Missing mock GCSE’s

[Inastatus]

My DD has missed a few mock GCSE’s this week due to illness. She has been talking to her friends who have all been talking to her about the exams and she thinks she will be taking the same paper when she goes back to school next week! I’m a bit surprised as I’d assumed the school would provide a different paper for anyone in this position as it’s not very fair otherwise. Does anyone know what the procedure is?

We give the same exam pape

*paper

Yep - in my school we give out the same paper. For junior school it doesn’t matter so much (I’ve been supervising mop-up exams all week) but for exam years it’s a more risky proposition. The reality is that staff can’t make an unlimited amount of papers. Not everyone who has to do mop-ups will do them on the same day so you could potentially have to produce numerous papers. We know that those who have missed are likely to be at an advantage due to knowing questions in advance but there really isn’t another option

A different paper would be a pain to supply (because they'd need to keep another one reserved for mock use), a pain to mark (because it's quicker marking lots the same), difficult to calibrate against the others (because it will have different questions, and may have more/less on the bits they haven't yet covered fully). It's usually simpler to stick to the same paper and hope that the kids are keen enough to have a proper dry-run that they don't let their friends tell them about it, or just be conscious that they may have performed a little better than might be expected.

Ridiculous that you think your DD should have a separate paper. Also foolish of her friends to share what is in the exam. Of course her papers will be the same. They are usually the most recent public exam, these are the only questions that are usually safe from having been shared online and the best way of getting up to date realistic questions. Your DD's grades will not be indicative of what she was really capable of getting so be aware she may not do so well in the real exams

Er ok @thunderbun - I was just asking the question - you sound so angry!

Thanks everyone for clarifying as I had no idea how it worked.

DS missed his computing mock by 2 weeks due to self isolating. The school had him sit an alternate paper.
OP I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask. It sounds like not all schools are the same.

There is a slight issue this year, that if the government do a U-turn (and anything is possible), then schools will have to do CAGs like last year. Knowing about topics or whatever in advance might mean she will do better than she should in the mocks, leading to unfair ranking. Though presumably school will try to take this into account.

DD missed all the first mocks. I'm hoping that she might be able to somehow sit the missed papers at some point under controlled conditions, for the practice if nothing else.

tbh Your DD was a bit immature talking to her friends about the exam contents... (but not all 15/16yos are mature, so can be forgiven.)

Not angry, just shocked tbh. Your question shows absolutely no regard for the poor teachers who have to put together the exams and then mark them and somehow standardise your DD's result with the rest of the cohort. The fact that your DD is artificially inflating her score by finding out what is in the exam is one thing but the disregard for how hard teachers have been working this term is what shocked me. You mention unfair but doing anything but giving her the tests would be unfair.

There’s aren’t unlimited past papers to use; for one of my courses I literally have two! Writing a new paper takes ages, it’s one of the hardest things to do IMO, so yes, students who miss exams get the same paper.

When I was teaching we'd use the same paper. Often schools use last year's exam papers which are not impossible to get hold of anyway.
My son and the rest of his year have just done most of their mocks from home, which makes the whole thing fairly pointless in my opinion.

@thunderbun

I think most non teachers don’t realise the extent of sorting out mocks and marking, so that’s probably why it’s expected to get a different paper.

@GravityFalls - I know there aren’t unlimited papers but I thought there’d be at least one alternative as back up (past paper etc). However, as I said I have no idea how it all works and was simply asking the question. Obviously it does happen in other schools as one of the other posters has mentioned.

@thunderbun - just reign it in and stop being so arsey to me. This isn’t AIBU - I was simply asking. I don’t know where you picked up my ‘total disregard for teachers and all their hard work’! You’ve definitely misread between the lines there.

And for info, my DD has not deliberately been trying to cheat by finding out what’s in the papers - have you heard of group chat? They’ve all been discussing it on there.

@TeenPlusTwenties - she hasn’t been grilling her friends about what’s in the papers, it’s just that her friends were talking about the exams in their group chats.

We always use the same paper , but keeping a careful eye open for suspicious things - which in maths can be correct answers with incorrect working out.
I would say in my experience far more students do badly on retaken mocks , as they don't seem to take it as seriously, then do better.

Group chat is difficult. In theory your DD should have either left the chat when exam discussion started, or asked them not to. Though i can see why either of those might be difficult.
Luckily(?) my DD hasn't been well enough for school based discussions with anyone so this situation hasn't arisen for her.

OP I have no idea. I wanted to support as I think it is an absolutely reasonable question this year when the government may do a U turn and teachers end up having to negotiate Cags.

@Bagadverts

Yes totally agree.

But, most the time by the time they do mocks, they haven’t covered all the topics. So we have to spend a lot of time scanning past papers and changing them to make sure they don’t contain topics we haven’t covered yet.

@TeenPlusTwenties - hope your DD is better soon and is able to do her exams. My DD has only missed 3 luckily so the majority will be taken under proper conditions.

@Bagadverts - thanks.

[quote OverTheRainbow88]@Bagadverts

Yes totally agree.

But, most the time by the time they do mocks, they haven’t covered all the topics. So we have to spend a lot of time scanning past papers and changing them to make sure they don’t contain topics we haven’t covered yet.[/quote]
I've read this a few times and I'm always a bit surprised, maybe DD's school does teaching/mocks differently to others? Or what am I missing?

At DD's school they only do one paper per subject for any set of mocks, and just seem to make sure they have taught the units for that paper. So for most subjects there is no issue. Then they do 'second mocks' for some subjects to do the other paper if they want to.

In maths most people don't cover the whole syllabus anyway so that isn't an issue.

OP: Am not being arsey... just telling you to get real and pointing out how entitled you come across as!

But this is as ever the story of how many parents have absolutely no idea about how hard teachers really work. Just spout out about how unfair everything is that the teachers don't have infinite time to dedicate to their individual child. When each teacher probably has about 8-10 different sets of 30 kids across the school.

Perhaps you will now see the light and as it is Christmas time you will actually send a Christmas card to said teachers to perhaps acknowledge how hard they are working

I've read this a few times and I'm always a bit surprised, maybe DD's school does teaching/mocks differently to others? Or what am I missing?

At DD's school they only do one paper per subject for any set of mocks, and just seem to make sure they have taught the units for that paper. So for most subjects there is no issue. Then they do 'second mocks' for some subjects to do the other paper if they want to.

I can’t speak for other subjects or schools but we do all 3 papers for our mocks like they would in the real exam. We teach half the ethics in year 10. Then Islam and then Christianity and back to ethics in last part of year 11. So by the mocks they have covered half the ethics topics and 1/3 of Christianity.

We do it in that order as most kids find the ethics the most interesting so we do it first to engage them, but some of the ethics topics is more appropriate for end of year 11 age than beginning of year 10 age.

@thunderbun - you are arsey and rude and I’m guessing you’re a teacher! I wasn’t being entitled just unsure about how the system works - I just innocently thought there’d be a back up paper for these situations. I’m grateful for everyone who has explained in a decent way and ‘shown me the light’ 🙄 but I find your attitude appalling. And no, I won’t be sending any Xmas cards to anyone. Merry bloody Christmas

@Inastatus

I agree that @thunderbun has come across and rude and totally unnecessarily aggressive.

@thunderbun do shut up! You aren’t doing absolutely no favours to the teaching profession. You are being an absolute arse and a nasty one at that.

@Inastatus it was a reasonable question - esp as schools do have different ways of doing things and this year especially for many schools; the norm has gone completely out the window.

ARE doing absolutely no favours - now aren’t