Anybody else feel let down by CAG results

[SusanCant]

Does anybody else feel that although it was necessary for the govt to do a U turn on being able to use CAG results, their child has not benefitted from it as now grades seem to generally be over inflated. My ds goes to a school which has always been cautious with its predictions and it seems they also were with CAGs. Although he received A star, A , A he finds it frustrating that he wasn't given in an A star in a second subject as originally predicted. He finds friends from other less academic schools seem to have had much higher grades awarded as a result of their CAGs. Does anybody feel that their child's results have suffered as a result of being at a school with less than generous CAG predictions? Can one appeal a CAG result?

No, where does it end?!

Mine was awarded a 7/6 for igcse on the Tuesday.
Few days later the board changes it's stance and school reduce grade to 5/5.
Now, a friend says the website says they'll get the higher of the two.
All we can do is wait and see.
I don't think the results matter anymore they just need to stop messing the kids about.

This is the problem, there's now no uniformity between schools and no checks. It doesn't seem like many schools have undershot but some have definitely pushed pupils up grades, whether intentionally or not. The whole situation is a disaster.

Theres reallt no perfect end to this. Tell your son to stop comparing himself. It won't help him at any point in his life. He could've done a lot worse in exams and should be very proud of his grades.

I think there will be some doubts over whether some schools were more stringent about applying the criteria than others. However the same thing can be said for exams, you never know how one person may award a mark in a question where another person might not making the difference between grades. Also the grade boundaries each year make a big difference and we have no control of and these. I think we just have to accept where we are at this point as there is no perfect solution.

Ds gets his GCSEs tomorrow. We have a pretty difficult relationship with his school and very little trust in them. I'm keeping my fingers crossed though that his centre assessed grades reflect his abilities and are a good representation of what he could of got. If they are not, I don't think there will be much we can do about it.

Does he have a place to study at Uni or whatever he needed as his next step -- are the results achieving what they need to right now? Then you need to move on, honestly.

There is no system that can accurately replicate the results of exams not taken. We were scrupulously honest in our CAGs and I know some of our students will be disappointed that we didn't put a higher grade, but we were told by Ofqual to make "a fair and objective judgement of the grade they believed a student would have achieved if they sat the exam this year". And that is what we did. UCAS predictions should always be given with a health warning to students. They are optimistic.

My DD gets her GCSE results tomorrow, so I have a double perspective on this, and it is hard!!

You're right OP, it's still unfair. Now it rewards the pupils whose teachers were a bit optimistic rather than those who tried really hard to be realistic. But what can be done at this point?

My niece was predicted BBB, her UCAS predicted grades were BBB, her mock exams grades were BBB, her work throughout sixth form have been mainly Bs - 1 C grade and occasional As. College have given her CAGs as DDE - where has that come from? What have they based it on?

FFS get a grip.
My son has had dreadful mental health problems and has gone from AAB predictions at beginning of year 12 to almost killing himself to having to drop one A level and struggling dragging himself in, unable to do most of the work as his depression and stress were so bad, to end up with CU from the algorithm upgraded to CE when school grades came in. He isn't well enough to attend university. But he's alive.

Does your son genuinely think that the tragedy of only having A*AA is going to hold him back in life? Had he ever had a real problem to deal with?

Are the predicted grades given for GCSE likely to be what was submitted for the CAG? If ds gets his predicted grades he has a place at 6th form. I'm feeling even more nervous now...

Possibly, possibly not. There is no standardised method of predicting a GCSE grade.

Greek his predicted grades will have been teachers based, the CAGs are whole school based. It depends on if the school have followed procedure to the letter or not

What everyone else has said, basically. Especially with regard to UCAS results - though it doesn't help that the media keeps referring to 'predicted' grades, which the CAGs are not, which I think has helped muddy people's understanding too. The vast majority of A level students as I understand it do not generally achieve their UCAS predictions.

Also worth pointing out that exams are not perfect either, with some examiners (notably in subjects such as English or the humanities) often being harsher markers than other. Arguably this is not fair to the students whose papers end up with the harsher markers....

You could go round and round in circles forever with the CAGs I think. We are where we are now. It is not perfect, not even vaguely ideal but it is a lot better than where we were at the end of last week.

The problem was there were three groups of schools:

1. Those who gave realistic CAGs
2. Those who gave extremely 'ambitious' CAGs
3. Those who wanted to give realistic CAGs but knew that the second group existed and so gave somewhat ambitious CAGs

The teacher threads on here were open about the existence of these three groups!

Every year, many students dont get what they expect in their A levels. There is disappointment every year. Every year students dont make their offer. The difference is that this year, more students have made their offers (even before the U turn I believe) but those that haven't have never had the chance to try. That is of course hugely frustrating.

Yes, partially DD is. Its been a big issue, it seems, for subjects where there is a big percentage of the grade coming from NEA/coursework which was not done, completed or marked before lockdown - as many weren't due in til after Easter. So super cautious schools haven't really taken them into account as they can't evidence it - so just used the last mocks sat, which are noxious for being low and harshly graded - in the hope it makes them work hard for the real ones.

I also think, when it comes to A levels, we need to move away from UCAS predictions being based on 'your very best day' happening and moving towards realistic ones. Maybe even two sets - most likely and aspirational. Because once kids get their UCAS predictions it doesn't seem to be explained to them that they are aspirational and what they could achieve if everything works out well and they work 100% throughout. Kids just see those grades and think that is their most likely achievement. It sets kids up to 'fail' on results day.

However, results (for A level anyway) are out now and done. DD has a place to do her first choice subject at her second choice university. So its time to move forward and forget about last week now.

He can sit the exams in November if he wants to.

Are the predicted grades given for GCSE likely to be what was submitted for the CAG?

Not necessarily. The subject teacher will have used whatever evidence they were told to us to submit a 'most likely' grade to the department, which were then ranked in order for the whole year group. They then were submitted to the school lead for exams (or whoever was in charge) who would have moderated them in some way to come up with the Centre Assessed Grades. It was CAGs, not teacher predictions, which were submitted.

Nothing is perfectly fair. Exams are not perfectly fair, by any means. He has very high grades which I assume are enough for his University place. Getting another A* would not make any difference to anything. You need to discourage him from dwelling on this.

@irregularegular

Nothing is perfectly fair. Exams are not perfectly fair, by any means. He has very high grades which I assume are enough for his University place. Getting another A* would not make any difference to anything. You need to discourage him from dwelling on this.

I've read accounts on line where students needed A A A and got two As and lost their place so it's not a foregone conclusion that he got into uni.

Secondly, I think it's easier to accept if you don't do well in an exam rather than some arbitrary calculations based on the school's historical results now are used to work out your grades. That's got nothing to do with the ability of individual students.

Can he get where he wants to go with his A* AA? If so, then no point to appeal or even wasting time dwelling on it.

Where are all these ‘less academic’ schools doling out 2 or 3 A*?
I hope your DS isn’t opining loudly about his friends not deserving their grades. I’m sure you have brought him up better than that

My son gets his results tomorrow and he’s always been predicted high grades. So yes he might not be advantaged by it, as he will be competing for uni places with kids who might not have got such high grades. BUT he might have messed up on the day. Who knows. The algorithm was a complete injustice to many students and if my son had wanted that to stay so his stood out I’d have been angry with him. If schools have inflated grades that’s wrong, and no teacher alone should have predicted. Thing is teacher could have 8 kids all capable of a 9, but on the day not all would get a 9, they had to predict what they’d get on a good day. That’s why grades will be higher. At the end of day your son should just be happy with his own grades and move on to the next stage in his education