What a shitshow A level marking and university admissions are this year

IheartNiles · 2023-08-17T09:52:30+00:00

We’re in England. Loads of students at high performing school have missed their grades. The Oxbridge shoe-in students didn’t get a single A star. The concessions made to students in 3/4 UK countries is not a level playing field. International clearing is offering competitive courses at BCC at Russell groups. it’s a mess.

Nevermay · 17/08/2023 10:53

Seems to be going very well here!

user76541055773 · 17/08/2023 10:56

What do you mean by concessions in 3/4 U.K. countries?

Myrtletheturtle2 · 17/08/2023 11:30

Why do you think they've missed their grades and what do you mean by concessions in 3/4 uk?

TheMoth · 17/08/2023 11:30

Yeah, ours pretty much did as expected. Along with a few A/ * s And we're just a bog standard.

Myrtletheturtle2 · 17/08/2023 11:34

Someone I know was expected to get A* (always did in every exam/piece of homework, etc) in psychology and actually got a B.
At the time of the exams, I remember the comment being made that even the teachers were shocked and said they'd changed the style of questions (or something), which threw a lot of them off. Not sure which exam board this was, though.

Theunamedcat · 17/08/2023 11:37

A students getting DE and U? (Might have misunderstood that one) they were predicted AAA how did that happen?

ScentOfSawdust · 17/08/2023 11:48

Don’t know what you mean by ‘high performing’ schools but daughter and her friends got the (very good) grades that they were predicted from their non-selective state school. The school was using the 2019 grade boundaries for mocks and predictions but perhaps others didn’t.

PrivateSchoolTeacherParent · 17/08/2023 11:54

Mixed results at my place.

The OP is referring to the decision by Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales to set grade distributions somewhere between those of 2019 and 2022, whereas England has reverted straight to 2019 levels.

Postapocalypticcowgirl · 17/08/2023 11:57

Myrtletheturtle2 · 17/08/2023 11:30

Why do you think they've missed their grades and what do you mean by concessions in 3/4 uk?

I'm not sure about Scotland (and their exam system is different anyway) but for A-levels, Wales and NI both had some additional support for A-levels, whereas England had none. This means there's much higher proportions of top grades in Wales and NI.

Unis hopefully know about this and are hopefully bearing this in mind in case of near misses, but as unis have to honour met offers, it does put English DC at a bit of a disadvantage.

I will say at the school where I work, I don't totally recognise the picture of all students being disappointed. There are some results that are surprises, and we are querying them, but I wouldn't say totally across the board. We also did prep students using 2019 grade boundaries. For my subject and exam board for 2023, at the higher end grade boundaries have gone a small amount higher (literally 2-3 marks) and at the lower end, they've dropped by more. Which suggests a wider spread of results this year (which probably reflects the very wide range of experiences students had throughout covid and last year).

LodiDodi · 17/08/2023 12:31

I don't know about NI because tbh I think they are genuinely forgotten about a lot of the time but people of every age in Scotland and Wales are generally a lot more pampered than those in England. But you can blame our respective governments for that

SunnyEgg · 17/08/2023 12:36

people of every age in Scotland and Wales are generally a lot more pampered than those in England

This thread is making me even more relieved Ds got his marks for first offer. He’s in England.

Notellinganyone · 17/08/2023 12:40

I do think the instant drop to 2019 in UK was a bit brutal. Our results, big academic independent day school, are strong bit significantly lower than previous two years. My subject was an outlier and did v well but I think this cohort did suffer from COVID too, I haven’t seen the full updates on Uni offers yet so it will be interesting to see how that goes.

LongTermLurker · 17/08/2023 12:44

LodiDodi · 17/08/2023 12:31

I don't know about NI because tbh I think they are genuinely forgotten about a lot of the time but people of every age in Scotland and Wales are generally a lot more pampered than those in England. But you can blame our respective governments for that

That's interesting you say that. It doesn't really tally with my experience. My DCs (Scotland) had longer, harder lockdowns for example than their cousins in SE England. Cousins seemed to have more online schooling on offer during the lockdowns as well (my DC were literally just sent worksheets on Teams and left to get on with it. No teacher follow up even if they hadn't submitted any work for months). Cousins seem to have more on offer generally at their schools in normal times as well!

user76541055773 · 17/08/2023 13:19

I think this year sucks for all of the kids who have been taking exams. It’s as if it has been completely forgotten that they have been affected. They had the foundation years of learning on these exam years taken away from them, and very little exam practice to enable them to perform under exam conditions. Not to mention increased residual anxiety making it harder to prepare.

That goes for the children in all the countries though. Talk of “pampered” and “3/4” is just deliberately goading.

RosemaryDill · 17/08/2023 13:50

Schools vary. DS teaches A level maths at a comprehensive. Their results are at a record high, exceeding 2019.
The DC sat practice exams in exam conditions week after week.

JaffavsCookie · 17/08/2023 13:52

Bog standard comp here, results very much as expected. Haven’t done all the analysis to compare with 2019 but not miles away. Plenty of A, number of kids with 3 or 4 A

JaffavsCookie · 17/08/2023 13:53

Sorry about weird bolding

Alphabetica · 17/08/2023 13:58

Scottish students go mainly to Scottish universities so if you've chosen an English uni, you're really not competing with Scottish students anyway. Agree with pp that Scotland had much harsher lockdowns for longer. Re the pampered comment is, English children get a whole extra year at school over the course of their education - I'm sure that costs a fair amount to fund!

WombatChocolate · 17/08/2023 14:00

The results are a bit more generous than 2019.
They have been saying for 3 years that the grades would gradually return to 2019 levels.
In any year, only about 20% of predicted grades are accurate and most are overly generous…but many kids get accepted at their top choice anyway and if not their 2nd or find somewhere else. Unis still have to fill their courses and attract students and their fees. To be honest, it’s no worse than most years. Some students do better than they hoped, many do a bit worse but they all move on and find the next stage.

It feels raw today…understandable. But the big picture is that things aren’t actually lots worse this year…actually better than any year pre-Covid. These kids had 2 years of A Level teaching and all started from the same position and were assessed on their own work and against each other. It’s never possible for everyone to get top grades and it’s totally usual that many many who were predicted top grades don’t actually get them.

TheSmallAssassin · 17/08/2023 14:01

University admissions don't seem that bad?

"Ucas, the university admissions organisation, said 79% of UK school-leavers qualified for their first choice of undergraduate course starting in autumn – slightly below the 81% who did so last year but higher than the 74% who got their first choice in 2019."

IWillNoLie · 17/08/2023 14:10

The pass rather for Highers in Scotland this year was 77.1% compared to 74.8% in 2019. The pass rate for Advanced Highers (which most English universities require) was 79.8% this year compared to 79.4% in 2019.

Scottish students had longer lockdowns than English students and more strike days this Spring. They weren’t ‘pampered’.

Nevermay · 17/08/2023 14:17

Myrtletheturtle2 · 17/08/2023 11:34

Someone I know was expected to get A* (always did in every exam/piece of homework, etc) in psychology and actually got a B.
At the time of the exams, I remember the comment being made that even the teachers were shocked and said they'd changed the style of questions (or something), which threw a lot of them off. Not sure which exam board this was, though.

surely that is a good thing? Changing the style of questions ensures a clear differentiation between the students that read and understand and apply, and the students that just rote learn the type of question expected, and the standard answer?

titchy · 17/08/2023 14:18

Notellinganyone · 17/08/2023 12:40

I do think the instant drop to 2019 in UK was a bit brutal. Our results, big academic independent day school, are strong bit significantly lower than previous two years. My subject was an outlier and did v well but I think this cohort did suffer from COVID too, I haven’t seen the full updates on Uni offers yet so it will be interesting to see how that goes.

It wasn't an instant drop though, it's been done over 2 years in England.

And OP, obvs those students weren't an Oxbridge shoo-in (not shoe-in)... They either didn't do as well as they should have done (panicked?) or they'd been misled by their teachers/parents.

I'm sorry though, I hope they finds an alternative they are happy at. Most do, and once the initial shock has worn off, tend to settle in and do well at their eventual uni.

LifeIsShitJustNow · 17/08/2023 14:18

TheSmallAssassin · 17/08/2023 14:01

University admissions don't seem that bad?

"Ucas, the university admissions organisation, said 79% of UK school-leavers qualified for their first choice of undergraduate course starting in autumn – slightly below the 81% who did so last year but higher than the 74% who got their first choice in 2019."

Yes but there are lots of people who are talking about the fact universities have given their first choice to pupils with much lower grades.
ds certainly has had his first choice of uni but also has had much lower grades than predicted.

drivinmecrazy · 17/08/2023 14:20

I think this had to happen wether that be last year or next.
We had to get back to normalcy.
Otherwise I can imagine the same argument being used of those kids who had just started or completely missed their reception and year 1 experience, which arguably might have a longer term impact.
I think the question we need to ask is if these exams are fit for purpose anyway.
My DD is just going through grade boundaries and they vary vastly from one exam board to another.
She's feeling pretty annoyed that her friend who did history at another sixth form, different board, got a higher grade yet she scored much higher.
Something needs to be done but I'm not sure it's only about Covid.
Also applying after results would avoid much of the chaos going on across the country today.