A levels 2023 - Results day and beyond

[HereWeGo2023]

Hi all. I thought I’d make a new thread as the countdown one is filling up.
Results day is here and I’m sure we will all value each others support, today and for the next stage of their journeys.

FWIW, as a teacher I'd absolutely support it. I also think it would allow students to actually focus on their academics in Y13- applying for some subjects such as medicine can become incredibly time consuming and take them away from A-level study as well.

The whole process is such a mess and so stressful for everyone. If grades are known as well, then presumably 5 applications per student wouldn't be needed which would streamline the process a bit for everyone- something like an Extra system where students add one course at a time might help?

@TJsAunt and breathe! Thank goodness for that. Thanks for your best wishes. The uni has said he will know by the end of Monday. His clearing offers are exporting as we speak so he's going to try again later!

Possibly. The mark is out of 60. He got 34. All other mocks/assessments were 53/55/56 out of 60 or thereabouts, he still has them so he checked. He’d worked out he needed 70, 50 and 50 across all three papers to get an A. He got 70, 50 and 34. He knew his abilities, this wasn’t a complete stab in the dark.

Its a tiny 6th form, only 6 people going to Uni so whilst I appreciate it’s not paid working there isn’t a huge amount for them to do.

They are getting Psychology remarked at their suggestion. I’m just worried that something has gone wrong with the paper 3 somehow so just want someone to look at it. If they say yes you screwed up then fair enough but he is really confident he didn’t,

Correction: Instead of ‘families with rising Y13 pupils’ I should have said ‘families with applicants’ or ‘ with post Y13 pupils’

That’s interesting and encouraging,@Postapocalypticcowgirl

And I agree that predicted grades almost do more harm than good at the moment

@mrsconradfisher We are having paper 3 on psychology - OCR I think - reviewed as that was similar to your DS as much lower than a) normal or b) The other papers

@mrsconradfisher Honestly, one bad paper sounds like he just had a one off bad day - maybe he missed out a crucial element of a response, or misinterpreted a question without realizing it. Happens to everyone at some point, and doesn't have any bearing on his overall ability in the subject.

If it's not going to have an impact on meeting a specific offer, I would just let it go.

@Itisadifficulttime So sorry to hear about your DD especially as she didn't even get her insurance. Hope everything turns out ok for her. It's awful to see them so devastated. They may be classed as adults now but they are still so young.
Yesterday was spent in a haze of disappointment and confusion as to what went wrong here.
Luckily DS liked his insurance choice. It just wasn't his firm which he liked more.
By the sounds of it nobody he knows actually got what they were expecting which is worrying.

@Travelban My DD is at Portsmouth University at the moment and absolutely loves the city and the uni.

Yes you are completely right and that maybe the case but with nothing to lose I can’t see why they just can’t request the script. I’ve just got this nagging feeling that something is wrong. To get 50% on that paper (and it’s a very specific paper) is very strange.

I have seen lots of people on different forums say the same thing about OCR. I’ve just got a nagging doubt that something is not quite adding up.

I agree with this post. My field involves line managing linguists and we like employing Essex graduates because the quality of their graduates is very high.

I never comment on Mumsnet - and it's been 8 years since my daughter went off to Uni miles away from home. But I just had to comment on this. We live just outside of Portsmouth (have done for 30 years) and it's a great place to be a student. My DD would have absolutely gone to Portsmouth if it hadn't been on our doorstep. As a city it is no more 'stabby' than any other and i would hazard that it is probably less 'stabby' then quite a few. Most of my work colleagues came to Portsmouth to study and have never left. It's that kind of place.

@witheringrowan , @mrsconradfisher ,

My dc's high achieving private school is also reviewing paper 3 of Edexcel psychology because they are not happy with the raw scores and want to see the papers, (we have to give permission and there is an admin charge by the school).

The exam boards will feed back to schools re how they want certain types of questions answered in the future and you have to take on board that teachers don't always know what the exam boards want.

I do get where you're coming from, and I do think it would be helpful for the school to review the paper.

However, if it's not a large sixth form cohort, my point is that the marking of his papers in school may be off- i.e. the teacher(s) marking them may have given marks where an external examiner wouldn't.

Personally, I'd want to look at it, but equally maybe they can see trends in his class which perhaps show it's unlikely to have been a mistake.

Maybe they'll be willing to have a look at in September?

Sorry meant @Darkbutstarrynight

My impression is that most of my colleagues who teach sixth form would prefer the same- I do think it is difficult, because e.g. moving A-level exams earlier would be very hard for schools to manage, and would likely have knock on impacts right down to Y7.

But I don't really see why the process can't be done in such a way that results come out about the same time, maybe a little bit earlier, and students apply over the summer/September, with offers all in place by about Christmas, for a January start for unis?

I can understand the need to know especially if he’s doing that subject I’d try again with school.
My friend messed up her A level law. 2 papers English legal system and criminal. On criminal paper she completely missed that the question was burglary and got 0 for 1/3 of the paper. We’d had a brief chat after oh the burglary one wasn’t bad and she said what burglary question and I’d dropped it. I can remember being 18 and not knowing if I should or shouldn’t say more. School pushed for a remark as such a discrepancy between papers but it was as suspected 0 on one question due to complete misunderstanding. It happens, stressed in exam, misread etc.

Why was she wet at 4.15 am?

So relate to the autistic burnout comment!

I'd much prefer it if there were a longer gap between results and uni actually starting. I don't feel as if DS is going to feel very prepared.

The Jan start for Y1 is one option, @Postapocalypticcowgirl . These students could come as staff return from Christmas and get an extra four weeks of instruction that way. If their academic year extended into the summer it wouldn’t lose length. But then Y1 academic staff would be out of sync with their research colleagues. A very big problem in research intensive unis. This is my sector and I think it a legitimate problem.

Subjects with professional licensing requirements can’t shorten Y1 unless they lengthen subsequent years. That differential creates its own problems.

The exam boards say they cannot speed up the marking. Who knows? Software has improved so much since the marking timetable was established that I am a bit sceptical.

You’ve pointed out the knock on effects to schools of having exams earlier - the problem is that all possible reforms will have massive knock on effects. No one wants to deal with them. Fairness then becomes secondary.

@tothelefttotheleft We had about half a month's rainfall between 3 and 5 this morning.

DD has applied to both UK and Irish universities so has navigated both UCAS and CAO systems, so here’s my tuppenceworth…

• UCAS is far more time consuming than CAO and definitely takes focus away from studies at the start of final year (for both students and teachers)
• CAO gives you 10 choices rather than 5 and they are at a range of levels so there is much more flexibility for students.
• CAO choices have to be ranked in order of preference so students need to know what they want sooner - BUT - you can change your order right up until beginning of July without too much hassle so if you have a change of heart, or if exams go worse or better than expected you can add/change courses later in the year.
• There are no offers until after results day and offers are made solely on the grades/points achieved - this has both positives and negatives - there is no consideration for mitigating circumstances where a student has done worse than expected and you could miss a course by a single point (out of a points total of 400/500+) with no recourse. On the other hand if you miss your course it automatically goes down the list until you get a course which meets your points total and with 10 choices you are more likely to get something.
• While offers aren’t made until after results and there are no predicted grades etc you still have to have a fair idea of what you’re likely to get to know where to apply to. If you’re likely to come out with a total of around 500, there is no point in applying to courses which in previous years have always had a lowest score of 550-600.
• The system really isn’t set up well for those coming from the UK - you pretty much have to have a 4th A level, or at least a 4th subject at AS, to be able to get enough points to compete. Even then it’s very hard to get into the most competitive courses as a 4th A level is worth much less points than your first 3. (A at A level is worth 156 points, but in your 4th subject it’s only worth 38) (I know of someone who got 4A yesterday (inc maths which gives an extra 25 points) and is likely to miss the points requirements for all her Irish choices)
• Offers are done in numerous rounds rather than 1 round and then clearing. You could get a Round 1 offer for your 2nd/3rd choice and then as other people turn down offers you could end up with a Round 2/3 offer further up your list. The whole process is quite prolonged and actually goes past the start of university terms. Round 1 offers this year are on 30th August (5 days after LC results come out), Round 2 are on 13th September and it goes on until first week of October. Term starts for first year students on Monday 18th so if you end up with a Round 2 offer you have 5 days to sort things out before you start lectures! If you get Round 3 or beyond you actually miss the start of term. Even with DD being very likely to get a Round 1 offer we’ll have 16 days from offer day to move in day which is VERY tight.

All in all, I prefer the Irish system, but it’s not perfect either.

I’d much prefer a system of applying with grades.
A gap would seem sensible, perhaps like expanded NCS scheme where kids could visit uni open days, volunteer and work post A levels and then start January.
No visiting uni open days just in case.
It works both ways some do better than predicted but end up settling as they don’t want a year out.
It would probably encourage more diversity too. It’s easier to persuade a pupil from a disadvantaged background that they are Oxbridge material and to try with 3 A stars achieved.

I think part of the issue with exam boards speeding up marking, is that most of the marking is done by full time teachers who are marking around their jobs, in their gained time and sometimes finishing quotas in the holidays etc.

If exam boards were willing to widen the net in terms of who could mark, and recruited either a lot more examiners, or those with more time to mark earlier could be recruited, then I think results could come out earlier.

I do accept there are lots of reasons why it would be difficult to change, but I feel like, in the end, a lot of it boils down to "this is the way we've always done it" and a reluctance to change on either end.

And also, a reluctance to change on the part of governments, as it wouldn't be a vote winner.

Love this. So pleased things tuned out well.