Surely using mocks for GCSE grades is hugely unfair.

[1nterstar]

Our school did them before Christmas before the whole course was completed, others were doing them this week.

Many kids don’t revise as much for mocks as the real thing( if at all).

The content and marking varies hugely.

Just how can they be used?

[Greenpop21]

It’s not just mocks being used but teacher assessment and coursework.

[Darbs76]

There is no ideal system, I think this is the fairest way. For those who aren’t sure if their children will be happy with the grades I’d encourage them to keep revising as there should be a chance to sit some exams in the autumn

[BackInTime]

Mocks are a trial run. They are not just a test of subject knowledge but also a lesson in how to how to deal with the big exam hall pressure, revision techniques, exam technique, structuring answers and timing. Many like my DD will not have got all of these things quite right in their mocks which impacted their grades. With lessons learned and techniques refined she was working so hard and set to do much better in the real thing. She feels deflated and despondent at the idea she will be judged on her mocks taken before Christmas when they had not even completed all the syllabus. I just hope that whatever they do they are fair.

[noblegiraffe]

Telling him to continue to his revision schedule might be what he needs then, to provide structure and purpose till July. Just say ‘assume you are sitting your exams, just a bit later than thought’.

Camhs may still be providing support via phone/Skype.

[SisterSist3r]

Thanks Noble. He had a really shitty few months from long term bullying, under CAMHs, grades not as should have been this year. High predictions from Sats. Had worked really hard with MH, all was starting to come together. Had a robust revision plan he’d started, was looking forward to Easter hols, leaving school and cracking on with it all was just a case of going through everything he wasn’t able to focus on before as bright. Was all starting to come together. Then Wed happened.

Not a lot we can do about it now. I’ll be in school myself and he’ll be home fretting. Suspecting CAMHs services will be on hiatus.😩

[noblegiraffe]

Try to reassure him that we will all be trying to do our best by him. No one will be trying to screw him out of grades he has worked for and colleges won’t be looking for ways to reject him.

If he was on course to do well and get a college place, he should assume that will happen.

If he is truly still fretting he can continue to revise and keep his knowledge ticking over so that he can take the exams that will be on offer if he’s not happy with his results.

[itwasalovelydreamwhileitlasted]

Well it should teach the kids a lesson......I was told to put just as much effort into mocks and the real thing.

Any anyway SERIOUSLY what do you expect the government to do??!! So quick to moan about it but what would YOU have come up with as a solution??!!!

[SisterSist3r]

I know, got a very anxious dc. Have told him we’ll make sure his teachers know all the details and then all we can do is try not to think about it and wait. Not easy in current climate. Who knows where we’ll all be in July.

[noblegiraffe]

I understand why you’re worrying but no one knows anything! Colleges and sixth forms will be waiting to see what results look like before making final decisions.

[SisterSist3r]

Do you think 6th forms will be flexible?

[noblegiraffe]

Yes, there won’t be any boundaries as we’re not submitting marks, just grades. I think they will have a reasonable idea of what sort of grades a school should be getting from KS2 data and previous school performance.

I don’t think they’ll publish the data so I don’t think they will necessarily have to stick to ‘only 70% can pass GCSE maths’. They just won’t have enough data to fine-tune it that well so I think they’ll err on the side of generous to limit appeals and resits.

[SisterSist3r]

Do you think 6 th form colleges will be understanding?

[Hercwasonaroll]

I'm under the impression they will only award grades and not boundaries, noble is that correct?

Agree re teachers starting the process, then SLT will check they aren't unreasonable/unrealistic then DfE will take everyone's data and moderate it for want of a better word.

Results due for the end of July so students have time to prepare for resit in January should they so wish.

[SisterSist3r]

Gosh was it only Wed seems like a lifetime ago.

[noblegiraffe]

Don’t know. Information will be forthcoming but up until Wednesday we thought exams were still happening. Patience needed, unfortunately!

[SisterSist3r]

So will they do that re jig thing re boundaries when they get all grades( sorry don’t know correct name) .

Also what will happen about retakes, will they be in Sep and will there be enough time to revise. Guessing no chance of a heads up so they could start before results? How will it works if starting Alevels in other subjects?

[noblegiraffe]

That’s my speculation by the way, I have no inside info!

[noblegiraffe]

It’s not going to be down to individual teachers. My grades are being moderated by my HOD then our SLT data guy will look at them.

Then, presumably, the guidelines will be issued by the DfE about what they expect and they’ll be tweaked. Then they’ll be sent off and someone with a massive spreadsheet will look at the data on a school level, compared to SATs and previous school progress figures and then a country-wide level.

Schools will be putting their best face forward, obviously, but if they are taking the piss, they will get caught and moderated down.

I think schools will have to collate evidence but I don’t think it will be looked at in detail unless piss-taking is suspected so it will be in schools’ interests to be reasonable.

[SisterSist3r]

Worried that if my ds was on the cusp of a grade and say other teachers were more lenient those with more stringent teachers could go down. Or will a 6 be a 6 regardless off everybody else?

[SisterSist3r]

And will they readjust boundaries after all scores are in?

[noblegiraffe]

Will they take into account MH issues

It depends on the issues. For example one of my students had a panic attack in one of their mock papers so when predicting their grade, I looked at their performance on the other papers instead, and made a note of this.

But if a student has been off for a long time or not producing good work for a long time, we cannot predict them a generous grade because they might have recovered and started working well before the exams. We can only go with what we’ve got.

Although we haven’t had detailed advice from the DfE about how to predict. They say it’s coming.

[SisterSist3r]

Will they take into account MH issues and will they do that thing when they adjust grades according to what everybody else has?

[FlyingPandas]

From my own personal experience I went from an E in my A level history mock to an A in the real thing. Anecdotally I bet most people will know at least one story of a student who bombed a mock and then aced the real thing. That said, I bet there are also anecdotes of people who aced a mock and then bombed the real thing! For every student who benefits from a massive revision drive in the run up to proper GCSSs, there will be another who crashes and burns. For every student who is better under exam conditions, there will be another who does far better at coursework. Etc etc etc.

But it’s all kind of a moot point because it has been made very clear that schools will NOT just use mock results. Nor will they just use predicted grades or just teacher assessment or just KS2 SATS data. It will thankfully be a mixture of everything.

[maro0n]

The difference with mocks is that they take place over a much shorter and more intense time period than the actual GCSEs. DS did all his in a two week period straight after Xmas, generally doing two exams a day. At least he had Xmas to revise though, as some schools did them before Xmas.

Some schools make a much bigger deal about mocks than others, eg posting a results letter, etc. DS’ school very much downplayed the results, saying that they were mainly intended as practise only and to highlight any areas they may need to focus in for July. They also marked them very harshly ( in the sense that nobody got a 9) because they didn’t want anyone becoming complacent).

DS had a headache by the last day of his mocks because he’s done 3 exams that day. On the last Physics paper, I think he scored a 5.

In the real thing, he paced himself much better and was hoping for at least 7s, based on most of his mock grades, He got ten grade 9s and most of his school got all 8s and 9s, even though they weren’t expecting this based on their mocks. To be honest, I think DS’ teachers might have assessed him as capable of a 9 grade in most subjects, but would have probably given him 8s at best in Maths, Physics and Biology. He really pulled it out of the bag in the last term and surprised himself and from what I can see, this is very a very common pattern. I do hope teachers factor this in for this year.

Having said this, for children who fall apart under exam conditions, ongoing assessment is no doubt a good thing. And anyone can bomb an exam so I guess this strategy at least protects them against that possibility.

[SisterSist3r]

Anybody know what happens to the kids who have had MH issues? Shit happens, it’s not just a case of the studious V the cba( deserve all they get).