Exams cancelled

[noblegiraffe]

Alternative arrangements will be made.

How stressful to announce that with no details about what will happen.

@HasaDigaEebowai

A friend of mine is exactly like this. She is desperate for cags and no exams as her dc has been predicted all A for A level.*

If I'm completely honest, I'm the same. DS1 is predicted 7 9s and 3 8s. He might get this in his exams, he might even do better and get all 9s. But he could have a bad day and end up with 7s. If given the choice to remove the risk I'd remove the risk for him.

I'm the opposite. I would rather DD's exam grades had some credibility.

She's doing A level though. She's worked to a consistently high standard and is one of those students who does the extra 5 hours per subject and uses her study periods to study in. With 3 A level papers per subject - she would be examined in depth on a large spread of content. That is advantageous to a student who puts in maximum effort. There's more opportunity to differentiate themselves from the lucky crammer.

A mini exam is going to be much smaller and examine less content, content all the kids might be aware of. There's not going to be many marks available to separate the A*/A/B/C students and on top of that, if they are tested on reduced content and know the content, that won't bestow so much advantage on the consistent, diligent students.

@noblegiraffe great GIF And now I’ve got Men at Work Down Under stuck in my brain, so thanks for that 😉

[quote Watermelon999]@noblegiraffe

Sorry just saw a typo on my post

“But the consultation does give the option of retaining exams.”

Should read But the consultation does NOT give the option of retaining exams.

It sounded like external tests were a done deal.[/quote]
I do wonder. There's a question about private candidates and also candidates abroad. When proposing if they should sit the normal exams, I thought there was an option to select 'all students should sit the normal exam' But I might be remembering it wrong.

[quote Stormer]@KittyMcKitty of course Believe me I wouldn’t have put that on here in this section with these posters if I couldn’t stand by it.

However for primary age and years 7s & 8s, I suspect the reality is that many parents are listening in, albeit not actively by intention. My DC’s secondary school has changed the online platform they’re using from X to Y partly because, and I quote, many parents prefer X. A lot of parents will be setting up their lessons on their laptops for their DC. Or in the same room lightly supervising that the work Is being done ... or just in the same room. Some schools say students can’t be on their laptops in their bedrooms. Which limits the areas they can be in a time when many parents are also working from home.[/quote]
It was just a question not sure it warranted the ?

And yes of course primary students are different etc etc but you were talking about 15 / 16 year olds.

Anyway I asked a question, you answered

“I’d make it easy by just looking for Xs in the register”

Won’t that give unfair advantage to all the skivers who have repeated absences for non official reasons?

Surely schools have kept a record of who has had to officially isolate, whether through school or family member?

Also, some parents actively took their dc out of school a week early (unofficially) to “isolate” so they could socialise at Christmas. I’m not sure thosevshould be included!

X is for absence due to covid, skivers should be coded differently.

@Watermelon999

Has anyone actually thought to ask the children what they would prefer as it is their future that it will impact?

Children are normally very keen on justice and fairness as well. I can’t imagine many being very impressed with the latest suggestions as they don’t seem particularly fair on anyone!

I've told my students to reply to the consultation

@Fortyfifty

“I do wonder. There's a question about private candidates and also candidates abroad. When proposing if they should sit the normal exams, I thought there was an option to select 'all students should sit the normal exam' But I might be remembering it wrong.”

I remember that, but I think I’d lost the will at that point! I read it as all of the above, not all students, but may be wrong.

I didn’t think there was any option given to choose to retain actual exams for the majority, it seemed mainly focussed on these external tests and how they should be implemented.

Agree totally with @Fortyfifty and I could have written exactly that about my own DD. The effort these kids have put in is second to none. Are their grades going to be properly awarded and fair?

The kids who haven't engaged throughout Covid (and not due to lack of laptops, isolations, or any genuine reason) are going to gain the advantage here. How do you differentiate between the kids that have genuinely missed out, the kids who did naff all during lockdown, and the kids that do the work and then some.

DD has started to judge herself compared to her peers, how their grades compare and what that might mean for awarded results. She wouldn't do this in a normal year and it's an added stress. On top of waiting for University interview decisions it's a lot for them to cope with.

“X is for absence due to covid, skivers should be coded differently”

Ah sorry, I didn’t realise there was a skivers code!! I can just imagine them sat at home thinking the more school they miss, the more extra percentage for special circumstances they get!

Watermelon999
"A friend of mine is exactly like this. She is desperate for cags and no exams as her dc has been predicted all A* for A level."

But there's no guarantee that the teachers' predicted grades will be the grades that they give if it all comes down to teacher assessed grades, does it? I mean, my kids would love it too...

Does anyone have any info on the correlation between predicted and actual grades? Our school apparently is very good at not inflating grade predictions for UCAS applications, but I can't see that it would be so straight forward as to giving the A Level kids their predictions as the final result.

I didn’t think there was any option given to choose to retain actual exams for the majority

Consultations are always written like it’s a done deal, mainly because it’s a lot easier if you agree with the suggestions and don’t go off piste in your responses.

It’s what we used to teach at GCSE as ‘biased questionnaires’ till the government removed it from the syllabus

@KittyMcKitty sorry, that was meant to be a wink face but seems I pressed the wrong button on my phone!

For right or wrong, I haven't told DD yet that exams have been cancelled...

(she's not in school and we are keeping her away from the news anyway)

Does anyone have any info on the correlation between predicted and actual grades?

About 75% overpredicted, 16% correct if we’re talking about UCAS predicted grades.

No idea about other predicted grades as that data isn’t collected.

@BagFull

Watermelon999 "A friend of mine is exactly like this. She is desperate for cags and no exams as her dc has been predicted all A* for A level."

But there's no guarantee that the teachers' predicted grades will be the grades that they give if it all comes down to teacher assessed grades, does it? I mean, my kids would love it too...

Does anyone have any info on the correlation between predicted and actual grades? Our school apparently is very good at not inflating grade predictions for UCAS applications, but I can't see that it would be so straight forward as to giving the A Level kids their predictions as the final result.

Absolutely, I’ve tried to broach the subject of aspirational predictions for ucas forms but she doesn’t get it. She thinks her dc is nailed on to get 3 A* and isn’t confident they will get that in the exam due to disruption.

To be honest, he is at a private school so may well end up with it anyway but I agree the predicted grades are not a guarantee as we found out to our disadvantage last year, but then we are a very mixed ability school with average results....

Sympathies Teen (we're on the Year 11 thread together so I'm slightly familiar with your situation)

My heart lurches every time there's a change, which was there was on 3 occasions during a 2-week period in Dec/Jan. I had to prepare myself for telling DD (on the autistic spectrum) or for her reaction as she keeps on top of the news herself. She's done incredibly well with adjusting each time so it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I feared, but I know it takes it toll emotionally on her, she just manifests that more internally than she used to.

That's the thing isn't it Stormer . How could they cancel exams without having a reasonable workable solution in place?

They would have been better off saying 'We are doing a consultation on whether there is something better than exams for this year, but for now carry on'.

[quote Watermelon999]@Fortyfifty

“I do wonder. There's a question about private candidates and also candidates abroad. When proposing if they should sit the normal exams, I thought there was an option to select 'all students should sit the normal exam' But I might be remembering it wrong.”

I remember that, but I think I’d lost the will at that point! I read it as all of the above, not all students, but may be wrong.

I didn’t think there was any option given to choose to retain actual exams for the majority, it seemed mainly focussed on these external tests and how they should be implemented.[/quote]
Oh I thought on the private/overseas being able to sit exams, the final option was for exams to be available to anyone who wanted them. That’s how I read it anyway. Not sure it was always evident what the question was.

It’s what we used to teach at GCSE as ‘biased questionnaires’ till the government removed it from the syllabus hmm this would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic.

Indeed Teen. Which is why I think the emotional impact of all the change and uncertainty that the govt have implemented is as crucial a consideration as the affect on academic progress and attainment. (For GCSEs anyway, I appreciate the situation is different for A Levels and my silver lining for DD is that she's not Year 13 at at least).

And I'm not just talking about the impact on kids like ours but also those who are NT and have no diagnosed MH issues. There's a pandemic going on so everyone is anxious. With kids confined to their homes for so long and without other distractions, they're bound to be more introspective and brooding than normal.

teenplustwenty I think that’s sensible. There’s zero benefit saying anything until more is known.

Bloody Boris shouldn’t have announced it either till it was done and sorted.

noble
"About 75% overpredicted, 16% correct if we’re talking about UCAS predicted grades."

Well, we're screwed then aren't we? I mean, screwed some more... Crigh (crying and sighing!)

But UCAS grades aren't predicted grades. I do feel a bit cross about that research being wheeled out to suggest teachers don't know what they are doing. there are multiple variables around a UCAS prediction (which they would stop calling them predictions for start)

My DS1 'underperformed' on all his UCAS grades. I don't think the teachers were wrong and I don't think the exams were wrong (apart from the one that went up on appeal). DS's best self was the UCAS grades. His worst self was somewhere around what he got in his actual exams.