Whole cohort in a subject underperformed?

[EmmaStone]

Hi there, I'd be interested in teachers/markers' experience on this.

DD got her A Level results back yesterday - 2 results were definitely in line with expectations, but her best and favourite subject she was predicted an 'easy' A star, but was awarded a B. The other 2 students at her school were predicted As and achieved C & D.

The school is a selective indie, generally gets excellent results, so this is very out of the oridinary. Teachers all experienced in the subject.

DD got into her firm Uni regardless, so isn't inclined to do anything, but should we query these cohort's results?

If you want a priority review - usually used when a uni place is in jeopardy- then you need to move quickly- bear in mind grades can go down as well as up . Otherwise you’ve got til late September. The school should be investigating and advising- we contacted all students whom we felt should have a review.

Thanks All, and especially to @Piggywaspushed and @PrivateSchoolTeacherParent for your specific knowledge. I really need to be led by DD, who doesn't seem in the least fussed 😂, but she's emailing her teachers anyway...

@Piggywaspushed Really interesting link and set of data, thank you.

3 of the 6 of my tiny class are going in for reviews of marking as they were so close to the boundary (one lad was 0.5% away!) Only one has a uni place hanging on it and has paid for the Priority Review. Good luck!

Hi - Class Civ teacher here. Yes, results for CC across the country have been lower this year, with some marked changes to grade boundaries. Discussions with colleagues in other schools suggest that the compulsory World of the Hero paper has been particularly hit. I have no doubt that your DD’s teachers will be discussing and reviewing this, but there’s no harm at all in contacting them to ask for their views on a re-mark or returned script. I am surprised that any experienced CC teacher would predict an ‘easy’ A*, as it seems to be widely agreed that there is no such thing in CC (particularly the new spec!) and even the strongest candidates can fall foul of the oddities of the mark-schemes, the scholarship requirement etc. I’m glad your DD’s future plans are unaffected, but it can be nice to get some ‘closure’ on such things by looking into re-marks etc.

No need for priority review, thankfully, but she's just asked for some feedback from her teachers on their thoughts, hopefully it will be of some help (to me at least!).

I'm so sorry this HAS impacted Others' destinations, it's terribly unsettling xx

All I wrote (admittedly with some typos) was that all the DC I know at state schools that were predicted an A grade got their grades.

I couldn’t agree more about CC teachers predicting an ‘easy A star’ - my DD sat Ancient History, Classical Greek and Latin last year (100% bursary student at an Independent school) and not one of her teachers predicated an ‘easy A star’ in any of her ‘Classical’ subjects despite the fact that the 2022 cohort - in all subjects- would be fixed at a 35% midway point from the norm of 2019 and the ‘grade inflation’ of the CAGs/ GAVs of 2020 and TAGs of 2021.
Won’t disclose the amount of marks she was significantly above the grade boundaries of 2022 as that’s not the point of my post- it’s just an aside given the ‘stats’ posted about the ‘nose dive’ of Classical subjects’
My observation is that the whole 2023 Class Civ cohort ‘seem’ to have performed ‘lesser than’ the 2019 cohort when you look at the (minimum) marks needed per grade boundary against the 2019 cohort.
I note the size 2023 cohort - in comparison to 2019 and 2022 when exams were ‘sat’- has increased significantly- yay!! An hopefully that will increase to do so from now on.

• A star A grades ‘fixed’ at 35% of the cohort

We can all see that that wasn't all you wrote.
No rewriting of history (classical or not) on MN.

@Piggywaspushed interesting data, thank you!

Three students is a very small class size, so it's likely to just be coincidence that they all got lower grades. If the cohort was 50 and they all did bad then there might be something going on. Perhaps it was just a hard exam! Also, there's not much can be done. They took the exam and that's what they got. You could ask for a remark if close to a grade boundary but even then there's no guarantee. If she got into uni then it's not worth the hassle.

You must be thinking what a waste of school fees for the last however many years

Classic Civ is not offered in many state schools. I wonder if the private sector over egged the pudding when predicting the grades during the covid era and we are now seeing the grades pulled back more in the subjects more popular in private schools.

Even if it was “all you wrote” (insert innocent wide eyed face here) it was unhelpful, unnecessary and absolutely pointless. You likely know less than 0.1% of this year’s A-Level Cohort, that means jack shit.

I suspect, and can wander off to research it, that classics may be one of the subjects that ahs seen a bigger falloff of top grades this year. I think it is one of the subjects which saw the biggest 'inflation' of top grades since 2019

patently because this subject is typically not a comp offering and private schools over-inflated the grades. Ffs. Privilege eh

Does it hurt? Being so bitter all the time, I imagine it stings.

I'm not sure this debate is for this thread. It's not fair on the OP.

FWIW, Media subjects also got 'punished ' for grade inflation. Mind you, that was to attempt to bring it's Astars back to 2%!

Does it hurt? Being so bitter all the time, I imagine it stings

bitter about someone else wasting school fees? No, how odd!

I'm not sure this debate is for this thread

sure. Let’s stop people discussing the fact that private schools have massively over inflated their results during Covid and the resultant privilege.

Start a separate thread. This isn't AIBU.

I've been looking at results across all Exam Boards for lots of subjects, as my son got his results yesterday and I am also a teacher. I think the subjects with the smaller cohorts (Classical Civilisations / Music / German etc) seem to have fared really badly and been hit by really high grade boundaries, higher than 2019 which we had been led to believe would be the highest benchmark. My son with an A* Music prediction came away with a low B, which was never on the cards but luckily did not affect Uni place.

Yup. Crying into my champagne and caviar 😂.

Thank you (mostly) all for the valuable input, it's much appreciated. Data and personal experience has been taken on board. DD is delighted with her other results and her destination, and can't wait to get stuck back in to deeper study. I'm hugely proud of her, and would have been regardless of whatever the letters said on that piece of paper.

Oh dear. DS about to embark on German A Level. He's doomed 😂

But I'm so sorry to hear about your son's surprise downgrade, fantastic that it hasn't affected his destination x

Start a separate thread. This isn't AIBU

no. your privilege doesn’t extend to compelled speech