AS - should I be panicking?

[mumblechum1]

DS is doing 4 ASs at the moment. Politics (predicted A)
History (predicted A), Chem (predicted C) and Biology (predicted C).

Now, the thing that confuses me somewhat is that he was always A/A* for chem and bio in GCSEs, and I don't understand why he's doing so craply, and is being predicted such low grades at AS. He loathes chemistry now, partly because the teacher keeps telling him he's stupid. I have sorted out a chem tutor for him now and he finds it v v helpful.

Looking at his half term report, he's currently attaining:
Politics B
History B
Chem C
Biology D

When teachers give the attainment grades, does that mean that he's probably only going to get those grades at AS exams, or does it mean that so long as he keeps his head down, he'll still get the predicted grades?He's always planned to drop Chem after AS level, but now that he knows what he's doing, through the tutor, not sure whether he should be dropping biology instead.

Weird thing is he keeps getting As for homework etc and he doesn't really know why his grades are so rubbish.

Current attainment is what he is getting NOW, so it's perfectly normal for them to be lower than what he will get in the summer when he is a) seriously crapping himself about getting the grades and b)revising properly as all his friends are doing the same and there are fewer distractions. The teacher sounds unhelpfully negative and the tutor will probably be very beneficial. Don't worry, so long as he is working hard and taking his studies seriously he is likely to come good in the end. Just be aware that often the last few weeks make a huge difference, and teachers also know this and will be cracking the whip now. It's so frustrating but many many year 12s just don't work that hard until the last minute - your son's chemistry teacher probably hasn't worked out he is actually working, but needs support with some of the (very complex) concepts they are covering. If it's a large class he/she may not know the pupils very well (though they SHOULD by now!)

Thanks Funchum

I'm in the same boat mumble. DD2 has attainment grades, predicted grades and target grades and none of them seem to mean a lot!

Her target grades are based on GSCE grades apparently. She got A*/A at GSCE and her target grades are C which leads me to believe they want her results to look good for them if she does well!

Her predicted grades change every term based on her attainment grades (I think) but don't make sense. e.g. Art last term - attainment C, predicted A. Art this term - attainment B, predicted B. So her attainment is going up but her predictions are going down. I need to speak to the teachers I think.

The jump from GCSE to AS level can be quite significant and does take over a term to get used to it.
I agree with funchum - the last few weeks do make a difference. I'm grateful for the AS concept as it does help to track progress, rather than 2 years of coasting and suddenly having to catch-up.

We do get a lot of A/A GCSE students confused that they are no longer getting A/A at A Level, but if you think that mostly the A-C candidates are the only ones who are really doing A Levels, it makes sense that they will be spread through the whole grade spectrum. Quite often, bright GCSE students find the step up to A Level most challenging because they haven't really had to work as much and they haven't really found anything so difficult before.

Schools and collages have lots of different ways of predicting results, which can be very confusing. In my mind the most accurate is teacher predictions, but these can also be based on motivating students (so we might predict them slightly lower as a wake up call, for example) and students do change how they are working over the year (especially if they get some module results in March). There are also statistical predictions (such as ALIS), which use a students' GCSE grades to show how similar students do at AS and A2 in each subject. These can be unrealistically high, especially the A2 grades because it doesn't take into account the fact that weaker students drop it after AS.

On the whole, BBCD are very good grades and not at all unusual for an A grade GCSE student to be getting at A Level.

Sorry, meant to add, no - you don't need to be panicking. Keep encouraging the hard work and being supportive (as it sounds like you are) and talk to the teachers at parents' evening (or sooner if you want) to make sure you are getting a clear picture.

It's v reassuring to hear that BBCD are very good grades - I was about to go and bollock ds but won't now

He needs AAB to do the course he wants at Southampton, but it would't be the end of the world if he got ABB, he'd just go to a non RG Uni.

I'm the only one in the family who seems really interested; dh keeps saying (rather unhelpfully) that he doesn't care what any of his staff got in terms of their degrees, he just needs them to persuade people to do stuff they don't want to do, so he ranks social skills as massively more important than MScs, PHds and all the rest. When he says that in front of ds he gets even less bothered about working than he is anyway.

I agree with you DH that social skills are important. But you do also need good grades to get into uni. Mumblechum as others have said your DS's grades are good for where he is now.

Did he sit any modules in January? I would wait until the results of those are out in March before talking to teachers about worries with attainment.

It is really hard to predict grades for AS students until results of the first modules, I find, as a lot of it can depend on how much revision they do for their exams. Some students also just don't do well in exams. I've had students slack off for the first term then pull a B out of the bag and students hand in the most perfect homework time after time and then get a C.

He sat a biology module, but apparently (and I've heard this from a lot of people, so believe him), that a lot of the stuff in the module hadn't been covered in class, so I suspect he may need to resit.

No modules in chemistry, it's all or nothing in summer which is slightly worrying.

Did he not have a specification and a shed load of past papers for his module? There's no way that he should have got to an exam and been surprised by the content.

That, by the way, would suggest to me that he did not prepare as well for the exam as he should have done. Although this should have been provided by the teacher, this stuff is on the internet and an independent learner who was headed for the highest grades would have been looking it up.

(Not saying that the teacher isn't at fault if he hasn't covered the full syllabus, but in sixth form they need to be doing a lot of independent study too and this would suggest that he isn't and might explain his predictions)

The thing about AS as compared to GCSE is that there is a lot more application needed, not just learning. When he says "a lot of the stuff in the module hadn't been covered in class" it could be that he is struggling with the style of the AS questions.

The A grade students can make the link between what they have studied and the questions, which require certain skills, for example analysing and evaluating experimental data. The C/D grade students will say "but we haven't done this".

God only knows.

He says the teachers for Politics and History tell him to do tons of extra reading, and he does, but that the science teachers tell them not to do independent reading as it may be wrong/different from the syllabus, hence he just did work from revision guides and the textbook for biology.

There was some hooha in the paper about the biology module, so I don't think it was just his school.

Odd - I am a biology teacher and I encourage mine to do independent reading.

The biology modules can be a bit strange - but bear in mind that if it was generally tricky, the whole country will have found it so and therefore the grade boundaries will be lower.

Yes, that's what I'm hoping!

What does he eventually want to study at Southampton? Be aware that constant grade inflation could mean the AAB required this year, becomes AAA next year. ANd his non RG back-up may inflate to require AAB.

I think your husband needs to back you up a bit more. Perhaps your son doesn't want to go and work with his Dad ?

For "not covered in class" I suspect they mean the questions that start "Suggest...". Because that is applying your knowledge and understanding to a new situation, and it is quite tough, and a bit scary, in year 12. There were 5 questions starting "suggest..." in the AS module my students sat in January!

The biggest shock for my students is how much they need to know. Utterly and completely different to GCSE, and the downfall of many a GCSE grade A/A student. For "independent" study, I make my students write lots of sentences including key words (mark schemes are very picky about the right vocab, and it ensures coverage of each topic some depth in addition to class and homework), and I give lots* of "suggest..." questions for homework. I love my students to read around the subject, and give time and rewards for interesting bits of information (as long as they are well supported by evidence), but it's not where the exam marks come from.

He wants to do Politics at Southampton.

I'll have a chat with him today about the suggestiions in this thread, thanks everyone. Fallen, yes, that was the way the Biology teacher described marking exams when we met at parents' evening. She said they basically just skim the answers and give a point for key words. So have been reminding ds that he mustn't go off on any tangents, the key words must be there in the text.

DS definitely doesn't want to work with his dad! DH is VP in a giant Pharma corporation, DS wants to join the Army as an officer. Definitely doesn't want to be a corporate man.