Year 12 mocks compared to final results

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Posted this in secondary education, then realised that HE would be a better place for it.

Dd has just got B,C,D in her Y12 mocks. Not a disaster but she's hoping to apply to universities requiring ABB.

She's disappointed and bit confused as these worse than her other Y12 exams and GCSEs.

I have no idea how these might translate into predicted grades/final results.

What was your experience?

TIA.

Ds did them last year - predicted 3A's got A/B/B.
All of his friends got lower than predicted although a) Was first year post covid to not have adjusted marking. b) Was the first exam papers his year group sat in exam conditions and actually, all his friends got a place through clearing and it seems to have worked out ok in the end.

Y12 mocks are not necessarily the same as predicted grades. She should talk to her teachers about what went wrong and what she needs to do to improve and ask what predicted grades they would put on her UCAS form.

Have the school not given her predicted grades too? We had yr 12 exam results and a lower-upper range for predicted grades so that DC could target universities through the range. Not completely confirmed what will be on UCAS form yet but expected to be the upper grades, with lower there for ‘safety’.

I say this every time but DS failed every single mock with scores like 15&20%. Because he is an arse.
For the real exams he got two A stars and two Bs.
So I guess you know your daughter and how much work she did, but in my experience mock grades are nothing to do with anything.

This is why they do mocks, so kids realise how much harder it is at a level... Gives them a kick up the backside early enough to knuckle down and improve:)

Predicted grades will be from both assessments and the teacher experience of knowing what level your daughter is working at and is likely to achieve.

DS was A ,A, B and B needed 3 A’s for medicine so decided to concentrate on one B subject more. We paid £600 for a revision week in the chosen B subject and he managed to get A star, A, A and B. Throw money at revision courses and it might be the difference your DC needs.

Each school is different with y12 mocks and how they work out predicted grades.

She needs to talk to the school. Her teachers should be able to give her a steer at least.

Thanks all. She's going to talk to the school tomorrow once she's processed things a bit more.

Her previous 'predicted grades' ( based on two terms of 'A' level work were AAB, so looking at quite a downgrade.

They won’t necessarily downgrade her predictions. Work during the year will still be important and they’ll be able to help her assess what went wrong e.g. she might have reasonable understanding but answers not hitting the marking criteria

Thanks, that's reassuring. My sense is that she wasn't strategic enough about her revision ie what do I need to do to get these marks, rather than just not getting it.

Also, I don't think she's really grasped that tackling an English Lit question is very different to a science one but that's something she'll need to talk to the school about.

Again, this is what mocks are for! To practice and understand where to improve everything etc.

This is what happened when AS and A2 levels were a thing... Poor results, and the kids generally hoped their game and got good results in y13.

So, don't read too much into the results, advise her to look at and ask for feedback from the teachers and she can learn from it.

Indeed!

DS has been given predicted grades - given after year 12 mocks - that are a grade higher than his mock results. They are based on performance/effort through the year as well as exam results.

If your DD has a similar experience then it sounds like the D grade is the subject to particularly focus on.

At my dd's school, the predicted grades (based on year 12 mocks and how they've done over the year) are 'optimistic but not unrealistic'. School has a pretty good track record of making accurate predictions - therefore if your child gets an 'A' in the year 12 exams, but has been working at a C level for the whole year, they might predict a B.

Equally if they have been getting 'A' grades most of the year, and get an 'A' in the exam, they might get an A star prediction.

They are being quite cautious this year, because as @Lordofmyflies says, last year was the first year post-Covid grade inflation. Quite a few kids got lower than predicted and it was a bit of a shock - so schools are being more careful I think.

DD2 got BCE in year 13 mocks. Ended up with AstarAstarA. Admittedly it was a bit different as she had more coursework and it was in the days of AS/A2 so she already had her AS grades, but she still managed to jump from C in history at AS to Astar at A level.