underperforms in comparison with the 2019 cohort (either due to being disadvantaged during a period of their education during the pandemic or because the exams were harder), grade boundaries will be lower in 2023, so the same number of people can get grades A-star, A, B etc... I expect that will be the case, but it is hard to say to what degree grade boundaries will need to be adjusted. Going on IB results, boundariesbdropped between 2 to 7 points in different subjects from 2019.

That’s my understanding too and will mean a big drop from last year. Using Biology as a random example this will mean dropping from 34.6% getting A or above to 24.4%. I’m assuming grade boundaries will be adjusted to achieve the 2019 % of 24.4.

There must also be a process of adjustment of grade boundaries between exam boards as the difficulty of exams may vary between them for the same subjects. Unsure how that works...

@KittyMcKitty yes, exactly that, I think.

I do think the grade bounderies will likely be around the 2019, maybe with one or two marks leniency I think. Biology overall OCR for a B in 2019 is 136 out of 270.

Also just need to vent, got a brand new laptop for DD2 from currys for uni and its coming up with a drive issue. We only had it home for 2 hours. Have receipt but going to have to see if they can exchange tomorrow.

They manipulate the grade boundaries to control the numbers getting certain grades.

Sticking with Biology and the % getting A or above the figures are as follows for the reformed A levels:

2017 27.6
2018 26.7 2018 & 2017 had grade protection built in for the pre reformed a levels
2019 24.4
2020 37.3
2021 43.9
2022 34.6

The 2022 grades Ofqual had announced would be a mid point between 2021 and 2019 with this year returning to pre pandemic (so 2019) %.

It would have been nice if this year represented a mid point between 2019 and 2022 but all the Ofqual stuff stresses their desire to return to 2019.

So to a certain extent as I see it the boundaries are irrelevant as it’s all to do with getting the A and above back down to 24.4%.

@sammyjoanne what a pain about the laptop - hope they swap it over without any hassle.

@KittyMcKitty thanks :)

Re grade bounderies hoping for a 2017/2018 looking at the above for A's, but will be happy if she gets the BBD needed for uni. A is a definite cherry on the cake, but she feels 2 of the subjects wont reach that high. We did have a look at clearing options this week online and theres a couple she likes, so shes feels better shes got some back up options, just in case.

Can't wait for this limbo to be over - it will be so much easier to deal with (good or bad) when they know where they're going / what they're doing!

That said DS is off to Europe with his GF on Monday and they'll still be away on results day. So I have to go and get his results for him. I guess he'll know via UCAS whether or not he's got his uni place, but he'll only know his grades from me 😬

Interesting how the 2019 % is lower than both 2018 and 2017. Were they reformed from modular to linear? And also % changed too? So harder on two counts really?

@KittyMcKitty you are always really helpful on these threads so I'm hoping you, or someone else can help me understand something please.
A level Biology (OCR) is a really good example:

In 2019 you needed 158/270 for an A grade and in 2022 it was 156/270 which seems pretty similar considering the large difference in A grades awarded? Is it just down to the difficulty of the paper with the 2019 paper being harder? So if the 2022 cohort had sat the 2019 paper would we have expected a much lower threshold for an A to account for the higher number of passes?

The AQA history combination my son took is the same and only 3 marks difference between an A in 2019 and 2022 which feels like a normal variation every year. It makes it really hard for them to have any idea of how many marks they need.

Grade boundaries are set after exams are taken and marked. A bell curve is made and the top 10% (v approx) will get A star. The next 10% an A, with a larger proportion of people getting the 'middle grade'of C.
This is v much a simplification of the whole process, but explains why boundaries change every year. A harder paper should still mean the same 'approx' number of each grade.
The trouble with comparing any of the last few years is that none of them were normal and new rules were made up. 2019 was the last normal year, and the new A levels had only been in existence for a year or two, so had not stabilised.

Thanks @mumsneedwine . They are all in the same boat I suppose so it is fair in that respect. We've spent more time on plan C and D than we would have liked but it has to be done!