Improving on mock A Level results in the real thing

[Autumnalleaves]

DD has just done her mock A Levels and got the results back for two out of three of them: B, B, when she needs A star A A for her first choice uni. The third subject, that she hasn't got the results back for yet, is her strongest, so hopefully that will be at least an A in her mock.

Her predicted grades are A star /A for two of the subjects and A/B for the third subject, so in theory A star A A should be within reach. But the mock results are worrying me a bit (trying to hide this from DD!).

She did actually revise and work for her mocks, so it's not as if she was lazy /just needs to pull her finger out for the real exams.

How common is it to improve a grade from mocks to the real exam? Any experiences welcome!

Do not worry. She has another few months to go to get more support and revision. Mocks are rarely a true representation of the real exam because of time constraints. Mocks help see areas for improvement.
Also, grade boundaries change every year, so thise could be A grade in the summer!
Trust her to do the work. Mine eventually ignored the school's requirement to be in to do revision and did more at home and got better results.

Also, grade boundaries change every year, so thise could be A grade in the summer!

They don't change that much though. AQA Biology (subject picked at random) was exactly the same last year and the year before for A and A star.

Can you find out her mark and can she get sight of her papers to see where she missed mark? There will be paces she can improve and that is what she needs to work on. I think mocks at this stage often are a pretty true rep of the real exam tbh as most of the spec has usually been covered so it’s likely that the exams set are pretty close to the real thing in terms of content and length.

But yes for sure there is always a way to improve. She should talk to her teachers to find out what she can do. What are the grades for her insurance choice?

Yes, she's aware of the grade boundaries in her subjects and they are fairly steady year on year. I've seen her detailed marks and some feedback from teachers in at least one subject, and I'm pretty sure she will have got similar in the other one, and is going to discuss 1 to 1 with them in the coming days.

I can't actually recall exactly what the insurance uni offer is but I think it's either AAA or AAB 😬. She is really keen on her first choice though...

I think rule of thumb is that students typically improve by a grade between mocks (although that is for mocks in November or January so she has less time) and real thing. so it is definitely possible.

Has she been over her papers and discussed with teachers to see where she lost marks and how she can improve?

Also consider if any of her subjects have coursework and how she is doing there - will this pull her overall grade up?

If you're happy to share what subjects, posters might be able to share specific study tips. Improving a maths grade is different to improving a History grade, for example.

She did have coursework for one of the subjects, and got an A, so that's good, although it wasn't on the A star /A borderline so she still needs to do really well in the actual exams.

The teachers are very good and specific about what to improve, although it feels like she was already trying to address areas they'd flagged at the last parents' evening and so was disappointed to get Bs.

@Autumnalleaves you don’t have to say obviously, but yes, if you could say the subjects people might have more targeted suggestions on how to improve. I could certainly do that for my subject (former classroom teacher).

Also and again understand if not, but if you say what uni her first choice is posters might have anecdata about flex in offers. Certainly in the last couple of years some unis have accepted lower grades especially in certain subjects and I don’t see that changing. Obvs if she is aiming for vet med at Camb or maths at Imperial then flex is less likely.

If you don’t want to do that, my advice, on top of the ways to improve her grades, is certainly have a look at some possible unis whose offer may be lower. If worst case happens and she gains BBB, and is rejected by both choices, it’s really helpful if she has researched alternatives so she has some idea of where to target in terms of clearing on results morning. Ask me how I know.

Would rather not say the subjects (trying to keep this username non-identifiable!), but I think it would be very unlikely there would be wiggle room on the offer, if she missed a grade.

We do have a spreadsheet of the standard offers for her subject from a range of unis (from when she was deciding where to apply in the first place), so that will help with a Plan B for clearing if necessary!

Anyone got any reassuring - or not reassuring - anecdotes of DC who did differently in their final exams compared to mocks?!

Obviously I appreciate that not everyone gets their mock mark in the final thing, but not sure whether most get the same, or there's often changes. Also appreciate that there are lots of variables factors as people have said, like when the mock is, and what the teachers actually set...

My experience is that PGs are often ahead of actual achievement (based on my own DC and also their peers). Sometimes they are spot on. Rarely are they below (in fact I can't think of any I know about although I am not talking about a massive data set).

Both my DC who took A levels got mock grades close to their final grades, as far as I can recall. I cannot be certain as PGs loomed larger, probably bc of uni applications. But data from others just adds to the picture; it doesn't mean your DC cannot do differently.

I think the best thing she can do is take feedback from teachers, look at where she can improve, work on that and have a pragmatic approach to alternative unis.

Thanks. Is "PG" an acronym for some other phrase for mocks?

She's now got her third subject mock result back - an A, and close to an A star. But that does mean that she needs to go up a grade in all three subjects to get into her first choice uni 😬😬

Any other experiences welcome!

Pg = predicted grades

Oh of course, thanks

You might find this https://www.ucas.com/media/208116/download interesting.

It not only shows how few students get predicted grades (30% within 1 grade in 2024 - they should probably be called "aspirational" grades), but includes a table showing likelihood of a student offered AAA being accepted based on achieved grades.

Yes indeed. Most teachers tbh will predict “what they will get on their very best day” which is understandable. I have known students even ask teachers to predict higher so they can get a uni offer. That hasn’t often ended well.

My DD got way below her PGs; Ds2 got exactly his IIRC but it was 2021 so an odd year. A lot of their peers generally did not hit their PGs.

So what I am saying @Autumnalleaves is it’s best IMHO to focus on mocks and what can be made better rather than PGs and how to achieve them. If that makes sense. If there will not be any wiggle room (and bear in mind that there has been a lot more in the last couple of years than (say) seven years ago when DD was applying; unis like Nottingham and S/hampton and Liverpool, anecdotally, have been accepting lower grades) then it makes sense to have some alternatives in mind – while of course doing her best to pull up her current grades. All the best to her.

Has she finished the content in any subjects yet - or close to it?
Hopefully that will be soon, and then the rest of the time will be spent on class revision and practice questions, exam technique etc.
It is often still the exam technique causing issues at this stage rather than actual knowledge.
It really is a hard slog from now until the end of exams - practice and revision.

Thanks, will look later when I've finished work

Her school actually do two types of predicted grade - the ones that go to UCAS, which is the most optimistic, and then we also get a more realistic predicted grade. So I think the ones we got for her were

Subject 1: A star /A (they think A star is realistic)
Subject 2: A /A star (they think A is realistic)
Subject 3: B/A (they think a B is realistic)

So A star A A isn't completely unrealistic, according to her teachers (not the grades submitted to UCAS). Although clearly a push for subject 3 in particular.

Pretty sure they have finished all content. She met one of the Subject 3 teachers last week one to one for specific advice which she said was really helpful, she's got a one to one meeting today with a Subject 2 teacher, and hopefully the revision classes will help.

She does have a bit of a track record at pulling things out of the bag at the last minute but we do clearly need a Plan B, and Plan C, depending on how Results Day pans out...I think she's not at all complacent. Although even if she works her socks off that of course no way guarantees better grades....

Although even if she works her socks off that of course no way guarantees better grades

If her work from now on is carefully targeted at what needs to be done, she should at least see an improvement. Ofc that might be from a low B to a high B which isn’t much help. But it’s more likely IMHO from what you sy to see a grade uplift.

At least if she puts the targeted, focused work in now, she will know she has done all she could, which is what you would want to see.

The one to one sessions with subject teachers will no doubt be beneficial.
My dcs spent a lot of time completing past papers and looking at the mark schemes and examiner reports. Dd took maths and further maths and she found online videos solving certain types of problem very useful.