A'Levels 2022 - Exam? CAGS?

[AreWeShafted]

Sorry if everyone knows what's going on BUT..... What's going on next yr for A'levels? are they going to be able to sit their exams? I'm sure I heard something about, them sitting exams but it will be based on a reduced curriculum etc . I dread our dc being shafted again with bloody CAGs/TAGs whatever. The lack of exams had an awful knock on effect on uni admissions this year which I'm hoping won't be repeated next year.

AFAIK no one has said so we don't know.

IMHO they have to have exams in some form - if only bc the current yr 12 haven't done any public exams (not their fault of course). But also - well, for all the reasons why we ever do exams. It has to be possible next year.

Equally I think that the difficulties this year - missed time, remote lessons - must mean a scaling back of either content or breadth or volume - something. So for example I am expecting that Eng Lit will be reduced in terms of texts; MFL (my subject) will see perhaps a dropping of the speaking element again and perhaps more choice of questions, in case topics have not been covered.

I also think the last 12 months have shown the value of teacher assessment - not the dreaded controlled assessment, so easy to fiddle, but a genuine element of input by teachers "this is what I think this student should/would achieve" - teachers by and large have integrity and in any case, if this element were combined with a public exam it would be impossible for them to say everyone would get a 9. What it would do is offer some support to those who really struggle with exams.

Don't get me wrong, I am a believer in the rigour and equality of exams, but they are a one size and it does not fit all. And I speak as a parent of an exam-panicker and an exam puller-of-it-out-of-the-bag. (sadly the panicker did exams and the puller is in yr 13. Ah well.)

@clary
my worry is the cancellation of exams and teacher grades have somewhat inflated the numbers attaining high grades leading to universities getting nervous about numbers. Some top Unis this year had weird outcomes for some students, strings of A’s at both levels but rejected due to overwhelming numbers of applicants. I’m sure this had a knock effect on all universities. Those that would normally take lower grades now expecting higher? I haven’t heard any evidence of the middle to lower range Unis doing this BUT it’s common sense.

What a bummer for your DC though! I hope whatever they end up doing that they are able to get the grades they need for where they want to go. This has been all round crap.

It is going to be interesting, I guess if the virus is under control they will reduce the breadth of the course. If the virus starts going out of control who knows! My two are doing A levels and GCSE's next year, I would hope they get some idea of anything being dropped fairly soon. To take the stress away.

The sooner we know what’s happening the better. Leaving everyone in limbo till the last minute is counterproductive. If they are going to examined on a slimmed down syllabus then schools need to know now so they focus on the right things. At the moment, they’re battling to make up for lost time and trying to cover length and breadth of every subject.

It's not the inflation of grades that's the issue so much (inflation was inevitable if you measure everyone on a "good day" scenario) but the lack of moderation between schools. So a student going to School A could get a higher mark for the same standard of work as a student going to School B.

If next year's results are based on any element of teacher assessment (and my DC's teachers are tentatively suggesting they think there will be a hybrid model of exams/TA) then moderation is the thing that absolutely has to be got right. Many of the current Year 12 lost out at GCSE because they went to schools that moderated down in good faith prior to submitting CAGS versus those who went to schools that submitted aspirational CAGS with no internal moderation. Not any of the schools' faults- they were told there would be standardisation across the board. But it absolutely can't happen again.

Agree @UserTwice it has to be moderated. There has to be rigour. But it is the case that some teens do better in class than they can show in exams, and I think there is scope for acknowledging that.

As far as this year goes, I am not specifically aware of issues with unis, tho I am sure there will be some. But fir the majority that I know, they have got offers as expected.So Ds2 has AAB/ABB for biology at RG unis (and Loughborough, not RG but his first choice). That's what I would expect, he should/could get that. Other pals of his are holding similar offers or offers related to their predicted. It will be OK.

There’s been numerous posts from parents on MN and on the WIWIKAU FB page about Durham uni for instance, who rejected a number of students with straight A’s and four A*s at A’level. Bath uni (someone posted the message on MN) sent out a message that said implied it might not be able to meet all its offers 😲, I think I read something about Birmingham as well, St Andrews is doing something unusual with its offers too (example on WIWKAU). I’d like to be told it’s all rubbish really but not surprised if it’s true.

@AreWeShafted

There’s been numerous posts from parents on MN and on the WIWIKAU FB page about Durham uni for instance, who rejected a number of students with straight A’s and four A*s at A’level. Bath uni (someone posted the message on MN) sent out a message that said implied it might not be able to meet all its offers 😲, I think I read something about Birmingham as well, St Andrews is doing something unusual with its offers too (example on WIWKAU). I’d like to be told it’s all rubbish really but not surprised if it’s true.

Well that Durham one I assume is related to last year, or do people mean predicted?

I am sure anyone with four A* at A level will gain a place at a good uni 🙄 as you can see I am a bit hmmmm about that one.

All ds2's mates have got the offers they would get in a regular year - so the lad who was shooting for the moon with L'boro (usual offer for his course AAB, his predicted BCC) didn't get an offer, but he has offers from Notts Trent and somewhere else good.

Last summer there was a lot of noise about people who's offers were messed about, and while that was appalling, if you looked closely, it was the same few people. For the majority it will be fine this summer. If ds doesn't get his place, it will be because he hasn't worked hard enough to get his AAB.

aaaargh whose offers not who's obvs

It was on the this yrs thread called ‘New beginnings’ ?? or something (thread for Oxbridge rejects this yr, sorry but couldn’t remember the thread name). It seemed a lot of strong candidates had been rejected not just from Oxbridge but from all the usual fall back Unis because They seemed awash with A* ‘predicted’ candidates. What do I know .

Sorry I am not saying you don't know, I am just a bit suspicious of these sorts of stories. I reckon anyone who has an actual A level set of four x A will be able to get into a decent uni. And if they are predicted 4 x A they will surely be getting offers. DS2 has offers from Newcastle and Leeds with AAB prediction. So with four top grades predicted you would have a shout at Bristol or Imperial or whatever is considered "better" than those.

The only people he knows who haven't had offers this year are those who put in a massively optimistic "aspirational" application where the typical offer is 3-4 grades above their predicted, so they were rejected. Which even he agrees seems fair enough.

They wanted ‘Durham’ in particular not just another uni and I suppose if it’s true, it would be unusual for Durham to reject such a strong candidate. Like I said, I don’t know for sure what the story is, I suppose you have to take most stories at face value when you’re online or else you’ll go mad wondering what the truth is.

Have you actually seen the thread I’m alluding to? Some of it was quite depressing. I do feel sorry for all the hard working dc caught up in this. Let’s hope next year is a lot smoother.

no I've avoided the higher education uni threads, I find them a bit hideous tbh.

Just had a quick look and can't see it, I am intrigued now :)

It’s called, ‘Another path to greatness’. It’s an interesting read. I read more than I post on the higher education threads and have learnt quite a lot from them. There are a few highly pretentious know-it-alls, but you just ignore those. Most are just parents genuinely looking for advice or just sharing their experiences.

I emailed Ofqual about it and they replied saying they're not even thinking about it yet. The next day they told the i paper that there would probably be some changes. They haven't started consulting yet though so they will come too late in terms of making a difference in terms of teaching. We won't hear anything from them at all about this until next academic year I suspect

That's depressing GrammarTeacher. Sadly gives the air of "let's cobble something together at the last minute again". Teachers (and students) really need to know now if there will be changes such as reduced curriculum.

@GrammarTeacher

I emailed Ofqual about it and they replied saying they're not even thinking about it yet. The next day they told the i paper that there would probably be some changes. They haven't started consulting yet though so they will come too late in terms of making a difference in terms of teaching. We won't hear anything from them at all about this until next academic year I suspect

Yes that's my expectation too. It's extraordinary isn't it, as THE most important people going forward are the current yr 10s and yr 12s. Schools have been handed the job of assessing this year's exam classes, so I find it amazing that Ofqual haven't even thought about this.

Students in year 10 are really worried. Wonder why the body that should be sorting it isn't doing anything.

Am shocked that Ofqual are ‘not even thinking about it yet’. How can they not be? By now they should have concrete plan in place of what’s going to happen. They’ve seen what happened last yr, hopefully they’ ve learnt something from it i.e the the algorithm was lacking and teacher assessments are more accurate. This yrs plan should be a lot easier bearing those in mind and more predictable. Next yr should be easier because hopefully there will be no further lockdown so they just have to make up for what students may have missed in the curriculum this year. I don’t understand why they don’t have an emergency team setup within the department focussing on plans for the exam yrs affected.
How can students be expected to remain on task, focussed and motivated with so much uncertainty around their education?

@AreWeShafted they haven't even opened the consultation yet. Yes, that's right they are sleep walking into a third year of disruption. They've managed to off load the blame to teachers for this year. Nobody seems to care. Please write to your MP about this. It is awful!

What I would say is that current year 12 students need to assume 2022 exams are going ahead as normal until told otherwise.

DS2 is in year 12 and his school have been clear that students actually need to be working harder than previous years due to the missed lesson time.

I am expecting DS to work hard for his year 12 exams and he will be expected to have a revision timetable in place as soon as he goes into year 13 in September.

[quote GrammarTeacher]@AreWeShafted they haven't even opened the consultation yet. Yes, that's right they are sleep walking into a third year of disruption. They've managed to off load the blame to teachers for this year. Nobody seems to care. Please write to your MP about this. It is awful! [/quote]
Have to admit that I naively thought that next year would be the year that it would be "got right" on the basis that there was no way they could mess around the current Year 12 for a second time after the fiasco around their GCSEs. I know every age group has it hard in different ways, but if Ofqual are not even thinking about this yet, this cohort are really the year group being sacrificed.

@SpringTides5 of course. Except this is highly unlikely given the disruption. We'll have a similar situation to this year where things are removed from the specification but at too short notice to make a difference as schools don't teach things in the same order. It won't be fair.
Grading will also be interesting in the light of the 2020 and 2021. These things should have started being planned for as soon as they realised the current 12s wouldn't have GCSEs. We were assured by the SoS there was a plan B ready to go. This took 4 months to materialise. We are expected to respond to their judgements far quicker. I have huge anxiety over how this is all going to play out

The view of the head at DS's school is that exams will go ahead in 2022 with a reduced specification and possibly other easements.

His position is that until we have further details, the best thing that DC can be doing is working hard and assuming that exams will take place next year.

The best thing for Y12 parents to do is make sure your DC has a study and revision routine in place (both after school and at weekends) and are working hard. That is the only thing that they and we can influence.

The decision of reduced coverage will come too late to help unless parents of year 12 and 10 join us in asking Ofqual what is happening.