Exams cancelled 2

[Orangeblossom1977]

Started a new thread as last one is full.

It's a mess compounding a mess. In English language GCSE, we always know the questions because they're the same every year (except writing) ... but this is a level of nonsense that even I can't understand.
I actually don't know what I'm for right now.

@Cuddling57

Whaaaaaaat? Where have you read that? Do they provide the answer too

Yes, they'll be releasing the assessment materials and the mark schemes.

It’s actually made me incredibly angry. It’s not fair on all the teachers or the students. So you get kids who have done bugger all work all year who will be able to see the exam papers then potentially do really well with hardly any work or effort. Yet DS has worked his butt off but because his school aren’t using the papers he won’t have that advantage.

@ihearttc In the kindest possible way please calm down. The schools using the exam board stuff will not just be able to grade their kids higher! It doesn't and won't work like that.

There is no guarantee which questions your school will use. There is nothing that ties a grade to any number of marks. Instead it will be grade descriptors. Even then, schools grade profiles will need to be similar to 2017/18/19 exams.

Exam boards are not releasing exams with mark schemes and grade boundaries. They're releasing questions. Most of these will be out there unsecured already should students wish to find them.

It's a bit shit from the DfE but they are correct that solutions would be all over the Internet overnight if they didn't release them. You only have to see how quickly gcse maths videos appear.

I can't even get angry any more. The contempt from government has never been clearer than now.

I’m perfectly calm, just annoyed that as an outsider looking in it appears that Ofqual have absolutely no bloody clue what they are doing. I have a very very stressed DS (who us normally so laid back he is horizontal) who is having exams and assessments every single day and is working himself into that ground when apparently all he needs to look at the exam papers. I have no issue with the papers being published if that’s what they want to do (and I do agree it probably makes sense) but then they should make it compulsory for all schools to use them rather than have a divide between those who are and those who aren’t.

My Yr 11 has just completed his 2nd set of mocks/assessments. For his 1st set of mocks they weren't given a topic list for most subjects as the school wanted to assess them all in the fairest possible way. These mock exams were marked/moderated by external examiners as well. They were given more specific topic areas for some of the subject for his 2nd set of mocks. But by no means all.

Regardless of what's happening in other schools, with other friends Yr 11s, I have absolute faith that my son has been assessed and graded in the fairest possible way. The body of evidence, we were told, goes beyond the mocks but includes work done over the 2 years.

I think if you've done bugger all surely the school won't have the evidence to support highly inflated grades regardless of the May assessment material being released.

I think the issue is different schools are doing different things. DS never had mocks (due in Jan) so pretty much all the data they have are these exams/assessments they are doing currently.

I also have no doubt his school will assess them fairly and it will be a reflection of their real abilities however I still don’t think it’s fair that some schools are definitely going to use this to their advantage.

There is no perfect solution aside from exams, hence why we use exams! It was always going to be a mess.

Exams are not "fair" either. There's plenty of evidence that certain groups and students perform much worse in exams, yet in a normal year no one really cares. This feels more unfair. On the whole it really isn't. It's shit for a lot of reasons, but I'm pretty confident the majority of grades awarded will be a fair reflection of where a student is at.

Aren’t most schools sitting the DfE tests 1st day back after Easter? Ours are. So if papers released to all after Easter there’ll be no time for a teen to go through all the possible exam questions and/or find model answers before their exams as they’ll be in the midst of them. Are some schools doing them much later? In which case the temptation to cheat will be high.

No @NotDonna, ours have just had a full set of mocks so won't be doing the DfE assessments till May.

I really don't understand this government's approach at all. All I can do is put my faith in the ability of teachers to find a fair-ish way through this incompetence and chaos. It feels like a lot to put on their shoulders, though.

@notdonna Your school is going to be forcing its teachers to work over the holiday if they're doing them the first day back.

Also the DfE aren't releasing papers, only past questions. Teachers will decide which ones to set and create a paper.

DH's school aren't using the govt supplied mini exams. He seems to think other schools won't use them as they will be looking to establish a rank order and won't want kids who wouldn't ordinarily achieve top grades to be able to do so. He might be cueing this through the eyes of his selective school though.

I still don't know what DDs college are doing. They've mentioned a series of short exams over the whole of half term. I think they might be ignoring the exam board supplied tests but their plans aren't set in stone and different news comes home with DD each day. It sounds more stressful to have the exact tests and answers to study than being told specific topics to revise.

Oh! So they’re past papers anyway? Or questions from past papers? So the teens could have come across them & been practicing them anyway ? Or even had them in mocks? I’d assumed the exam boards had written new questions.

There were no mocks for yr13 or yr11 so our school are doing these 1st day back after Easter but are currently doing classroom tests this week and the next 2 weeks. Then after Easter the proper mini assessments over two weeks, then another week of classroom assessments if not enough data for any reason (isolations etc).

It wouldn’t surprise me if our teachers were working over Easter tbh. They’ll be putting the papers together and marking 3 weeks worth of assessments, depending on how much can be done prior to breaking up. They’re looking surprisingly upbeat & spritely considering!

DS’s school are doing mocks straight after Easter and then doing the assessment tests just before half term

DDs college has not had mocks and it is not doing any exams it is calling mocks. The first exams/tests they take will be after Easter.

Given the varying timings it does seem likely that some will cheat. There’s a lot at stake and the temptation will be high. Do those doing the tests later could be hugely advantaged.

I've got DC in both GCSE and A Level years. Still unclear here as to how they plan to assess either. There have been no mocks yet and DD1 (alevel) has just been told that, for English at least, the work/essays she submitted during lockdown will not be taken into consideration. This is a great shame for her personally as she worked extremely hard and thrived under independent learning (I realise not all DC are the same) and had managed to bring her grades up from low B/ high C to consistent A / A*. All now counts for nothing.

It now sounds like the school are planning to give grades based only on assessments done in school between now and May half term. There's a high chance DD will crack up/fluff up/give up (or a combination of all 3) under the sustained pressure of "achieving" consistently in all these constant mini assessments and exams. She's already on a high dose of medication for anxiety, after a breakdown in January.

DD2 (GCSE) has a first set of "mocks" starting next week. They have been told there will be a further set of exams in early May. She is putting herself under immense pressure to revise constantly and has started exercising and calorie counting obsessively.

The whole thing is an utter mess. They should never have cancelled the proper exams. If the damage caused to the MH of my DC is indicative of the nation of 16 & 18 year olds at large, we are going to have a serious problem on our hands.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/plans-to-allow-pupils-to-see-exam-questions-is-branded-a-car-crash-x7p22nf63

"Teenagers will get advance sight of “exam” questions on which their teachers are likely to base GCSE and A-level grades.

Ofqual, the exams regulator, said it would lead to a level playing field because the questions were otherwise likely to have leaked to some pupils.

Education experts warned that it could benefit children in more affluent areas who could be tutored to rote-learn the answers."

Oh for goodness sake, what is even the point in doing those exams?

I assume the same could be said for mocks as aren’t they usually past papers and the marking guides will be online. Wasn’t this an argument that people worried about last year as some pupils’ mock results are skewed by learning past papers, and the mock results would have been used for the teacher assessment

"David James, deputy head of Lady Eleanor Holles School in west London, said the plan was “unbelievable” and Stuart Lock, chief executive of the Advantage Schools trust in Bedfordshire, described it as a “car crash”.

A spokesman for Ofqual said: “We have decided that the materials should be published in this way because once they have been made available to teachers it will not be possible to stop them being leaked, particularly once they start to be used. Some students would then have early access to the materials – giving them an unfair advantage.

“A wide range of questions will be made available by exam boards so while students will have access to them all in advance, they will not know which ones if any their school or college will use.”

Surely that would result in the most able memorising the questions and answers, getting A grades and others less able floundering?