Triple science failed controlled assessment with high exam papers

[bluegrape]

In 2 of my ds's triple science exams he has a/a* across the 3 written exam papers with a d for the controlled assessment, which has brought his overall mark down to a B.

What could have gone wrong here?
ds thinks the controlled assessments were done in Y10 but he doesn't really remember.

Probably that. Dd s school did then y11 and redid them if necessary as that could really bring the grade up.

Were they allowed to redo them then?
Should the school have known how low the score was?

Yrd. I think they had to change the experiment each time but you could re do then.

This is the exact scenario Ds has. His school don't let them redo controlled assessments as they consider it cheating.

It's a shame, but a) he's not taking science A levels and b) I think it augers well for further study that he's ace at exams and, in fact, in all of his grades, the controlled assessments were worse than his exam marks.

Thank goodness maths and English were pure exams!

This is part of the reason for scrapping coursework.

Ran properly, you cannot resit it or improve the grade... a lot of schools ignore this.

Sounds like your sons school has followed the advice to the letter.

It's a shame that it's not a level playing field.
He wants to do one science A level. I'm hoping there's no external assessment for that.

Sorry I mean controlled assessment.

ds thinks the controlled assessments were done in Y10 but he doesn't really remember.
He can't have done the controlled assessments in Y10, if you are England. For the Linear Science GCSEs, the controlled assessments must all be done the same year as the exams and they change every year.
For A level Sciences they complete practical experiments that are internally assessed by the teachers but this work doesn't count towards the exam grade. There are however questions on the practical experiments in the written exams.

Ah okay - thanks catslife.
He has a terrible memory!

That's reassuring about the A levels too - thankyou.