Friday's GSCE Classica exam

[Dixiechickonhols]

Wondering if anyone else's child sat OCR GCSE Classics on Friday.
DD's teacher is due to come back to them this afternoon but not sure if I should be doing anything or just chalk it up to experience.
Advanced notice said there were 4 areas of major focus so teacher concentracted teaching on that - out of the 4 only 2 came up on exam. So lots of what they had been taught/revised was not assessed.
The advanced notice listed low tarriff topics - they had been taught as a brief overview and were anticipating 1 mark question etc. However on day significant part of paper was on low tariff topics so not just 1 mark but 10 marks. Answers required detail that brief overview hadn't covered. This was case for several low tarrif topics.
The final 15 mark essay literature question was a disaster as they hadn't been taught either of the texts. DD Has explained it to me as beng expected to do an essay on Macbeth or Blood Brothers in English Lit with quotes having never read either.
It isn't as clear cut as Physics debacle last week - it wasn't will not be on exam.
I'm not clear what exactly has gone wrong re literature. DD says usually questions are not on a specific text eg question about food and you can refer to literary texts you have studied.
I'm not clear if it is board or teacher error or just one of those things. Teacher is the only one in school teaching this so I assume just his judgment call what to cover.
FWIW DD is at a state school and most candidates for OCR Classics are private school so will have had online teaching throughout covid so I suspect a lot of candidates will have been taught whole syllabus so not as much of an issue that the advanced notice was poor.
It just feels very unfair. At end of day I know it doesn't matter in grand scheme but wondered if I should be contacting school. DD was predicted a top grade and was planning on A Level but is now understandably saying she's not doing it.

Sorry should be Classics in title - typo

Hi, do you know what topic your daughter sat for paper two?

TheAugusta Roman City Life

I've found the specification for the Literary section and it states that the following texts are mandatory and list various texts. The Covid Advanced notice does not reduce those texts (unlike English Lit where they dropped 1 book) and in bold says candidates are reminded questions may target any sources from the specification.
DD is saying they have only been taught some not all of the texts and unfortunately those not covered at all have been the major essay question.
Not sure why all the mandatory texts were not covered.

Ah, I’m afraid I’m not familiar with that paper, but the advanced information for GCSE CC (and lots of GCSEs) was really not that helpful - as you say there was a lot of opacity about what was really ‘low tariff’ and could be safely sidelined for revision. It might be worth suggesting a complaint to the board if the questions were completely unexpected. It’s understandable your daughter is feeling demoralised but she should try not to worry as I think a lot of people will be in the same boat. She should also not be at all put off AL CC if she was previously keen and enjoys the subject; it’s possible to start CC at A Level with no prior study so even if she has had a bad exam here it doesn’t mean she won’t do brilliantly at A Level.

I would be very tempted to complain to school ASAP and request that they will be contacting exam board detailing what they taught!

TheAugusta Thank you for taking the time to respond. I agree from what I’ve read the low tariff is very much open to interpretation. It would have been better if they hadn’t split into significant focus and low tariff and so teacher would have taught same amount on everything (they didn’t have time to cover full syllabus due to covid) and at least candidates would have known to spread revision across whole syllabus.
I’m cross about the Literature as it’s quite clear. It’s in bold for goodness sake that all sources may included. I’m not sure if he has misread Advanced notice or gambled. In previous years DD says essay questions were more generic theme based so they could have referred to any texts they had read.
It’s same teacher at sixth form so she’s adamant she’s not doing it. It’s a shame as she enjoyed it and was predicted an 8 or 9 at GCSE. Her 3 mocks were all that level.

alrightfella yes I’m going to email this afternoon.

I suspect board didn’t cut any texts as most candidates (private schools) will have covered full syllabus so no need.
DD has checked Exam Board specification for some subjects but not classics. He’s an experienced teacher she liked so I think she’s trusted him.

It's not unknown for schools/teachers to make mistakes - there have been cases where an entire year group has been taught an English literature text no longer on the syllabus. I think exam boards are usually helpful where this is the case - they know that it's not the students' fault. So if it turns out that the teacher got it wrong, then the important thing is that the school contacts the exam board.

Ianthanum Yes I recall reading about that in press. We are going to email school that we are aware of issues with exam what steps are school taking? It will be very obvious when marked as no one in class could answer so 0/15 for every candidate in the class for last question. It was an extremely specific text based question. They are usually high grade pupils. One of DD’s friends actually wrote she couldn’t answer as she hadn’t covered these texts.

Just to update we emailed school and I understand other parents have contacted them too. School have replied promptly. Senior leadership inc head are aware and have contacted exam board. Some pupils have been asked to provide all their work which clearly shows they were only taught a few of the mandatory literary texts.
Does anyone know what happens now? I’m assuming the school will be hoping for some special consideration.

Not that it has affected us directly (as DC doesn’t take classics) but I do know in our school the teacher has complained to the exam board as the class has not been taught the test for the last question. I’m sure there will end up being some special consideration.

@Dixiechickonhols just wondering how this all worked out in the end? Did your DD get special consideration?

Not sure. School applied for special consideration. Head rang me and suggested I contact board too. We then had an email from exam board to say they don’t give special consideration for teacher error. But it wasn’t clear if teacher error or board error over advanced info.
Anyway she got an 8 - what she was predicted/her mocks. She is now doing it for A level.

Glad she got the expected grade and can go on to do the A level.