DD got all 9s in her gcses

[lola71]

We are a bit surprised to say the least. The algorithm and the school predicted grades matched. She is thrilled, but feels a bit that she did not deserve it because she she didn't sit the exams.

Spurred on by her dm who is ridiculously happy and already looking at University courseshmm.
I really worry. She will struggle. Massively.

It will sound harsh, but she'll realise she's out of her depth pretty quickly and I expect schools and colleges will be expecting and accommodating an above average movement between courses and institutions this year. There's always a proportion of kids who hit a wall with a levels and need to change course. Even without adjusted grades, 5 GCSEs grade 4-6 isn't a good Alevel candidate in my experience. There's going to be more disruption this year but it will sort itself out in the wash.

“hard worker rather than super clever”

She’s probably a hard worker and super clever if her teachers all reckon she could have got 9s!

OP, congratulations to your DD.

I would advise her to limit her exposure to the media atm as its very easy for kids' personal achievements to be politicised and it's important that actual real live teenagers protect themselves from internalising the wider discussion around this year's results (my DM tried to do this with DS's results on Thurs and she got short shrift from me, I can tell you!).

Teenagers are naturally more vulnerable to adult criticism than adults as even the very bright ones aren't fully developed emotionally. They're often very sensitive and likely won't yet have a fully developed ability to sort the wheat from the chaff in terms of adult opinions and their internal biases yet.

It might be helpful to remind her that what she's just gone through is a national system of standardisation to measure her academic ability and engagement with that of her national cohort of peers.

While there are obviously lots of debates about the systems themselves, it doesn't actually matter to her what happened in previous years as this is the way her cohort has been measured. It's also worth pointing out to her that these grades are arguably a better measure of a person's overall attainment as they're based on an assessment of consistent performance throughout the year, judged by people who've actually seen her in action on a sustained basis.

Last year, only 120 pupils in the whole system got 9s in 11 or more subjects. Even with grade inflation, this might go to 200. If they took fewer exams (e.g. 9 x 9) that's still a very small number of people- possibly 1000.

It's less than 1000. But most students don't do 11 GCSEs, so that's not a particularly useful statistic.

All 9s with 7+ GCSEs is something around 0.17% of the population

2019 9 rate was around 4%, per exam.

Clearly getting one 9 is heavily correlated with getting more 9s, but there will be an element of luck. It's not clear that getting all 9s predicts more success than all 9s except for 2 8s, for example.

However it does seem like it would be very very hard for teachers to accurately predict the students who would get ALL 9s. E.g., they might name 10 students as such, but perhaps only 1 student would get it.

So probably she would not have got all 9s, just because it's very unlikely.

However it doesn't matter because some part of this mus tbe a crapshoot, and whether you got an 8 or 9 in GCSE French is irrelevant if you're going to study Medicine or something.

LonginesPrim this is a thoughtful post, I forget sometimes my dd is 16 and still quite vulnerable.

And there's no doubt that actually getting all 9s is a more legitimate achievement then being predicted and duly awarded them, but otoh it's clear that she is very bright as this has been recognised by all her teachers.

Also Oxford University doesn't give a shit about 9s. They expect an overwhelming majority of 8s, 9s and A*s from their students.

But they don't care if you got 10 8s, 10 9s or a mixture of the too.

The 9 grade seems to be a willy waving exercise.

The OP's DD is very unlikely to have got all 9s because there's a high luck element. But she is VERY likely to have got all 8s and 9s.

Which is what counts here in fact.

Thankyou for all the thoughtful posts. It has been such a terrible year for everyone, I think it is difficult for young people to take everything in. I am not English, so the system is a bit of a mystery to me anyway, her school is a good enough comprehensive, nothing special, but some top teachers. I love my daughter dearly, she is fun and kind and wants to be a teacher. I will give her a hug this morning. Thankyou for the kindness.

Wonderful! My daughter is doing them next year (I hope)! Her school does not predict any 9s as a policy, hers are a mix of 7s and 8s, though oddly not how she would predict for herself (predicted 8 for physics where she would definitely not, and 7 for English which is one of her favourite subjects and I think a cert for an 8).
For all those thinking grades are not realistic, the kids will all be taking another set of exams in two years and those are the ones that really count.

FTR, I don't think people are necessarily 'sneering at grade inflation' as much as acknowledging what is clearly there.

We have on this thread witnessed 'the issue'. The niece who is now going to do A levels when she should be looking at NVQ 2s; and the despondent straight 9er who didn't get the chance to 'prove' it.

So there are definitely DC out there whose schools chanced an over-prediction, but who evidently got away with it.

I do worry a bit for the DC who has massive panic attacks thus performs way worse in exams than they're capable of, as, unless their degree is 100% coursework, sooner or later at uni, they're going to have to face an exam, even though they dodged this bullet 😕

@lola71 my DS got all nines too, though we have only told close family, and I'm not sure if he's even told his friends.
We're very pleased and proud but somehow it doesn't seem appropriate to say anything other than "he did really well". Just this morning, DH was talking to the mum one of DS's friends who was clearly thrilled that her son got all-but-one 9's, and was angling to know what DS got too, but DH said he just couldn't bring himself to say. So it's nice to have the opportunity to mention it here at least.

I do think DS deserved the grades. He was very capable of a 9 in every subject. In a parallel universe where exams took place he may well have had some bad days and dropped to an 8 on some of them, but that's also true of anyone else that got straight 9's and no algorithm could ever have predicted which of them would have good/bad days in which subjects. For that reason, I think use of the CAG in these circumstances is fully justified, even if grades are inflated overall. It compensates a little for the fact that they lost their opportunity to prove themselves.

The exam boards only released the higher algorithm grades. The reduced ones have been shredded.

That wasn't meant to sound negative btw, just a fact check.

Well done

p.s. we know DS got CAGs - they weren't uplifted by the algorithm.

Stealth boast

@LadyPenelope68 have you actually RTFT?

@LonginesPrime
Yes and my comment still stands

How is it a steath boast when its in the title

Thats not very stealthy...its stealthless

Because if you get fabulous grades you must never ever say so. It’s extremely annoying.

@Itisbetter

Because if you get fabulous grades you must never ever say so. It’s extremely annoying.

Yeah, that's why we're keeping it quiet ... it would be social death otherwise, this year more than any other.

@TheMarzipanDildo

“hard worker rather than super clever”

She’s probably a hard worker and super clever if her teachers all reckon she could have got 9s!

Possibly, probably but not necessarily. I have a friend with two girls who are both A* GCSEs and A Level - across the board. They are definitely not super clever. But they work fucking hard and deserve every single A* they got. The sort of child who is revising from day one of the academic year. Because the pressure on them to be 'top' and to succeed is phenomenal.

I think yoir daughter should enjoy her grades and see them as a reward for her hard work. It's the hard work that will pay off later too, so this has set her up well.

In some ways it's nice and I would be proud to have such a humble child. My dd has friends who have posted their 9s on social media and do not stop bragging on how brilliant they are, a trait I would be embarrassed to have nurtured in my own child/young adult.

My son got 9x9’s and 2x8’s. Not a surprise as he had been predicted them all along. Perhaps he could have got all 9’s if he sat the exams. He will always feel cheated he didn’t get his chance to sit them though. He’s looking at Oxbridge