Battling with school on A Level CAG results marked down from Mock exam

[Almeri]

Sorry for the long post, but I would really appreciate any opinions or advice as we are in the process of appealing against an A Level CAG grade and are going through the internal process at my son's school and I'm keen to gauge opinion before a meeting next week. My son was marked down from his mock exam that he took at the end of February. The school are arguing that because his coursework, that made up 20% of the A level was of 'a moderate quality' it was in fact a B, it meant that his mock grade of an A was pulled down to a B. Unfortunately his teacher, who he had a problematic relationship with for 2 years, is Head of Department for this subject and we believe he has been biased. There was an incident out of school that we strongly believe affected the relationship. However my son didn't want to pursue a complaint at the time as he thought it would make things worse at school. This teacher told him at parents evening pre UCAS predictions, that he would not predict him an A and told my son he was incapable of achieving it. He predicted him a B. After his mock exam, he got the A. His other teacher on the subject was delighted for him and said she knew he could achieve it. She also told him that he couldn't be moved down from a mock. This has now happened and he hasn't got the grade he needed for his course. Has anyone else found themselves in these circumstances?

But if the total mark is made up of the exam & the other 20%, it probably would pull him down if it was a low A. I thought you couldn't appeal unless there had been an administrative error? Or has that changed along with everything else on a daily basis?!

I’m sorry stripping away the stuff about the problematic relationship with the teacher it sounds like the school have ‘evidence’ for the B. Which means he doesn’t have a leg to stand on with an appeal.

Nobody on here can tell you if that is ‘fair’ or not- but that is the system.

His best bet is doing the November exams (investigate getting a tutor now) if he feels he is capable of more.

My understanding is that teachers where asked to make a judgement on what they thought a child would get. To do this, they were expected to consider a whole range of things, not just mock results. Mocks are not necessarily representative of how well your DC would have done in an actual A level. For example, the mock could have been based on only a small part of the curriculum, could have been marked more positively than the actual exam, students could have been primed beforehand about which areas to swot up on etc.

I'm pretty sure the government has said that it will not all appeals to be made against CAGs, so while I appreciate your DC is very disappointed, I'm not sure what you think you are going to gain by complaining m

Honestly - move on. A B is not a bad grade at all. His energy should have gone into finding a clearing place if he wants to go to uni this year.

His grade isn't going to change and he you? have already risked a

Risked the next year by this entrenched position.

OP the deadline for the October/November exams is 4th September so to go this route you do need to act.
My understanding of the Autumn 2020 exams is that the grade that counts is the higher one of the CAG or the actual exam result.
Mock exams are only part of the evidence and it is no longer grounds for appeal that your ds obtained a higher mock result.

I don’t think there is an appeal process for the amended results. What makes you think there is?

You can’t base his grade solely on his mock result... these often aren’t whole papers as the whole curriculum hasn’t been covered. Teachers often write their own mocks, use previous questions from past papers which the students may have seen before etc. Sometimes teachers mark mocks more generously for Certain kids to give them a bit of a confidence boost etc. Honestly, I don’t know any teacher which would mark a student down because they don’t have a great relationship, teachers want their students to do as well as they can.

Thank you for your comments. The reason for my post on this forum, was to find out if there were any students who have found themselves in a similar position in achieving lower CAG grades from their UCAS and mocks. I have spoken to a cross section of people who are either teachers in other schools or parents at my son’s school or other schools and I’m yet to hear of this happening to anyone else. All have confirmed that in their case there were no marking down from mocks. Indeed in many cases, students were marked up by 2-3 grades from their mock. If anyone has experienced a downgrade, I’d be interested to hear about your experience.

There is an appeal for malpractice

I gave 4 A’Level students a grade lower than their mock.

Yes, lots of students will have been given CAGs lower than their UCAS grades because they are often aspirational, what the teacher thinks the student might achieve in the very best case scenario, and given 8-10 months before their actual exams. CAGs were the realistic grade given by the teacher/centre several months down the line, based on every piece of evidence the centre had (including coursework completed which could pull overall grades down), which they thought the student would genuinely get if they had sat the actual exams.

My nephew got a Lowe mark than his mocks in two subjects

Mocks had been limited to only some of the curriculum and teacher felt they had been favourable questions to their students

Nephew accepted it, went through clearing and is off week after next!

Just move on OP
Dragging up a suggestion of previous unrecorded incident affecting professional opinion may have truth but won’t work.

You are setting son up for a miserable time

Fine a tutor and retake now or just do it end of next year
Shame you have pushed this and thus missed a clearing place

Was he predicted a B on his UCAS record then (but had a place with a higher requirement than this) because that would be consistent with (the teacher's) UCAS prediction?

Has he considered doing the resit if he thinks he can get his marks up in that (bearing in mind the 20 per cent he's already completed).

I don’t know if you have read this document already.
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/910603/6672_-_What_to_do_if_you_have_concerns_or_questions_about_your_grades.pdf

Your case sounds most likely example 1:
“Student W is given centre assessment grades of B, C and D for 3 A level subjects. Student W’s academic record shows in each subject they have variously attained grades B, C and D in assessments throughout the course.
Student W asked their college to explain the centre assessment grade D. The tutor for that subject demonstrated that the centre assessment grade was correctly submitted to the exam board. They explained that they considered student W had found the subject for which they received a grade D harder to access as the course progressed and, although they had secured a grade C in the mock exam, this was borderline. It was followed by clear D grades in homework assignments following the mock.

An exam board is unlikely to think the grade D is out of line with student W’s academic record and is likely to think the explanation given by the tutor is consistent with making a fair judgement of how student W might have performed. It is unlikely the exam board would suspect that malpractice or maladministration might have taken place.”

If he had a low A in the mock and a B in the coursework then it’s unlikely that the exam board will consider any malpractice has taken place. He should enter for the Autumn exams if he seriously thinks he was on track for an A.

I’d advise the autumn series rather than waiting for next summer. Everyone taking the autumn exams will have been out of school since March, so it’s a more level playing field, and he will be marked on exam alone rather than having to count his lower coursework mark in the final calculation.

Yes. There was a disagreement between 2 of his teachers on the UCAS predictions. He needed the A but was offered a place on the B prediction, but only if he achieved the A. Rather naively I realise now, I thought the mock would secure the final result that he was on track. He performs well in exams and we thought this would be taken into consideration. It’s a tough situation when class mates have moved up in the ranking. In 1 case same coursework mark and a C in mock up to an A. You’re right, I think the exam beckons.

That’s a good point, thank you for your advice.

I gave some students lower grades than their mocks. As others have explained the mocks are only part of the evidence.
UCAS predictions are irrelevant here. They are made at the start of September, and my school, and many others the students beg and plead for eg grade A because that is what the course asks for, even if I think based in what I saw in y12 they will get a C.
I have often put down an A in those circumstances because 1) some students do pull their finger out and get the A or 2) the course may offer them based on the A, but then take a B.
This is usually accompanied by me telling the students that I don’t think at the moment they will get an A. I suspect many don’t twll their parents that bit of the conversation.

I awarded one or two students lower than their mock exams. The reason was that the mock exam was not a true 'mock' - it was only one paper out of 3. Also, it was a previous paper that students had open access to online. I absolutely could not take the most recent assessment grade as their final grade - I had to use all of the data I had about that student.

If this grade has affected a place at university and you are reapplying next year, then just take the autumn exam if you are confident that the true grade will be achieved.

If this is my subject (History) then it’s not unusual for there to be a discrepancy in grades between the two teachers. Each teacher is usually teaching a totally different topic and different techniques. It’s not at all unusual to find that a kid that I think is headed for a B grade, my colleague thinks is headed for an A grade or vice versa. I’m right more often than he is, not because I’m more accurate but simply because I deliver 60% of the course (20% coursework and a 40% exam) and my colleague only delivers 40%. It’s actually more unusual than you might expect for students to get the same grade on all three components of the course, probably less than 20% get three identical grades with the other 80% getting a mixture. Just because teachers had different predictions doesn’t necessarily mean either was “wrong”, they could just be looking at different evidence.

Madame - this was exactly my ds last year in your subject. Consistently high A* performance for one teacher/topic. Consistently A grade performance on other teacher's topic and only a B for coursework. Achieved an A overall.

Get him to sit the exam in October and that we you will both know for sure and he has the opportunity to prove himself.

Almeri

Sadly lots of kids lost out this year, even after the U-turn, due to the differences between how schools did their CAGs.

CAGs were, however, never meant to rely on mocks alone. They should have taken other evidence into account.

Dd lost out as her school only took mocks into account and then moderated everyone before sending them off. Anyone who had a substantial amount of coursework potentially lost out. Dd did as her c/w and nea as 60% in one subject and was pretty much full marks. Her mock grade was lower. All three subjects were affected, the other two slightly less so fortunately.

Trouble is the press sold everyone the lie that everyone was over achieving after the u turn which isn't actually the case.

Dd wants to move on and we haven't pushed it anyway. Her grades are fine. But should have been higher. It lost her her first choice, but luckily she loved her insurance too.

It's really annoying.

This has happened to my child, however fortunately it made no difference as they had already achieved grades required for their uni place. Absolutely unfair though, especially as mock was unseen past papers, not borderline grade, class work to same standard etc. Asked school to appeal but won’t. Very unfair but aware many more students in a worse position.