A Level English Literature - predicted grade

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Hi Wise Mumsnetters. I need both help and perspective here. DD, having achieved A* for both GCSE English Lit and English Language, is studying A level English Lit. She has consistently had "C" grades for her course work. After her Feb report, I spoke to her tutor, and asked if we needed to hire an outside tutor, and also, for advice on where she is going wrong. I appreciate that A levels are a step up, but she can't improve her grade without some input. Was clear that future intentions are for her to study journalism, so a good mark in English is important for her to obtain university / course place. School responded saying that English department felt that a C grade at that stage was a good place to be and are not concerned about academic achievement - no need for a tutor. DD continued to engage with feedback, and subsequently achieved both A and B grades for course work at school. Got a C in her recent exam, and predicted grade is now B. This will be used for UCAS application, and now means that she probably won't be able to attend university of choice. I completely realise that these are all first world problems, but I am so angry and frustrated that we flagged this to the school some time ago, and they basically said, "It's all fine" and now it's not fine, and it's too late to hire her a private tutor etc as she is stuck with the predicted grade. Part of the problem is that one of the teachers simply doesn't like her. Thinks she's too opinionated and knocks off marks when her opinions don't align with his (even though hers are supported by quotes from the work in question etc)

Moving forward - how to handle this with the school? Also, any advice on how to move forward with uni applications? She is predicted A and A* on her other two subjects.

What has she got in mocks? Course work surely isn't the only thing that's used.
It's a horrid system here and it's so stressful for both the kids and teachers. There's many many tears on results day when it's gone wrong and schools have been too generous with predictions. Massive scramble for clearing places ensues.

This sounds stressful for you and your DD! So I don't think the teachers will be comfortable to predict A* (or even A) if she got a C in her mock, unless there are extenuating circumstances. Generally it's usual to predict one grade above for UCAS. A Level Literature coursework is only worth 20% of the grade, so unfortunately a better grade in that may not be enough to get her prediction boosted to an A.

If you think that a teacher is unfairly marking her, you need to raise it with the head as that's quite a serious allegation. It's worth asking if the mock exams were moderated within the department and, if necessary, requesting a re-mark.

Has she considered taking a gap year? Then she can apply for uni with her A Level grades secured. I know that it throws up logistical challenges, but if she's keen on journalism she could potentially get some useful work experience in the industry during that year, too.

My DD is also studying English Literature A Level off the back of 9s in English at GCSE.

She also started the year getting mostly Cs in her work, which subsequently improved to As and Bs. So very similar to your daughter and I don't therefore agree that the school gave you bad advice. The issue seems to be that C in her exam. May be worth unpicking why this happened? It might be worth discussing with the school whether they will up her predicted grade if her course work continues to be a a higher level. Are mocks sufficiently early for those to be used for predicted grades rather than Year 12 exams? What about any mid term assessments.

Literature at A level requires students to have a really confident grasp of the assessment objectives and how they're tested in each question.
I'd strongly recommend getting hold of past papers and mark schemes and examiners' reports and using those to work out what's currently missing.

Hi OP and sorry you and your dd are facing this issue.

Agree with PP, raise the issue about the teacher with the head or head of sixth form. And @MrsHamlet as ever has good advice re improving her grade.

Couple of points from me – my DD took eng lit A level on the back of an amazingly high 9 at GCSE (like, almost 100% mark); throughout she was predicted AAA or maybe AAB – her uni offers were on those lines but for various reasons (and I am not saying she was mispredicted – more that she had various exam disasters) she gained BCC.

If she was effectively over-predicted then it did her no favours – and the same with peers who got sixth form to raise their predicted grades. So she ended up through clearing getting a place at Uni of Leicester which was really good in many ways and she found her focus or mojo again and ended up with a first – so a good outcome despite what seemed a disaster. I realise this is the opposite way from your DD but I am trying to show how a top prediction is not always helpful.

Second thing – journalism courses don’t tend to require A-star A-star A grades; where is she thinking of applying? Tbh I would advise her to study Eng lit at uni (or whatever subject is her passion), as journalism degrees are not needed for a career in the industry and kind of mean you cannot do anything else. There are so so few roles for a journalist nowadays so a regular degree subject then maybe a post grad in journalism is perhaps a better idea. Happy to advise further on journalism tho.

My current year 12 students got GCSE grades of 6 and above.
They have target grades ranging from C to A*.
In their mock, they achieved grades E to B.
Their UCAS predictions will be D to A*.
A GCSE grade 9 is a world away from an A* A level, which requires criticality, informed judgement, nuance and extremely confident handling of the assessment criteria.
Question B in my paper is 50% AO1 and 50% AO5. We've we been through it countless times. Bob, however, decided to write about AO3 instead of AO5 and Bobette didn't attempt it at all. She tells me it was "too hard".
We're just under a year away from the exam. The level of maturity required at A level will come, but it takes time and skill and focussed effort. Bob will never make that mistake again.

They go through the marks at my daughter's school but she does find it difficult at time to see what she's done wrong (and what she's done right)! But she is predicted in line with what she got in her mocks, though she did say a fellow student was predicted and 'A', even though she has never achieved it in an exam. The teachers have said they mark harshly (said now, as they are halfway through the actual exams)
As you are writing this now, there is time to increase her predicted grade before it's actually submitted. Does the school allow for improvement over the last bit of this term and first half of next?
And agree with PP. I don't know any journalists who have a degree in it, though a few did a masters at LCC and other places after studying something else (like MFL) as an undergraduate.

At my DC's school a few year 12 students are allowed to re-sit individual subject exams at the start of year 13. If they've improved their predictions for UCAS are increased. You could ask the school if they'd do something similar. It would mean a lot of work for your DD over the summer though. Or suggest she takes a gap year before University, so then she wouldn't even apply to UCAS in year 13. If you can afford it, get her a tutor through year 13 to show her where she needs to improve, then hopefully she can get the A she needs and apply to where she wants to go with that already in the bag.

Thank you all for your thoughtful and helpful responses. I will be back to answer individual questions tomoz (nightmare day today!) but you have all given good advice and much to think about and I’m so grateful to you all - thank you.

DD got a 9 for her lit GCSE but found the first half of year 12 quite a struggle. I think it was mainly down to the fact that what they are after in a level questions is quite different. Once she got the hang of it her marks started improving and she got an A star last summer.

She’s just finished her first year of a joint honours in English lang and lit and has complained that she’s had to forget everything she’s previously been taught about writing essays because a degree needs a different style of answering again!

Worth asking for her overall folder and essays to be looked at by the hod/hof/ someone else if that's her teacher, often slt used to be head of English so highly likely someone is well placed to. Use that and the support of the head of Sixth form to change the predicted grade. You have until December too or even Jan for ucas deadline so I doubt it's hard and fast yet, keep improving and her teacher might up it anyway.
I have taught and written ucas refs for about 15 years so I'm sure the above will work! If it doesn't go higher again, but head of sixth should be enough. Only once you get a senior person to agree her work is a or a star standard though not now.
So 1 daughter sets out to impress the one who doesn't like her, writes in his preferred style
2 get a senior opinion on her prior work
3 show evidence to hof / hoy
4 go to head if still not happy

Worth bearing in mind that the person who knows the mark scheme best isn't necessarily the most senior member of staff....plenty of SLTs with no English specialists. PE seems to be the most common SLT specialism, to be honest....

Yep. You could ask every single one of our SLT, which includes an English teacher, and they'd defer back to the teacher. The English specialist SLT has never taught A level lit.
The HOY is also not an English specialist. I'm not sure what a physicist would make of an essay about Hamlet...

Derailing the thread, but this (former) physicist would probably have enjoyed it. There's an argument (maybe a bit of a bonkers one) that all the astrological imagery, plus the setting in Denmark, is a reference to Tycho Brahe's new worldview. Now that I teach philosophy instead, I do like the line "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so" (which for years I misquoted to students as "Nothing is or good, or bad, but thinking makes it so" which I am convinced scans better...)

Read the mark schemes. Learn the mark schemes. Memorise the mark schemes.

DD got an A at GCSE and is predicted an A at A level. (Got 99% last year in AS level and got 94% in coursework)

Her internal school exams have ranged from 60% - 90% and every single time the grade has been low it’s been about technique or detail in the content.

You really, really have to spell it out for the examiner. The best advice my DD was given is to assume the examiner is thick as mince and has never read the book/play/poem. She found it particularly infuriating during coursework because she had to set aside her natural flair for writing to write to the mark scheme. It took A LOT of re-writes and edits, but it worked in the end.

Exams are the same - you have to write what the mark scheme wants. It’s formulaic in many ways and that’s weird for students who have a natural flair for writing, but it’s necessary. The flair can get you to the top of the top mark bands, but you won’t even get into the top mark band if you don’t include the content in the right way in the first place.

Pop in to my class - we'd love that :)

Clearly that should have said that she got an A-star at GCSE and is predicted the same for A level. (Stupid formatting!)

@MrsHamlet Of course, any time!

On the substantive point, you really do have to write to the mark-scheme. Now that I teach an essay subject, I frequently tell my students that the class has two overlapping but not identical aims; to learn about the subject, and to get good A-level grades. As PP have said, sometimes it's the brightest who go so far off-piste in their essays that the mark scheme can't see them.

Bobette on the other hand.... 😄

I've taught Bob and Bobette. Many times.

Bobette is a law unto herself. I could have eleventy million conversations with her about it, and she'll still go her own way.
The now defunct AEA was excellent for the sharp ones who refused to hoop jump - you could get a B in the A level and a distinction in that. And then A* came in and all was lost.

Yes that's why I said a specialist English lit teacher ie HoD or maybe a previous English HoD who is now in slt. Doh.

OP you mention your DD got an A star at GCSE, is that an iGCSE or from outside England? DD is at a grammar and all had to get high grades to study, a couple who moved from a private school and had done iGCSE have struggled more so wonder if that syllabus makes it an even bigger step or just a co-incidence. Most in DD’s class did the numbered GCSEs so had 8s or 9s.

I would also say the mark scheme is important to understand. Reading the critics as well. The school should provide exemplar answers and also give tips on submitted essays as to what is needed to achieve a better grade, DD also found class based peer marking helpful, it helped her know what to look for in her own essays to improve them.

I am sure Dd said one of the AOs was 13.5% for one of the questions (?!). Knowing the exact proportions of each AO for each question is critical. When her teachers used to mark her work they would tick sentences and put AO2 etc next to the tick so they were totting it up and it was drilled into the class. It feels a bit wrong that you can’t free-flow your thoughts in an essay and I expect there is a certain amount of unlearning if they do English Lit at university.
I am an ex teacher of science and she’s ok at that but I know she’s exceptional at English. She got 99% overall at A Level last year. Dd is also (very) opinionated like your daughter but made it fit the mark scheme.

Just be careful how you come across when discussing this with the staff at the school. As they may dig their heels in terms of the predicted grade - especially if you come across as overly pushy not listening to the professionals.

Hope you get somewhere with this.