Exams cancelled 2

[Orangeblossom1977]

Started a new thread as last one is full.

@Blubell46 I feel exactly the same not helpful with the media harping on that all exams are cancelled and people commentating that the teachers will be handing out grade 9/ A* like smarties.

I have a year 13 she had A levels mocks in September, another round in April and exams in May/June. All in the school hall, candidate number etc. The government might want to call them assessments but they are formal exams.

On top of that so many timed tests/essays throughout this year plus NEA to finish.

I can't wait for mid June when this is all finished. I just hope my DD gets what she needs for uni and that the year 13's have a better uni experience than the last year group.

@portico
I think that depends on how well schools implement the assessments. The local private school has had an organised system of online learning and they've now ticked all the boxes re. assessments and can relax, our state school not so much...at all.

It's a bit of a derail, but I'm not convinced by assessments instead of exams. I took O levels but my grammar school was one of the test groups for GCSE and for more coursework/assessments to be included as part of your grade. I wasn't convinced, I had working class parents who'd left school at 14, I very much felt at a disadvantage to many of my peers who had parents who had (lots of) input into their coursework. I think that was one of the reasons for the return to 100% exams.

I can't wait for mid June when this is all finished

Our yr11s are being kicked out the second week in May. They asked for the assessments to be delayed, so they could have more teaching to catch up first, but it wasn't an option. I worry that they will go on to A levels with huge gaps in their learning.

@SusannaMorvern I posted on another thread that I know a couple of local schools where the year 13's have finished already! I'm not sure how they have managed to cram all the the assessments in such a short time.

I agree with you that some pupils in year 11 will have gaps in their learning but hopefully they will make up ground over the 2 years before their A levels.

DD’s exams start on Tuesday, they are practically GCSEs. Exams finish 18th May. Last day at school 28th May, with an A level induction week mid to end of June. All rather bitty as there are gaps between exams and official end of school and then again a gap before A level week. I sort of underarms the gap after exams but to continue with school after exams for nearly a week I don’t get. DD hoped to get a summer job but the stop start seems to not be helping.

My year 13 dd finishes college on 14th May! We have no idea yet which assessments they're using for grades and dd hasn't yet firmed any uni places as she has no idea which to aim for. It's a mess...and dd's mental health is all over the place so these last exams could be the lowest result of them all

Ds1 had his final assessments week before last
They are in college until mid June so who knows what they are doing till then!?

I think I've worked out why my DDs school is doing what it's doing. It's because they've got a sixth form! To study at said sixth form you need at least a 6 in the subject you want to study. Everyone's had to apply and last week they got a letter saying they've got a conditional place or they haven't. My DD got a conditional place so I presume they've looked at her grades and think they're happy to give the grades she needs in the subjects she's applied to study. This is good I think?!

@HappySonHappyMum That sounds positive!

My DDs 6th form have dropped their entry grades - they only need four 5s, including English. No mention on Maths. DD has taken this to mean they don't expect anyone to pass Maths.

I think they're just desperate to fill the 6th form, which is ridiculous because it will end up with people dropping out. If it's because they're going to give out super low grades we might as well give up now!

Ours requires five grade 6s, including in the subjects they want to study (except a 7 for maths)

[quote SusannaMorvern]@storminasnowglobe

You have a yr11 and a yr13?! Oh my, I don't envy you, just a yr11 in this house, which is stressful enough.[/quote]
Ditto! Yr13 & Yr11 is not plain sailing. It’s interesting to see how each year differs at the same school too.

Interesting how some of these schools are lowering their entry criteria for 6th form - especially no mention of a maths grade at all.
Ours hasn’t changed it’s criteria.
It’s a very difficult comparison between yr11 public exams and this year’s assessments. I actually think it’s very similar within our school. Perhaps this isn’t the case nationally though given the differences in what schools are doing. If the schools could cherry pick the evidence then it’d be very different, but given that the whole cohort has to sit the same exams and quite a number of them there really isn’t much difference.

I know every school is doing something different in terms of assessing the child.

Who will determine the grade? Will it be each board who determines each band grading or is it the school?

It's the department, using the grade exemplification from JCQ. It helpfully tells us that a 9 will be better than an 8.

...and an 8 a bit better than 7! Who’d have guessed! This is really unfair on teachers and schools not just the students who seem to be drip fed - because govt haven’t got their act together!

The frustrating thing is there’s nothing anyone can do other than suck it up. There’s no one ‘proper’ to complain to. The lack of design is the issue. We’ve no idea how it’ll pan out until results day. The objective was to ‘level the playing field’ but I really can not see how this is happening.

Interesting how some of these schools are lowering their entry criteria for 6th form

Ours hasn't changed, but has added very strict criteria for taking 4 A levels. I suspect they know they will have to spend a portion of time catching up. Last year they were lenient and ended up taking on students who probably wouldn't have got in on a normal year and they have struggled.

Parent of yr 13 and yr 11 here. Next 3 weeks is full exam schedule here. So worried about it all, praying my yr13 gets the uni grades he needs, and my poor yr 11 is frantically trying to revise all his subjects. His grades so far going into exams are not great because they used mocks from nov 2020 to calculate them and he was ill with covid so did no revision. His assessments since then have been great but his mocks have dragged down his average so much. Mine both leave 28th May, prom in July.

@Blubell46

I know every school is doing something different in terms of assessing the child.

Who will determine the grade? Will it be each board who determines each band grading or is it the school?

There will be teacher assessed grades based on three pieces of work which will be passed on to their exam centre who will then give the final grade. This is the process for my child who attends an online school, not sure about other schools

Year 11s formal assessments start this week. He’s currently trying to learn 30 quotes for GCSE English literature as well as everything else. Are all schools still doing this considering they were going to be open book if exams hadn’t been cancelled? Seems really unfair.

Why 30????
Open book exams are really no easier than closed.

Do they need 30 quotes? Oh dear! DD will be learning a lot less than that.

Three weeks of solid assessments and then she's done. I've told DD that the teachers have a pretty good idea already if where she is, so not to revise too much. She would get all worked up, become stressed and do poorly in the assessments as she'd be panicking. It's so odd to encourage her not to revise in order to get the best from her.

@MrsHamlet he’s just told me it’s 8 per character so actually more than that!!! Is this normal?

@NotDonna

Interesting how some of these schools are lowering their entry criteria for 6th form - especially no mention of a maths grade at all. Ours hasn’t changed it’s criteria. It’s a very difficult comparison between yr11 public exams and this year’s assessments. I actually think it’s very similar within our school. Perhaps this isn’t the case nationally though given the differences in what schools are doing. If the schools could cherry pick the evidence then it’d be very different, but given that the whole cohort has to sit the same exams and quite a number of them there really isn’t much difference.

I wonder if they'll be a massive drop in the number of kids who take Maths A Level.

DS doesn't have a 6th form, so he had to go elsewhere. I know his Maths teacher has been doing extra lessons for the different abilities in her class, so consolidation for those who are struggling to get the grade 5-6, another for those hoping for a 7. And then another group of those hoping to continue to A Level. She's been a godsend to be honest. Maths is the only subject I'm not worried about with DS 😭

[quote Tonylepony]@MrsHamlet he’s just told me it’s 8 per character so actually more than that!!! Is this normal?[/quote]
No. Anyone who claims there is a set number of quotations needed is making it up.
Which board? Which paper?