GCSE Results Day 2017

[justmumof1]

Hard to belive that I was here 5 years ago sweating it out for the results of his secondary school offer!

Only a few days now bwfore the GCSE results come out. DS is starting to get nervous....as am I!

Just looking at the posts re: application of mark scheme in English.

All examiners had two full days of training for my board: one with trial scripts and one after the exam with live scripts. They then had to mark up to 10 of each question which were checked by team leaders (who had had an extra two days of training). After that, random checks were made on their marking and 'seed' scripts, which had already been agreed, were randomly allocated. Feedback and stats at every stage. Approx 40% of each examiners work was double checked: more if there were issues.

It really is as thorough as we can make it.

I each an extraordinarily subjective A level subject and 'not applying the mark scheme correctly' can only mean someone else looked at our (mean and stingy) examiner's mark and thought 'WTF is this?' There isn't really a way of applying the mark scheme 'incorrectly' imo in an essay based A level subject...

Glad for the girl but so frustrated that it is so hard for schools to say 'look, this examiner was clearly drunk, very tired or couldn't be arsed; please remark the lot.'

What is interesting is one boy didn't do the exam (illness). He got awarded some kind of estimated mark and ended up with the highest mark in the cohort!!

Not sure if this has been mentioned but how did the OCR English Lit Romeo and Juliet candidates fare?

Thanks Piggy that's interesting. I have heard of another school with lower than expected grades too.

bunch the bigger issue in English was the inability to predict grades knowledgeably - this predictions often being so pout of kilter. My DS was predicted 7s and occasionally awarded 8s in practice (personally, I thought his English teacher was wrong) and ended up with a 5 and a 6. Will be easier from now on I guess.

It's also slightly disconcerting - but not surprising- to note how much better girls did than boys in the new GCSE Lit. Sigh.

Terrible typing /autocorrect!!

There isn't really a way of applying the mark scheme 'incorrectly' imo in an essay based A level subject...
There is in mine.
Someone either uses the data or doesn't, they deal with patterns or they don't.
They name theory, describe theory, compare theory or develop an argument or they don't.
They use simple terms, complex terms or they don't.
They use terms precisely, or they don't.

A review in my subject could easily go D to C if it's found that a candidate has accessed a criteria in the next band up and the original examiner had placed it too low.

Whereas a reviewer could think they would put it higher/lower within the same band and the mark wouldnt be changed because the mark scheme had been applied approproately.

Agreed Maisy but that can be a very subjective /matter of opinion thing and is, therefore, one person's view of incorrect versus another's. It's frustrating for mw as this is the third year running we have had a mean examiner. We got scripts back last year and could see a swathe of senior examiners had changed some of our candidate's marks already It didn't, however, seem to get to the point where they had reviewed all of them -and I think they should when three out of 12 candidate's marks went up substantially....

Based on what you say, we don't teach the same subject at A level!

Piggywaspushed
The mistake was in putting faith in grade predictions in the first place.The exam boards made it very clear that it was unwise to be doing that because they weren't set.

We had our own internal ones for rough estimates but were very up front with students that they were internal ones and that it in no way meant their class work would get a set grade in the exam. The most accurate way to teach the course was to just use the mark scheme and keep helping the students in relation to that, not trying to find individual marks so teachers can say 'he is a 8'.

My predictions on outcomes (private not given to students) actually were reasonably accurate and in line with what I thought they'd get.

At my school, mere teachers aren't allowed to make predictions! The data manager does it. It can be very frustrating but, I must say, they were extraordinarily accurate.

piggy
I don't think we teach the same subject.
When a student in mine outlines a theory then that piece if research is either right ir wrong. Same for terms. Something either is or isn't a certain language/structure feature.

There's loads of space for the build your argument stuff which is more subjective but it's hard to build a decent argument in my subject if your right/wrong knowledge isn't secure.

I've been more disappointed with A level results this year than gcse though

At my school, mere teachers aren't allowed to make predictions! The data manager does it. It can be very frustrating but, I must say, they were extraordinarily accurate.
We have data targets (fft / levels of progresd stuff) that we aim towards as a minimum but as staff we can raise them if we want.
And we also have our judgement taken into account (e.g. This child has a silly target due to ks2 results, it may work in one subject but not mine because...) target stands but there's a level of understanding.

We also get asked 'who will benefit from intervention etc' rather than 'here is the intervention cohort'.

I think I'm quite lucky.

No, we don't!

At GCSE we do. But I'm not talking about A level English.

Being cryptic as my subject is unusual and don't want to out myself given I have mentioned a remark upthread!

That sounds rather utopian maisy - wistful sigh.

That makes sense piggy.
Whereas for me there's thousands of English teachers.

Not always utopian. It has its own challenges & the usual 'you've done well but it could be better' rubbish, but they've worked out that a bit of classroom teacher judgement might just mean help gets to those who need it vs those who do fuck all for 4.5 years where an 'aspirational' residential/trip to a football club/ outdoor classroom / visits from footballers to revise isn't going to suddenly undo yeara of poor attitude

Maisy - a great post, thanks for your breakdown of each grade.

Harking back to the discussions on how high grades clump, I just checked the senior school to which DS2's prep is attached. Maths 9s -87, 51 English 9s and 45 children with both. It does seem to set the bar a touch high.

It's a shame, but it feels that being in Wales has been a disadvantage for my DD.

The number of exams they took early. The news is reporting that the results are down for the first time since 2006 and they are putting it down to the kids sitting exams or parts of exams early. It makes DD feel a little better as the only subject she 'only' got a B in is eng lit. Which she took in y10. We didn't even realise at the time that it was the final exam!

Sitting parts of the GCSEs early - maths in November at the start of y11, and the sciences in Jan, which pretty much wiped out our Christmas holiday because of revision.

All the compulsory exams limited the options choices. She really didn't want or need to take RS or Welsh, but had to.

And then, so many extra qualifications that they shoe horned in if they'd sat their maths early. The new numeracy GCSE. Financial education. Preparation for work. Skills challenge.

And then Welsh Bacc. Which means it's limited the number of A levels she can take as it's a separate subject with coursework and is compulsory.

Oh and additional maths. I forgot that one.

*DrMadelineMaxwell"

It's not just Wales that sits them early. We're England and dd1 sat 2 exams in year 9 (Citizenship-compulsory, and French-one year option). Then 3 in year 10 (Re-Compulsory, European Driving Licence thingy which apparently is equivalent to a GCSE-compulsory, and statistics- all top set maths did)
She then did 10 GSCES plus additional maths (which apparently is equivalent to A/S level) in year 11.

So she has 16 GCSEs. Now she did well, very well. But I can't help thinking she would probably have done better if you could have cut that down to about 10 total maybe. And she's a bright girl, those who struggle more may not be doing quite as many, they'd certainly end up with 12 or so. I would have thought particularly if you are C/D borderline, then having only say 8-9 to concentrate on would be better.

I think doing one exam in year 10 (RE is as sensible as any) as we had one girl in my year who panicked on her first exam (thankfully in November) and it meant the school supported her much more in her actual ones, and she then did fine.
But the French in year 9, she really found difficult and, although she's mature when it comes to working, she really wasn't mature enough at that point to handle the pressure. She got a B, which was the same as I got in year 11 with only 10 GSCEs to do but I felt she would have done better in year 10 and even better in year 11.

But it does mean that the year are going into the year 11 exams with usually 4 results under their belts (dd1 had 5 because the top set maths did statistics). Maybe that helps with their confidence, I don't know.
And then I feel getting 8 As is better than 12 Bs (or whatever).

But doing lots has meant that she could keep up subjects merely because she enjoyed them, rather than cutting down to just what she'd get results in (although for me there wasn't a subject I gave up I wasn't thankful for, and would have happily given up a couple more. )

Yes we are in England ( state comp) Dd has just finished yr 9 and is also doing early GCSEs
If they are deemed 'gcse ready', they sit one option at the end of yr 9, 2 in year 10 and 2 more plus the core subjects in yr 11.

DrMadelineMaxwell We are also in Wales and my DS had to do all the extra exams that you talked about. He was most annoyed about being made to do Welsh as he had no interest in it at all (he did get a B though). The skills challenge another one that he said took up time that could have been spent doing extra work in Maths and English.

DS said the amount of time spent working on the Finance GCSE was ridiculous, it was a 180 hour course squeezed into a few weeks. he felt that the time would have been better spent helping them with the further Maths. He got A* in Maths, Numeracy and Finance but a pass in further maths, something he was disappointed about, he felt with a bit more work he could have done better.

I do think we are at a disadvantage in Wales, too many 'fluffy' GCSE's that dont really matter. Also, I had forgotten about the compulsory Welsh Bacc at A level, I suspect he has too - he's taking Maths, Chemistry and Biology and he'll have enough on his plate as it is.

Would the universities take Welsh Bacc into consideration-if not just aim to pass and concentrate on the relevant subjects?
I think that Welsh kids are at disadvantage...especially when they have to compete for places in oxbridge, Russel group uni

I am really surprised by so many being done early - I thought the fashion had moved away from that. The schools my friends' children of that age go to, and my year 9 son does have moved away from early ones altogether. This year they didn't even have the tops set so maths early while they got the new system bedded down.

I am slightly concerned about the resultant 11 in one sitting outcome, but doing loads early seems a problem too.

Do all the children have to do it, even the ones expected to get a C, or just the very top/mature students?