How to get high a-level predicted grades

[TealDeer020202]

My school has tightened up the predicted grades systems - we used to add one above the mocks if the teachers thought you could improve in a year's time or even 2 (but obv a lot rarer). e.g. you got an A in the Y12 summer mocks you could be predicted A star.A. This normally worked decently but did not work very well for last yr's graduating class as many underachieved. I've read posts from ppl at other schools who say their schools refuse to predict A star* unless they consistently achieve A through the yr or get A in the Y12 summer mocks. But given you just started A-Levels how are you meant to achieve A work consistently in Y12 right off the bat. I don't remember getting grade 9-level essays in until the summer term of Y10 for GCSE. For context I do History, politics (both aqa) English lit and RS (both ocr).

I find this rigidity around predicted grades very odd. If a student is applying for courses the school thinks they have no chance of achieving the grades for, they need to have the conversation with the student. If they think they can achieve the grades they should predict those grades imo. By "can" I include the work rate. So it might be that a student has the potential but with their work rate they won't achieve the grades- this means that student needs advice about which courses they're applying for.

They used to be quite loose about them but for a supposedly selective school our grades have taken a significant dip recently and the school giving PGs that were off the mark meant some had to go through clearing; insurance; whatever - more than normal. Hence to cover this they've tightened up the system

My daughter was predicted ABB, needed AAB. Her teacher was happy to change it to AAB as her results were improving.

In the end she got AAB but the B was actually in the subject she had been confidently predicted an A in initially.

That was this year.

@TealDeer020202 my dc is at a selective school too. They get 2 a "projected" grade (what they are likely to get on current trajectory) and a UCAS grade (which is +1). They are given stats on how many students previously met their UCAS grade and advised to choose courses realistically - a combo of aspirational, realistic and insurance to cater for all eventualities.

Many who don't get their UCAS grades nevertheless get onto their chosen aspirational courses if they are not oversubscribed by students with the required grades.

My son’s 6th form don’t ever predict A stars. It’s a fairly low achieving 6th form with small numbers so I get why but still frustrating non the less.
DS was predicted AAA but needed A-star AA to even have a chance of getting an offer so got immediately rejected(Sport Science at Loughborough so massively oversubscribed).

He ended up getting A-star AA so took a Gap year and reapplied again with grades in hand and got offered within 2 weeks. So doing that is always a possibility if it’s a specific Uni/Course that they really want.

You should complain to the school about this. They are letting students down. UCAS advises schools to give positive predictions.

Could it be that the sixth form are concerned that they over- predicted grades last year, rather than most of the year underperforming. So they are adopting more conservative predictions.

If you look at the recent results I think there have only been 1/2 A stars in the last 5 years.

I argued with them about it at the time as it was literally the only reason he didn’t get offered. He had no teacher for the subject that he got the A star in for the whole of Y13 (he taught himself the whole second year content with a tutor once a week), so we had no one to back us up. It all worked out in the end, DS started at the end of September and is loving the course.

It's a terrible system IMO, if you don't have A stars you don't have a chance in some cases. Comp Sci at many of the top unis for example. Predicting grades is all over the place as grade boundaries have been so inconsistent and the whole thing needs rethinking.

I'd say a bit of both.