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?

[Bathroom12345]

Double is 100% correct. I believe there is a process of mocks, assessments etc should a pupil be ill and such like but honestly did anyone really think there would be a solution for the whole of the country to be in this position having closed schools something that HAS NEVER been done....

We need to find a solution quickly and move on and perhaps Durham will get their fingers out this time and not take nearly 6 months to produce an offer!

[Nillynally]

The mocks will inform their judgements, they can't use an assessment when they haven't taught all the concepts...

[shittingmysel]

I would imagine if there is a massive difference between mock exam and students coursework they would be able to appeal the decision as they would any other year with the final exam result.

[Unescorted]

1nterstar the kids who did well in their mocks will invariably be the hard working ones who didn't piss about in class and disrupt the learning of their peers. Most kids I know worked really hard for their mocks - both GCSE and A level because they knew it was important as a stepping stone for achieving the results they wanted long term.

[CheriLittlebottom]

OP, education isn't an even playing field. Ever. On a normal exam year it isn't.

So, for example, grade boundaries aren't fixed, they move every year AFTER the kids have done the exams and they've all been marked. The exam boards look at the marks attained and THEN set the boundaries so that a certain agreed percentage of kids get a pass, a fail, a top grade etc. A few years back they shifted the c/d borderline by TEN MARKS in English Language. Kids who sat the exam the year before got a C, kids who sat it in that year got a D, even though their work was the exact same quality and got the same number of marks. Those kids couldn't go to 6th form, college places were lost, they had to resit. Etc. 70% on your maths exam might get you a grade 7 one year and a grade 6 the next. It is always like this.

Schools are also not an even playing field. You might be lucky and send your kids to a school with great progress scores - so your kid who underperformed in his yr6 SATs gets to go to a school that works miracles and he makes 5 levels of progress instead of the national average of 4. He gets strong passes in his GCSEs. But his cousin, with the same yr6 results, goes to a different school, with worse progress, and he never catches up, and he fails his GCSEs. Not fair.

It has never been a fair, even system. It's just hidden better normally.

[CheriLittlebottom]

I would imagine if there is a massive difference between mock exam and students coursework they would be able to appeal the decision as they would any other year with the final exam result.

Very few GCSE courses still have coursework. It was all done away with for 'rigour'.

[Bathroom12345]

Unescorted, hear, hear!

All these people saying their children didn’t take too much notice of the mocks or have now pulled their socks up. Why didn’t they take the mocks seriously? I would never have allowed my children to try and blag an exam, they don’t have the experience and to now say that of course they will move up a few grades might well be wishful thinking.

Either way if they really really think the grade they end up being given is unfair then I suspect they can appeal but it will need to be more than your Mum thinking you deserve better!

[1nterstar]

Unescorted so all the kids who didn’t do well in mocks pissed about and were disruptive. Maybe some mocks are more stringent/ harder , maybe some kids are nervous during their first real exam( that is what mocks are for), maybe some kids are having a shitty time, maybe some hadn’t covered the whole course......

[1nterstar]

And Bathtoom some schools use mocks as a wake up, that is what they are designed for. “I’d have never let.....” you don’t sit the exam. No parent can force a child. Sitting a mock,seeing how hard it is teaches children what they have to do for the real thing. That is the point of them.

[carltonscroop]

It's likely OFQUAL/exam boards will decide to use some kind of grade prediction. It's really unlikely these predictions could be based just on mock results, because schools run mocks in different ways and at different times. But this might be one piece of information that the boards couid ask for.

They'll be after evidence based prediction, showing from pupil's work why the school predicts the grade it does. So schools will need to concentrate now on what sort of body of evidence they can produce. Not every prediction will be scrutinised, but there will have tombe extensive sampling from every school (and probably also some reference to how pupils from the school have performed on previous years, which seems rather unfair, but I can see why they would be sceptical of anything that smacked of grade inflation). So working out what needs to be in the body of evidence, and using remaining weeks of online work to buttress it, could be very important (I'm assuming that samples of work might count amongst acceptable types of evidence)

[MinesAPintOfTea]

And of all the problems the DfE is facing this week, this one can go down the list. They have told the students to relax about not preparing for exams, the next thing they need to do is to something to provide grades for college entry/jobs etc before the last week in August. Much less pressing than how to make sure children on care plans, key workers' children are supervised next week. FSM children need that funding to their families so they can be fed etc.

And everyone who is planning to offer jobs/education to students due to sit national exams this summer knows that there is chaos, and that doesn't reflect the abilities of the students

[CheriLittlebottom]

Most students improve by a grade between mocks and the real thing. Teachers, funnily enough, fucking well know this. They also know which kids have been working and improving. They will use the mocks grade TO INFORM the final grade. No teacher (whose pay, by the way, is dependent on these results!!) is going to say, "well, Jonnie's done a lot of really good work lately, he got 70% on the last practice paper we did in class, he's come to every lunchtime revision session, the after school sessions, he's done past papers at home, but he got a grade 3 on the mock in October so best put that down, ah well, fuck him, next?"

[Duchessofblandings]

Agree Double-Action

To those saying their children didn’t revise much for their mocks, “if at all”. Well, er .,,...,,,,,,,,,,,

[Unescorted]

Maybe some mocks are more stringent/ harder - they had a choice of 2 years exam questions to choose from. maybe some kids are nervous during their first real exam( that is what mocks are for), but this is the same for all kids., maybe some kids are having a shitty time yep , but this could be taken into account. In my DDs GCSE year it made her focus more on her studies as she tried to keep out of peoples way, maybe some hadn’t covered the whole course..... it is doubtful any have.


You are asking for those students who didn't need to be "given a wake up call" to have their diligence and study ethic disregarded even if this would most likely have resulted in them having a better grade than those who are just now realising that school exams are a once in a lifetime opportunity. Why should that be?

[Bathroom12345]

This year for the first year EVER these students are going to have to be treated differently. For the A level students they will have had practise during their GCSE year but if they did badly in the mocks there is no guarantee things would have improved. Either way they will never know now.

I believe that Scotland is going to go for predicted grades. My DS school has said that they are fully expecting to have to produce some further predicted grades taking into account any improvement since the formal predicted grades.

Something will be done. It won’t be ideal. FGS, the students haven’t even chosen their firm and insurance choices yet!

[Comefromaway]

Someschools give mock papers only on the topics they have covered so far, others give them the entire past paper. My autistic son had panic attacks in his mocks as all his adjustments weren’t in place. They were also very badly timed in the middle of the school show and shoehorned into the normal school day.

When’s my daughter’s mocks were later in the year, they had covered more stuff and they’d had the entire Xmas holiday to revise and a proper timetable more like the real thing.

[CheriLittlebottom]

Come, but the schools will know this and be able to use this contextual knowledge to inform their predictions.

No-one is saying it's going to be a perfect solution. No-one is even saying it's going to be fair. But this is an unprecedented global disaster, what do you want them to do?

[1nterstar]

Yes some do cover the whole course, some kids have taken mocks this week.Diligence in mocks doesn’t guarantee you anything or make you worthy of a better grade. They’re kids and year 10 and 11 is a learning curve when kids mature at a different rate.

[Comefromaway]

I just know my kids are gutted. They unde stand the exams can’t go ahead but neither performed well in their mocks for various reasons but both have been working really hard to address the problem areas.

I just hope they get the grades they deserve, not inflated grades, but that reflect what they should have achieved in May v

[Unescorted]

Diligence in mocks doesn’t guarantee you anything or make you worthy of a better grade* it means they have worked through their school career...usually a good indicator of getting a better grade, unless some ill befalls them or they decide actually they can't be arsed between the mock & the real thing. The former can be accounted for the latter - well that is their choice.

[CheriLittlebottom]

But, OP, can you not see that the child who revised thoroughly for their mocks, and did well, is overwhelmingly likely to do better in the real thing than the kid who hadn't matured, was pissing around a bit, did no revision and did badly?

[1nterstar]

But plenty of kids improve on mocks, some do fall back. Some mock papers are harder, some are marked more leniently, It’s not an exact science.Plenty of bright kids do sfa for mocks, do ok but knuckle down and pull off stellar grades in the real thing. That is the system they were sold. Kids mature a lot in a year.

[Hercwasonaroll]

I think the government will go for teacher assessment with evidence. The evidence will be mocks, any coursework (where relevant), ks2 scores and students classwork and homework.

Teachers will input their grades to ofqual. Then moderation will take place and ofqual will compare the teacher assessment grades to the grades they were expecting based on previous years. Then schools will have the grades shifted up or down as needed. Finally the students will get their grades.

[CheriLittlebottom]

I taught for 13 years. I could count on one hand the number of children who 'did SFA for mocks, do ok but knuckle down and pull off stella grades in the real thing'.

The kids who get stella grades are either the ones who have worked their arses off for years, or who are just bloody clever and could do it with one hand tied behind their back.

[1nterstar]

So none of your kids make big jumps of progress from mocks to the real thing. None go up 2 grades? What are they doing in that period of time?