GCSE Summer 2020 Thread 7 : Carry on Corona Cohort, Cruising or Crawling to The Final Countdown

[OrangeCinnamon1]

Welcome all to the 7th Thread for this year's GCSE cohort ...or the Corona Cohort as has been termed by @FoolsAssassin.

Some of us have been here since I started first thread back in 2010, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. It is hoped this will continue. Going forward we intend to stay in secondary so any new threads should have 'GCSE Summer 2020 Thread # : Carry on Corona Cohort' in title just to make it easier to find.

From now on our DS/DD may go down various paths so we decided not to be exclusionary and stay right here in Secondary

Thread 1 The first GCSE yr 10

Thread 6 last thread

@Shimy
It's in the Ofqual document:
"In circumstances where the centre assessment grade was lower than the mock grade, the student will receive the centre assessment grade."

What if CAG is higher than mock as it's the first time they've done paper 3
CAG 8
Mock 7
Grade 6

@hamlet That’s only for that particular circumstance though, generally the appeal is for their mocks.

You can appeal if the mock is higher than the calculated grade. If it's higher than the CAG, they get the CAG. They don't say what happens if the mock is lower.

Yup, utterly stupid that you get the lower of mock and CAG when mocks are not comparable across schools at all!

Scenarios where downgraded by 2 from CAG
Calculated, mock, CAG - awarded:
6, 5, 8 - 6
6, 6, 8 - 6
6, 7, 8 - 7
6, 9, 8 - 8
6, ill for mock, 8 - 6

Stupid!

Sorry, missed:
6, 8, 8 - 8

My natural instinct is to appeal every result (or rather ask the school to) every subject in which DS has been downgraded from his CAG.

But ... I think I can only do that if

• he has a valid mock result (according to Ofqual criteria)
• both his CAG and his mock result are higher than the calculated grade (in which case he'll get the lower of these 2).

I'd like there to be 2 million appeals (Guardian estimate of downgraded results) so that the ludicrousness of this system is fully exposed, but actually there are surely lots of entries that won't satisfy the above and therefore have no criteria against which they can appeal. Or is there another reason an appeal can be made?

I am fairly sure the lawyers will get them on discrimination if you can only appeal if you have done a valid mock. It is likely that the people who have not done valid mocks are skewed towards disadvantaged cohorts. I think we are going to end up with CAGs.

Well. That’s my sons grades gone then. He didn’t do his mocks. So what do we do

Going by the new guidance on mocks and appeals, this has not aged well.

And although GW has been pathetic, OFQUAL executives are the people responsible for this. They KNEW something like 30% of people would get wrong A level grades and considered that acceptable. I repeat my call for Sally Collier and Michelle Meadows to be sacked for gross incompetence.

Of course @DennishSherwood can tell you that every year they are just as inaccurate due to subjective marking (loads of evidence) and OFQUAL does not care, so they probably think 70% right is OK!

Mocks are even more unfair, how on earth are they going to use them?

I will want my dc to have her mock remarked and weighted to take into account she did hers very early when other schools sometimes do them later, they used the hardest papers and marked them to scare them into revision ie harshly.

I know other schools do them differently.

I feel that the people who aren't affected by this will look at the headlines and think they can get their mock result what's the problem, when in reality many kids wont have done as well in mocks because well they're mocks.
It's a very calculated move by the government that they went for mocks rather than CAGs which schools will loads of evidence for.

@Paranoidmarvin
We want to make sure this opportunity is available to a wide range of students, including those who had not taken a written mock exam before schools and colleges closed. We will therefore allow a non-exam assessment mark to be used too.

So there’s hope.

So they’re not using CAG at all? We are up shit creek then as my dc fell to pieces in the mocks.

I thought I read somewhere they could use another piece of work instead of the mock.

So they’re not using CAG at all? We are up shit creek then as my dc fell to pieces in the mocks.

Only if they are lower than your mocks .
OFQUAL are so warm and fluffy .

@L00ptheL00p it's here: www.gov.uk/government/news/appeals-based-on-mock-exams

Ofqual's appeals based on mock exams criteria even states that CAG took into account the student's performance across the whole course, so just give them their CAGs!

I have a question. Teachers are grading all students.

Imagine a student at grammar school who is poor at, say, chemistry. She's ranked last in her class. Will this affect her exam grade? She may still be better at chemistry than some students from non-grammars.

Can anyone explain how the ranking will work?

Thanks.

cygnets The student will get whatever the algorithm thinks is the lowest grade that children at her school will get in that subject (based on the school's historical results and prior attainment of her peer group). So if, for example, the school normally have a couple of children that get 4s as their lowest grades, the student is likely to get a 4 (regardless of what her actual ability is). However, we've seen in A Level results that oddities are thrown up and actually the algorithm might decide the lowest ranked child should get a 3, despite the school never having ever had any 3s in that subject.

School gives the grade they think she would have got, say 5.
The algorithm determines the grade awarded based on previous cohorts. So she might get 6 because they've never had anyone get 5 before. Or she might get 4 because she's the lowest ranked and they normally get 4s.

So DS says it is like rock, paper, scissors - calculated beats CAG, mock beats calculated, CAG beats mocks!

@singingstones Missed your post upthread. That sounds about right. My point is they are being hypocritical because if they held the CAG in such high esteem then has Gav allowed them in the first place? It sounds like a personal vendetta against students to royally shaft them.

Your DS has a stellar career at the DfE ahead of him!

@Fiddlersgreen
Yes, my DS had been told to confirm his places with his chosen sixth form on results day (thought not formally enrol, hopefully).
I'm afraid I might try to resort to accepting all and any that he qualifies for, because who know what on earth will happen before the start of term? Behaviour that I would normally condemn, but Gav and ofqual leave me no choice.