Has anyone's child sat the AQA Higher mock physics paper?

[AlexanderHamilton]

If so would you mind please posting what percentage they got & what their school guessed that grade boundary to be.

The triple one ? If so my DS school were using 26% as a grade 4

Single Sciences (biology, chemistry & physics) the combined (double science) kids got a different paper.

Dd got 45% & was given Grade 4 in her recent mocks which is very out of kilter with all her other subjects 7's, 8's & a 6.

Ds has a list somewhere for the aqa sciences I’ll post tmrw

Physics 87%
He hasn't been given a grade; he is hoping for an 8+ in the GCSE. He wants to be a physicist.

Chemistry 79%
He hasn't been given a grade; he is hoping for an 8 in the GCSE. Would like to do Chemistry A-level.

Biology 67%
Hasn't been given a grade; is hoping for a 7+ in the GCSE.

Wow - that's a fantastic result thesecond. Well done to him.

Dd has had patchy science teaching & is trying to play catch up but we are just working out what's going on.

Dd has had patchy science teaching
That's very frustrating, especially as her other mock results have been so good.

Alexander - 45 % would mean one mark off a grade 6 according to the boundaries DS school are using . Don't think there has been any official guidance to the schools from AQA so every school seems to be doing their own thing . Frustrating for everyone

DS got 53 % measured as level 5. 55 would have been a 6 so very conservative. But shouldn’t read too much in to marks and grade boundaries for mocks as grade s are relative to the cohort and much as I know ds we know ds will improve between now and the real thing then so will everyone else particularly those who didn’t really work for mocks but might for the real thing. We can’t tell how much the whole cohort will improve and so how far grade boundaries may go up. Should just use mocks for ptlractise and what areas need more work not as accurate predictions

I do realise that but it's just she got one of the highest marks & many failed so I'm trying to work out if it's poor teaching, a weak year or dodgy boundaries.

Her other grades were
Eng Lang 7
Eng Lit 8
Maths 6 (she didn't show enough workings)
Biology 7 (highest in the Year self taught)
Chemistry 6
Physics 4
French 7
RS 7
Music 8

AlexanderHamilton I've just checked DD's report which came home a couple of days ago and it says she got (or was guessed) a 9 in her AQA Physics mock in December but it doesn't say the percentage - I'll ask her later on. She did tell me all her percentages but I couldn't accurately say which was which so no point me guessing either :) I'll see if she knows what grade boundaries were used too.

I agree tiggytape. The two extremes are probably easier than any others to gauge. I've certainly told DD that there's a certain amount of holding a straw to the wind this year and that she should just steam ahead and not think about grades or numbers.

I think the issue for us is that Dd has been predicted mostly Grade 7's with a few 8's for essay subjects (her last report said she was working at Grade 8 in physics) & all her other results seem to correlate with that (6 in maths & chemistry, 7 in Biology mocks) added to that her best friend who has applied to do physics A level failed completely & all the triple scientists have a physics grade much, much lower than the rest.

It's a very small school with just over 30 Year 11 of whom about 9/10 are down by triple science.

Last years cohort were fairly low ability whereas it is acknowleged this year they have some bright kids although they had an influx Start in year 10 (including 2 at Xmas) who have had to catch up.

Yes.

For dd it doesn't matter so much but her best friend who wants to take science (especially physics) A Level & has been told she's failed it's a huge dent.

DS also said the aqa physics paper was unlike any they had had before particularly paper 2 so that may have had something to do with it. They had to work out what was required in some cases ie given a scenario and work out what physics to apply to solve it whereas previous questions had all been more explicit questions if that makes sense - so it may just be that more exam practise will help. He also said his 53 was one of the highest marks of all those doing triple science - a lot got below 40. All they can do is keep revising and keep practising and see what happens. DS also wants to do physics A level btw

So they are estimating grade boundaries for the Physics mock based on the results of fewer than a dozen students. I wouldn't read too much into that '4'.

DS2 was told today by his teacher that the marks for the Biology mock were unexpectedly low across the year group (~120 are doing triple science) and that his 67% was the highest mark.

Dd doesn't know her percentage for biology but she got the highest grade. They had a poor biology teacher for the last couple of years who retired last summer. The teacher who had been teaching chemistry moved to biology as it is her specialism & they got a new chemistry teacher who isxapparently great but Dd knew there was a lot of work to do so she self studied.

It appears her biology grade is an anomaly due to the fact she realised that she'd been badly taught in previous years so since September has taught heRSelf the syllabus from a cgp book. Others mostly got 4,s & several U's.

So she's planning on doing the same for physics between now & May.

They have also had no practice answering exam style questions.