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Original poster

dd given a past paper to do at home under exam conditions - what would you do?

134 replies

LetterOfTheLawFella · 23/01/2021 20:53

dd was meant to be taking her gcses this year but obviously things have changed. She's been struggling with French and got a 3 in the mini mock she did before Christmas. This was the higher level. We talked about maybe doing the foundation paper instead and it looks like her teacher is thinking the same as he's sent an email asking parents to supervise her doing a foundation level past paper under exam conditions. 45 minutes and no external support. He's confirmed this will be used as part of the teacher assessment.

Would you help your child in this situation?

OP posts:
PenguinLost · 23/01/2021 21:27

The teacher will know if she's cheated - they will know the level that she's currently working at, and what her strengths and weaknesses are. If her paper looks markedly different to her usual style then it will be obvious.

Is the risk really worth it? If centre assessed grades are used then it will just be one piece of evidence that goes to the overrall grade. What is the school's policy on cheating? Could she be expelled if it came to light?

She will find the foundation paper much easier to complete than the higher one as the most difficult questions will be at a 5 rather than 9 grade. Surely better to let her do it independently and to be proud of herself if she does better than expected - much better for her self-confidence.

You can, of course, help her with revision!

ilovesooty · 23/01/2021 21:28

@LetterOfTheLawFella

If the teacher wanted to ensure strict exam conditions why wouldn't they have got the students to do the paper during a video lesson. It feels like an opportunity for some parents to help.
Only if the parents are all like you. Hopefully most of them don't condone cheating.
StepOutOfLine · 23/01/2021 21:28

@LetterOfTheLawFella

If the teacher wanted to ensure strict exam conditions why wouldn't they have got the students to do the paper during a video lesson. It feels like an opportunity for some parents to help.
Because unscrupulous amoral parents would help them during that kind of test too.
ktp100 · 23/01/2021 21:28

@LetterOfTheLawFella

What about this scenario - dd does the paper in the right conditions and you see she has made some silly errors. Would you say/do anything?
No.

A mock test is a leveller of where they are currently. They need to know this so they can put measures into place to make improvements.

Lucieintheskye · 23/01/2021 21:29

OP how much of a control freak are you that you can't even let your daughter do a test by herself in case she makes mistakes? Fucking hell let her live if she gets a bad mark no one will die!

bravefox · 23/01/2021 21:31

He's confirmed this will be used as part of the teacher assessment.

I wouldn't spend too long worrying about this @LetterOfTheLawFella . Ofqual haven't finalized how teacher assessment is going to work and their circulated proposal is to use data from assessments students will do in May and June.

WTAFIhavelosttheferret · 23/01/2021 21:33

WFF is the mumsnet advert on this thread- but as a post rather than an advert box

Access a Mumsnet exclusive GCSE survival revision bundle from Your Favourite Teacher

Please dont- you do not need to do this at all. I can't see any declaration that it is a paid advert.

Shocking- no-one needs this- it is all freely available via. achool or online.

OppsUpsSide · 23/01/2021 21:34

Can you imagine having the GCSE’s your mum ‘earnt’ you? I’d never undermine DD like that.

beelola · 23/01/2021 21:34

The teacher will absolutely know if she cheats. You haven't been in the lessons to know how things have been taught so will almost certainly have different knowledge than your DD. Plus it shows really crappy morals and isn't actually helpful long term.

TonMoulin · 23/01/2021 21:34

My dc is doing their gcse this year too.
The teachers know very well that the students will access to things they don’t normally have access to. There is little they can do about it.
Even with a video in, they can open another tab, have notes next to them etc... and the teacher won’t be able to see anything.

They KNOW. And tbf asking the parents to check ‘it’s like exam conditions’ is crap. Because many pupils won’t parents next to them. I certainly won’t be behind my dc when they are doing a mini exam like this.

As for helping.... I think Google translate is her best friend there.

Jinx2020 · 23/01/2021 21:38

Our school has a policy currently going though the system for when we suspect parents are helping at home with work to be completed under exam conditions.

Sad this is needed . . .

Ritasueandbobtoo9 · 23/01/2021 21:43

Sad as fuck, your daughter needs to learn that what she learns is on her, you are extremely pathetic if you help.

timeisnotaline · 23/01/2021 21:49

Take home practice papers have been around for ever, the teacher assumed you realised this! And no to ‘if you saw mistakes...’ how would you see mistakes unless you were looking at it? My parents wouldn’t look at it if I were doing a test paper in exam conditions because I wanted to much less if it were because the teacher had set them. That is normal parenting to me. You can help her revise, prepare. IF chest sheets are allowed you can help her prepare those, she should know whether they are or not. And when she hits start you disappear from the room for the duration of the test. You don’t bring drinks, snacks, advice, headache tablets, you don’t step foot in the room.

LadyCatStark · 23/01/2021 21:54

It’ll be really obvious if she suddenly gets a much higher grade surely!

MrsTerryPratchett · 23/01/2021 21:55

We actually rang 2 parents this week to say "you did really well in that test, but next time could you let your son do it please?"

Brilliant!

clary · 23/01/2021 21:56

I would help her in advance by going through what she needs to do, making sure she has revised some key areas (verbs and vocab) and then on the day I would make sure she had a quiet space and equipment as needed.

What is the point of doing it for her or telling her what the words mean or giving her a dictionary (or whatever else you mean by "help")? Honestly I despair.

KaptainKaveman · 23/01/2021 21:57

Don't be thick OP. Of course it's wrong to help your dd cheat. And please be honest - by "help" you mean "cheat".

She'll remember that you taught her to cheat. She'll know you didn't believe in her and that ultimately you were dishonest and a liar.

Your attitude make me sick. Just do.the bloody paper yourself FFS if it bothers you so much.

clary · 23/01/2021 21:58

@MrsBennettsSecretSon

My DH is a languages teacher

He always laughs at how obvious it is when kids have been helped, giveaways are vocab that has not been taught, verbs in tenses that are not even part of the curriculum, phrases used by the older generations, things lifted from Google, google translate, kids going from a 3 (not knowing how to conjugate avoir in the present) to getting an 8 and using subjunctive faultlessly Grin

It’s really really hard to cheat well

Good luck with it. Hope she does well. Can you help her revise instead?

Yes. This. It won't serve any purpose to cheat for her as the teachers will know.
FudgeSundae · 23/01/2021 21:58

You’re teaching her that it’s better to cheat than get a low mark. How is that going to help her in life? How is she going to feel if she does get low marks in future? Will she know to study harder or will she just give up or take shortcuts. Look beyond this year and think what you want to teach your daughter.

mufffintopandheels · 23/01/2021 21:59

The whole point of the practice paper it to give the kids an idea of what the real thing will be like, and to also highlight weak areas so they can be worked on.

Helping her complete the exam will serve no purpose whatsoever other than making her either look more capable than she is, or make you look like a cheat.

Scalphelp · 23/01/2021 22:21

In the kindest way possible, GCSEs are piss easy yet your daughter is already struggling?

Go ahead, let her cheat her way to a-levels and university if you must, but don’t act shocked when she drops out or fails because she can’t cope with the content as it’s too advanced for her.

ForeverBubblegum · 23/01/2021 22:46

Even if you take all morals out of it, it's a really bad idea. The teacher will spot it a mile off and if they suspect cheating then they will have no choice but to base their assessment on the work done in school. As you already know she didn't do well then, all you would be doing is jeopardising her opportunity to improve her grade with the foundation paper. Encourage her to prepare for it, and make sure she can do the best SHE can.

Also, it's GCSE French, does it really matter enough to set such a terrible example. I could understand if it was maths/English, so likely to hold her back, but what difference will it really make if she bums at French. I'm assuming that she won't be studying languages at college (don't seem to be her strong point), so let her experience a minor failure if needs be. Once she has the next level of qualifications, no one will care what grade she got in an unrelated subject at GCSE.

Hersetta427 · 23/01/2021 22:53

Surely you mean should I help her cheat? Let's not be disingenuous in your intentions

RoSEbuds6 · 23/01/2021 23:01

Nope - a really crap example to set for your child.

LolaSmiles · 23/01/2021 23:07

Think about it another way, mock papers are typically used for teachers to assess strengths and weaknesses so they can intervene.

Would you be happy to help your child, give the teacher an inflated picture of your DC's ability and the outcome be that as DC is on track for a 4/5 they don't require any intervention? Then at the 11th hour schools get told how grades are awarded and it could be anything, but your child hasn't had the help they need because you cheating on their mocks prevented them getting the help they need to get the grade they were capable of.