Exams cancelled 2

[Orangeblossom1977]

Started a new thread as last one is full.

In your friends case, she presumably still got a degree.

This year exams wouldn't have been fair for a different reason. You could never have accounted for all the different circumstances. This is the least worst option in the situation. Kids bomb out in exams every year.

You're right that the biggest difference is between a 3 and a 4, particularly in English and maths. Those conversations and decisions will be the hardest to make.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-56580864

Stress caused by all the testing this year.

Not sure why just focusing on Wales as it is happening in England too

So my DD has just finished two weeks of 'formal assessments' in other words mocks. And she tells me that some of her friends have downloaded the 2019 papers and mark schemes that were used and have essentially cheated. I - being furious - email the school to be told the papers are available to all and any anomalies when the marks are worked out will be flagged and disregarded. What the actual f*ck . Have the new informal assessment papers been released yet? There was talk earlier in the thread that the papers would be online and available to all to read. It feels like my DD probably needs to be looking at these otherwise she's going to come off badly against her cheater friends. Where can I find them, I don't want to do this, but feel there may be no choice now .

Papers become available on the Awarding body websites very quickly - always within a year of the series. The "board provided" stuff is on the secure sites now, so not yet publicly available.. I think that April 19th. For us, there's absolutely no new material.

@MrsHamlet

Papers become available on the Awarding body websites very quickly - always within a year of the series. The "board provided" stuff is on the secure sites now, so not yet publicly available.. I think that April 19th. For us, there's absolutely no new material.

I read on Twitter, that the content for Eng Lang mini assessments is old qns. Does this mean old qns from the current syllabus, or current and legacy syllabuses. Btw, my ds is doing AQA Eng Lang and Lit.

In my subject (AQA) the papers from 2019 and 2020 are still locked on the secure site, but the "assessment pack" (which won't be shared with students until the 19th) contains some questions from 2019 and 2020, although these are not identified as such -- you would have to have the papers they were extracted from to be sure.

I must say that our minds were slightly boggled when we realised we might be marking work where students had seen markschemes, but on the other hand, most of the marks are for analysis and evaluation and the markschemes do not tell you how to do that.

A weak student who has attempted to memorise a markscheme will still produce weak work, just with more keywords in it.

The concern would be where a student has asked someone else to create an answer and then memorised that, although you could compare to previous work -- which I imagine a lot of us have samples of due to all the online learning.

I haven't looked properly as we're not using them - but the mark schemes are the same every year for Lang and Lit anyway

Mine's Economics so some of the questions do have specific letter or number answers.

Maths you can memorise a mark scheme but there's so much available it would be impossible to predict what your school will use. We've also changed numbers on some questions to put off the cheats!

Kids who cheat generally give it away by writing marking codes with answers, eg 32 nfww or 14.8 cao.

@Phineyj

Mine's Economics so some of the questions do have specific letter or number answers.

The bad thing about AQA gcse economics is no past papers to refer to. I use Edexcel IGCSE on my DS, but it does not replicate the 6/9/15 markers. But these are easy to make up, as it’s the nuances of the mark scheme that need to be followed. The 15 marker is nasty though 🥵

@Phineyj

Mine's Economics so some of the questions do have specific letter or number answers.

What do you mean by ‘number and letter’ answers. Do you mean the MCQ qns as on the specimen paper

I thought our school was using them but I’m not too sure. They said they might ages ago. Either way if the papers aren’t been publicised until 19th April both my DDs will be in the throes of sitting them by then. I’m still wondering how much this matters. Within a school hugely. School to school comparison possibly not.

I mean as in the 2 mark questions have specific numerical answers and the MCQs have letter answers. So a student could attempt to memorise those. I was keeping my response general as this is a general thread.

I am personally not using MCQ to assess as I don't feel it's fair to expect students to revise the entire course in these circumstances and there are not many suitable MCQ if you choose by topic from exam board ones.

MrsHamlet or the classic when work is completed on a computer - cut and paste different fonts. Or correctly used semicolons!

@portico try the shop on Tutor2u Economics and I think there may be papers 'in the style of' AQA GCSE Economics.

[quote Phineyj]@portico try the shop on Tutor2u Economics and I think there may be papers 'in the style of' AQA GCSE Economics.[/quote]
Thanks, will do. It will save me making up my own qns

We have turnitin in school and I've been known to run all manner of stuff through it. That weeds a lot out!

Can I just ask a couple of things please?

We have been given topics to please study for the exams, does this mean they only have to revise those areas or not?

Also there was something about the exams being published online at Easter is that happening or not? Thanks - bit confused here.

The ABs are making materials publicly available from the 19th, I believe.

@MrsHamlet

The ABs are making materials publicly available from the 19th, I believe.

Thanks.

So is it worth them doing lots of revision over the holidays given that the assessments are being published on the 19th?

@Orangesandlemons77 if your DC have been told to cover those topics I’d expect that’s all they’ll be tested on OR that they are weak in those areas and need to ensure they’re stronger as those are topics likely to be tested. Either way, they should probably focus their efforts in those areas. My DD doing GCSEs has also been given areas to concentrate on, some subjects are because it’s all they’ll be tested on (history topics) or because they’re a bit weak (areas in maths). For the latter, she needs to revise all maths topics not just the areas that have been high listed whereas for history she can totally focus on the topic areas only.
Yes, the exam boards are releasing their papers on 19th apparently. It all sounds a bit of a gamble to be looking for them as no one seems to know whether they’ll be used or not anyway. My DDs sit their main exams week commencing 19th so they’ll definitely be unseen for their cohort. I doubt many in her cohort will face time to look them up whilst in the throes of exams.

"After Easter, as we consulted on, we will also be making the optional exam board assessment materials available openly in order that students and others can access them, and so that will be happening after Easter - the delay is there to obviously try and avoid students sort of cramming with them over the holidays which we didn't think was a healthy thing we wanted to encourage"

www.tes.com/news/gcses-2021-car-crash-plan-share-test-materials

How will they ensure all pupils in particular less affluent / advantaged have full access to this to ensure a level playing field?

[quote NotDonna]@Orangesandlemons77 if your DC have been told to cover those topics I’d expect that’s all they’ll be tested on OR that they are weak in those areas and need to ensure they’re stronger as those are topics likely to be tested. Either way, they should probably focus their efforts in those areas. My DD doing GCSEs has also been given areas to concentrate on, some subjects are because it’s all they’ll be tested on (history topics) or because they’re a bit weak (areas in maths). For the latter, she needs to revise all maths topics not just the areas that have been high listed whereas for history she can totally focus on the topic areas only.
Yes, the exam boards are releasing their papers on 19th apparently. It all sounds a bit of a gamble to be looking for them as no one seems to know whether they’ll be used or not anyway. My DDs sit their main exams week commencing 19th so they’ll definitely be unseen for their cohort. I doubt many in her cohort will face time to look them up whilst in the throes of exams.[/quote]
Thanks, this is info given to the whole class so not individual, just wanted check not missing anything. It all sounds quite a muddle doesn't it, adding to the stress..

Ours also start the 19th..