A level 'aspiration' grades

[IrianofWay]

DD had just started A levels at college. She is working flat out already, worried about how much she has to do and basically getting herself into a flap. She is doing Maths, Physics, Biology and Geography. She knows what she needs to get to get on to her university course. She also knows that she has to keep up with her weekend voluntary work because she needs this as well.

She decided that she wanted to give up physics. DH and I went to her first parents evening and explained to her tutor who flat out told us she can't do that. Full stop. Not allowed.

Then told us that her expected A level grades were B - calculated from her GCSE grades. Her GCSE grades were 5A* 3A and a B. Seems a bit odd. She needs to get ABB. She doesn't know about this yet but I know it;s going to freak her out - she will instantly think it means she has to work harder.

Her tutor is getting her an appointment with a college counsellor to help her 'manage' her workload.

What can we do to help her? Any advice?

ALPs targets are set to meet not the performance of the average student with the same GCSE profile, but the top 25% nationally. They are meant to be on the high side.

Coulees she not do the volunteering in the holidays?

Irianofway IMO she has three alternatives to optimise the chance of getting her grades without being too stressed. She could either reduce the volunteering during term time (as previously suggested) to say half a day per weekend and make-up in the holidays or reduce to three A levels possibly with something like an EPQ which she could focus on after her AS levels or decide to take a year out giving more time for the experience and the benefit of applying with known A level grades.

How many hours is she volunteering each week because there is no need to do more than a couple (or less). Think how she will refer to it on her PS? Is she going to list her hours or just give a generic 'I've been volunteering once a week for the last year....' The Harper Adams website seems to be clear about what they expect of applicants. It may be that she won't be credited anything by doing more than what's asked. ie applicants will either pass or fail the requirement to do voluntary work. Iyswim

I think it seems very early to be predicting grades surely it's more of a suggestion at this stage?

My youngest DD got very stressed with her Alevels. Retrospectively we wondered if she would have been better to take a softer more coursework based third A'level such as photography. She would have coped with the heavy workload of such an A'level and would have welcomed having fewer exams at the end of A'levels.

I had a look at the Entrance requirements. It looks like she has to get a B not a B/C in her third non science A level.

Have you considered whether she could do an Extended Project Qualification instead of the fourth A level? She could then get some UCAS points and could choose a subject relating to what she wants to do.

It sounds like the system we use. It is somewhat crude, and by no means perfect, but we find at the start it helps to give a ball park figure until the real predicted grades can start (but even they can be somewhat random!)

Ours takes the GCSE grades of the student and converts it to a score (mostly As would be around 7) and then it would look at past Students with that score and say what % got an A / B / C etc... This does vary by subject so one of my subjects tends to get much lower scores than the other. But that is the subject, the % of As etc is lower than the other!

So it's not so much a predicted grade, as a performance indicator of previous students as a statistical likelihood.

It has its limitations and it is a somewhat crude indicator (for example, it doesn't account for how hard the students work...) I do find it can be useful to guide those parents who perhaps have under / over expectations.

Thank you everyone for your advice.

We had a chat last night. She seems a lot calmer. She is going to talk to the stable owner and explain that she won't be going every weekend during term time. She loves working there but recently it has become more of a chore - if it wasn't needed for the course she wants to do I suspect she might drop it completely.

She has also agreed to become a 'college ambassador' too - seems to be a sort of prefect - why I don't know! But I guess it might look good on her CV. Glutton for punishment my DD.....