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

[LetterOfTheLawFella]

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?

No, I really help and support my kids learning. I know this puts them at an advantage.
However I’m not going to allow them to cheat on exams, never mind help them do this!

@Caswint wow, calling us all liars?! Don't you think it's more likely that the people who would cheat are just not posting on this thread to admit it? (Apart from a couple)

Any tiny advantage in grade you might gain is thoroughly wiped out by the example you set to your child and potentially the shame and guilt they will carry by knowing that they've cheated. I absolutely wouldn't help. Exam conditions are exactly that. Would you encourage your child to sneak cheat sheets into an invigilated exam? Because this is exactly the same.

I think that most posters are lying, OP. I suspect that, yes, most parents would help if they could (giving more time, pointing out errors, etc). I'm not supporting that, but it's probably true.

But why do you think most posters are lying? Why would people need to lie about this on an anonymous forum? Is it because you yourself would cheat but don't want to admit it, so you assume that everyone else is the same?

Is it really so hard to see that some parents don't see exam grades as the be all and end all? That many people think other things are more important, like honesty, self-esteem etc. Is it hard to believe that some parents actually trust their kids to get through the exams without the need for cheating?

[quote LetterOfTheLawFella]@bravefox I hope that is the case

@DifficultBloodyWoman thank you for providing your perspective. My plan is to get dd to do a couple of different papers first and go through any errors with her before she attempts the assessed one.

I'd be interested to know how many of you who would absolutely not help your child have children taking their exams this year.[/quote]
Going through other papers with her is an excellent way to help her.

When you check them afterwards, please pay attention to the areas in which she makes mistakes (not only the exact errors). This can show you if she needs more help with, for example, grammar or vocabulary or how to structure an argument.

Please do not worry about how other parents may or may not be ‘helping’ their children. Comparisons to other children will not help your daughter. However, if you really can’t shake that concern, email the teacher to see what they say.

If I were to receive such an email, I would explain (more nicely than I did above) that I can usually spot cheating a mile off and it will result in a big, fat zero. Then I would explain that I can best teach your daughter if I know what exactly she does and doesn’t know (with or without the building block analogy as above). Then I would make what I hope would be helpful suggestions for you to assist her in learning he language.

So, with that in mind...
Languages are ‘use it or lose it’. If you can speak the language, speak it to her every day. If not, watch movies, listen to the radio. Build the language in to your daily life. Obviously, holidays are probably out at the moment.
‘Chunking’ can be useful - learning specific phrases that be used in arguments and as transition markers. These include ‘in my opinion’, ‘on the other hand’, ‘in contrast’, ‘in conclusion’ etc.
Read. Read, read, read. The newspaper, online entertainment news, what ever she is into. Is she a fan of a particular music group? Then start googling their French/German/Spanish/Whatever websites. This is a great way to learn the phrases she will need for writing and to extend her vocabulary in subjects that she is actually interested in. And the exposure to grammar in practical use will help familiarise her with it even if it something she hasn’t been explicitly taught yet.

Good luck

For context, I'm a teacher and marked state exams at the end of the last school year. Cheating was pretty common. Not by much, and except for a couple of outrageous cases, impossible to prove. Again, I don't like it, but I don't think that the op is wrong to think it's happening.

Your daughters exam results should be the least of your worries if you haven't taught her right from wrong.

@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!!! It’s cheating. I can’t believe you don’t know this.

@Caswint

For context, I'm a teacher and marked state exams at the end of the last school year. Cheating was pretty common. Not by much, and except for a couple of outrageous cases, impossible to prove. Again, I don't like it, but I don't think that the op is wrong to think it's happening.

Fine, but you just called us all liars.

Again, I don't like it, but I don't think that the op is wrong to think it's happening.

I totally agree that it will happen, but it's a pretty big leap from that to say that most parents would cheat and that those of us who say that we wouldn't are lying.

I'm really glad that my dd did her mocks in school before Christmas and proved what she was capable of then. I'd hate to think of people assuming that it was me doing the work for her.

How much help though could parents realistically be helping though - how much French do they know and how to do it to actually aid and be of help.

Not only is it cheating but I suspect could make the mark worse by putting your child off and telling them incorrect answers

Coursework wise I check for silly mistakes - I am an editor by trade and I am happy to edit work but not change it. I guide the editing as well

I hope everyone remembers to make them do their mock exams in a room without a computer (or computer is switched off) or books that could help? And remove their phones? It’s about preventing them from cheating too. I’m sure a few kids, under the stress and pressure that they’re under at the moment, would be tempted to have a quick Google. So it’s not necessarily about helping them directly, it’s also about not facilitating indirectly.

I’m not sure I’d be much help even if I was inclined to ‘help’. Certainly not in maths or any of the sciences. I could possibly spot a spelling mistake but that doesn’t seem to be a problem these days anyway.

But there will be kids getting help most certainly. Most likely scenario would be the parent revealing the question(s) to their child in advance of them ‘sitting’ the actual exam thus allowing them to pre-prepare some answers in advance.

Nope. As had as it is.

Are you serious? Why?

@Quartz2208

How much help though could parents realistically be helping though - how much French do they know and how to do it to actually aid and be of help.

Not only is it cheating but I suspect could make the mark worse by putting your child off and telling them incorrect answers

Coursework wise I check for silly mistakes - I am an editor by trade and I am happy to edit work but not change it. I guide the editing as well

If it is a past paper the marking instructions will be available online. Reading and listening really easy to look at.

[quote LetterOfTheLawFella]@bravefox I hope that is the case

@DifficultBloodyWoman thank you for providing your perspective. My plan is to get dd to do a couple of different papers first and go through any errors with her before she attempts the assessed one.

I'd be interested to know how many of you who would absolutely not help your child have children taking their exams this year.[/quote]
Seriously?? You are still wanting to cheat? After everything everyone is saying? Even after what difficultbloodywoman said you are still trying to cheat. I hope you do and I hope bloodywoman is her teacher and throws the book at you!
I’ve a yr13 and yr11 doing exams this year. It wouldn’t enter my head to ‘help’ them. Neither would they allow it! They had some assessments at home last year during lockdown and both took down their notes from the walls etc. I didn’t need to ask them. They each wanted to know how THEY performed. I’d be livid if they ever cheated.
Without integrity you have nothing.
You have zero integrity and neither will your child. All for a 4 in French.

Past papers (under exam conditions) are the best way of revealing gaps in your knowledge. Don't ruin this opportunity for your DD by helping her with the paper.

I'd be interested to know how many of you who would absolutely not help your child have children taking their exams this year

As I explained up thread, I didnt help DD wirh her SATS papers last spring and yes, they don't have the gravitas that GCSE or A Levels have but are used to inform the secondary of where she is at. What is the point in cheating and distorting her actual ability?

As I also asked earlier - are you reading people's responses? I strongly disagree that we're all liars on here so perhaps speak to the school, explain your concerns and get some reassurance on this. Helping your DD to cheat is not the answer.

@LetterOfTheLawFella

all her peers who are not cheating

Do you really think all her peers won't have help? Are you all saying you wouldn't do everything you could to support your child to do the best they can?

Cheating isn’t supporting your child to do the best they can. If you want them to do the best they can, then you leave them to complete the paper by themselves in the time specified. Anything other than this is teaching your child that cheating is ok.

I wouldn’t cheat because I would want my dcs to respect me. I would be concerned that my dcs would question my moral judgement in the future.
Last year my ds took his year 10 Summer exams at home. He did very little revision and as a result ended up with grade 5’s and 6’s. This is from a child who was getting grade 7’s and 8’s prior to the first lockdown .
He was very upset with his results and so this year he has been working really hard .
Don’t get me wrong, I was sorely tempted to give him a CPG workbook and let him get on with it, but I wanted to teach him the importance of hard work.

Seriously?? You are still wanting to cheat? After everything everyone is saying? Even after what difficultbloodywoman said you are still trying to cheat. I hope you do and I hope bloodywoman is her teacher and throws the book at you!
I’ve a yr13 and yr11 doing exams this year. It wouldn’t enter my head to ‘help’ them. Neither would they allow it! They had some assessments at home last year during lockdown and both took down their notes from the walls etc. I didn’t need to ask them. They each wanted to know how THEY performed. I’d be livid if they ever cheated.
Without integrity you have nothing.
You have zero integrity and neither will your child. All for a 4 in French.

When the OP said she would get her DD to do a couple of different papers first, I assumed that they were other, different, old papers. Not the one that will be assessed.

Doing other papers is helpful. But doing the same paper under non exam conditions only to repeat it later under exam conditions would be cheating, in my opinion.

@LetterOfTheLawFella

all her peers who are not cheating

Do you really think all her peers won't have help? Are you all saying you wouldn't do everything you could to support your child to do the best they can?

It's not doing the best THEY can though is it?

DS1 is in Year 13 so would be doing A-Levels.

No, I absolutely would not help him cheat in the exam.

I would and I have provided him with as much help as possible to do the very best he can.

I wouldn’t. But I would worry that others would and that it wouldn’t be a level playing field.
Not sure what the answer is