A-level league table and pre-U

[EmpressoftheMundane]

The Telegraph has a league table of A-level results for 2017.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/26/independent-schools-a-level-league-tables-2017-does-school-rank/
They mention "extended projects" and "pre-u" results. Can anyone explain how these fit in with A-levels?

Also, some really good schools are missing. I assume their reputations are so August that they are best maintaining a mystique.

Pre-U are similar exams to A levels set by Cambridge but have different grades. So a D1 is higher than an A at A level but a D2 is an A.

Those likely to go on to Oxbridge at our school tend to do pre-Us in their main subjects and our school offers pre-U in 6 subjects.

Extended projects (EPQs) are worth half an A level and are independent research projects carried out by the student on any subject they wish but are generally done on subjects that would relate to what they want to do at degree level and would be mentioned in their personal statement and are sometimes used to form the basis of any uni interviews they may undertake.

Our school also does the HPQ (Higher Project Qualification) which is the same thing but at GCSE level.

The league table published is just independent schools so will not include leading state grammars etc. There will be another table along shortly to show the rankings of state schools.

Wycombe Abbey was missing from a Girls' School list I saw yesterday! No doubt they were as good as usual!

Pre U is considered harder than A level. Extended project gives pupils a chance to study a topic they choose in depth, linked to an A level, but with a narrower focus. It involves research and is good prep for university. Few state schools offer Pre U. Now A levels are considered harder, one wonders if Pre U will survive.

None of these are official. The schools have told the telegraph their results. So large pinch of salt required until the official tables are published in the new year.

The chart The Telegraph has published is the JCQ chart.

There is a school missing from our town too that would fit in around the 40th mark (according to what they published online on results day). I suspect there may be an amended chart at some point.

Some grades haven't been finalised yet. There is no way on earth that table is accurate. The link doesn't work so I can't check the source. I can't find any link showing JCQ publishing 2017 results, only 2016.

Is it just me or does that bar chart of the results look like Independent schools are badly failing their pupils? Apart from the A grade students they have achieved significantly worse than an average state school at every other level.

Reads to me that the academically selected crème de la crème get themselves the A grades because the teachers are failing everyone else.
So why would anyone pay through the nose for such a crap education?

Here is the link

As I thought - results supplied by the schools themselves, with only the national grade allocations provided by JCQ.

Drivel then with the sole purpose of adding column inches.

Just answering why some schools aren't on the lists - they can choose to send their results or not at this stage. My DCs schools don't, I think partly because the results are preliminary until any remarks have been done, but mostly as they don't think League Table hysteria is something to be encouraged. Other schools do participate as they see it as valuable marketing.

Thank you for all the explanations around pre-U and the extended projects. My children are a few years younger than this, but it is nice to get my head around it before the opportunities/decisions are upon us.

I agree that publishing league tables is "cheap column inches." I still read them though. I've noticed that the rankings don't change much each year. Also, the grade averages are clustered so tightly that a tiny blip is amplified by a school's relative position on the list, but I had to note the tables for a few years to twig this and realise what a blunt measure they are.

But these aren't rankings The results the schools have told the Telegraph could be probably are complete garbage.

Nothing is worth paying attention to until the official tables in January

and if what Eton got caught for this year is not unique it will all get a lot more fun soon

I can't think what the point is this table is, given that so very many schools have chosen not to participate.

The trouble with all the league tables is that they don't judge the same criteria - the independent school league tables focus on the percentage of A/A grades (more than 30% of independent school students achieve 3 A grades or higher), state school league tables usually rank on A-B grades and official league tables are AAB or higher in 2 facilitating subjects. Yet another A level league table ranks schools by UCAS points with general studies and EPQs included.

titchy
Most academic private schools give a full breakdown of their results after remarks have taken place.The Perse School have already issued theirs;
www.perse.co.uk/6th-form/academic/exam-results/

NewbiedontknowwhatIamdoing
It is just you - state schools having a larger percentage of students gaining C and D grades does not mean that independent schools are badly failing their students. You obviously cannot read a bar chart.

Most academic private schools give a full breakdown of their results after remarks have taken place.

1. Not all remakes HAVE taken place, only priority ones.

1. Not all schools have given the telegraph their results.

1. Official results are more, errrr shall we say reliable than those provided by the school.

And certain schools are having their results cancelled and recalculated at the moment ....

The ONLY table that is reliable is the one produced by the DFE

Not really because, for example, for GCSE, the DFE table doesn't count IGCSEs anymore, so shows some private schools getting 0% Maths at GCSE which is not true in any meaningful sense. I don't know about the A-level table.

Well the Pre U grades that schools published a few weeks back are rather all up in the air at the moment

Only for a couple of schools....

one school yesterday
three today
how many tomorrow ?
CIE only have a few hundred schools worldwide ....

I believe it is only Eton and Winchester. CIE have already issued a statement that they found no evidence of wrongdoing at Charterhouse - the Charterhouse Pre-U results still stand.

The letter published in the press from Eton's Headmaster alerting parents is dated 3rd August - two weeks before results day.

That makes it all OK then

Plenty more schools may do exactly what the Eton master did but have not been exposed - independent and state no doubt! Also, for Eton it was one exam and one paper. The pupils are getting a mark and a grade so they will not be disadvanataged. Everyone always knew it was an advantage to have someone with deep knowledge of the exam in a school - such outrage now is only because it is Eton and they made parents aware of their own situation! They were not found out, except by their own staff!

At DC's school one of the teachers prided himself on knowing the questions in advance and in deliberately not covering the material to be tested in the exam. The teacher seemed to take a perverse pleasure in taunting the students... Perhaps teachers should only be allowed to set questions for exam boards which are not used by their own pupils to avoid any suggestion of using insider knowledge? I would also reduce to the absolute minimum any kind of controlled assessment work (it would be a no-no for subjects like English and History) and otherwise use external assessors with no links to the school to assess art/music etc where needed.