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Secondary education

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Original poster

E in GCSE mock exam?!

26 replies

MrsSnape · 23/01/2009 13:24

My mum received a special card in the post yesterday from my sisters school saying they were extremely pleased with her work and efforts and she had acheived her target grade in her mock exam.

My mum was over the moon until that night she was told the grade was an E!

Why is an E even a target grade and why on eartth would they send home a card as if it was a good grade??

I know the school has very low expectations of its pupils (only 10% pass GCSE benchmark, special measures, VERY disadvantaged area...) but E??

OP posts:
ForeverOptimistic · 23/01/2009 13:26

Oh odd.

If that is all she is capable of and has worked hard to achieve that grade I could understand but from what you are saying it seems as if your mum was expecting your sister to do better than that.

ForeverOptimistic · 23/01/2009 13:27

I meant "how odd", I don't know where the random "oh" came from!

Katw3kitts · 23/01/2009 13:27

Eh ???

Call the school... sounds like madnrss if an E is to be congratulated !

violethill · 23/01/2009 13:28

I guess that was her predicted grade based on various data. I'm surprised they would congratulate her on just achieving it though, and not exceeding it.

For some kids, and E is a measure of what they can genuinely achieve. And that's fair enough - there's no point having a grading system otherwise.

Of course, some one will be along in a minute to say it's all down to crap teaching, the entire state system is a mess, and how their little darlings are all getting A * yawn puke!

Original poster
MrsSnape · 23/01/2009 13:29

We were all expecting much better, this was supposed to be one of her best subjects. It's very hard for my sister to concentrate in the class (which resembles a zoo at its best) but we thought she'd get a C or a D at least.

Apparantly most of the kids in the class failed the exam completely so to pass at all seems like an acheivement.

She is hoping to get on to a graphics design course at college but with grades like that she has no chance

OP posts:
violethill · 23/01/2009 13:35

Oh dear. Is there any chance of getting some extra tuition? Obviously a move at this stage is out of the question. Some really carefully targeted one to one tuition, not masses of it which could be costly, but just focusing on where she's falling down, could make the difference of two grades. It really isn't too late. It sounds as though the school isn't going to any help, so your mum needs to address this separately. I know she shouldnt have to, but tbh it could be a really good investment to get your sister on the course she wants.

It'll all get much better at college hopefully

violethill · 23/01/2009 13:36

P.S. Lots of practice papers too.... you can download them or buy useful guides and stuff quite easily.
It's not ideal at all - I would be spitting if I were your mum or sister- but I think she needs to focus on working independently, with hopefully some extra tuition, to get herself that C grade

bagsforlife · 23/01/2009 13:40

Which subject is it in? Can she up the grade by good coursework or anything?

Original poster
MrsSnape · 23/01/2009 13:45

It's history. She struggles terribly with maths (as do I) so we're expecting a very low/fail grade in that.

The school is useless, they no longer have a French department as they couldn't keep a French teacher long enough and they only got two options in year 9. My sister's are travel and tourism (of which she has no real interest) and history.

Her English isn't great either so the most we can expect for that is a D. Science teacher says she is more than capable of gaining two GCSE's in Science...we were under the impression this meant c-type grades but by the looks of things, this could mean E's again which to this schools seems like an acheivement.

She doesn't care enough to do extra work at home, I have given her all the sites for GCSE work but she says "I'll do them" and never gets around to it

OP posts:
CarGirl · 23/01/2009 13:48

If she will struggle in English then she isn't likely to great in History exams either because they are mostly written essays still aren't they - or not?

edam · 23/01/2009 13:49

Oh dear. I can see why she might have been turned off if her school's so terrible. Presumably you've explained that she needs to work on her own if she's going to get into the graphic design course? Could you contact the FE college and explain that your sister wants to do this course but goes to X school - if it's local they will presumably know how bad it is?

Heated · 23/01/2009 13:52

Or do the college do an access course?

Original poster
MrsSnape · 23/01/2009 13:53

We have phoned the college and spoke with them. As soon as we said "she goes to x school" the woman said "oh dear" so its well known what it's like

We have tried to explain to her that she needs to work extra hard to compensate for such a crap school but it goes in one ear and out the next. I don't think she fully understands...I think she thinks college is like school, you automatically transfer.

She also suffers from aspergers so it is hard getting through to her. All she does is listen to tetris music on her laptop all night. she says she has no time for anything else but she does manage to keep her homework up to date at least.

OP posts:
Original poster
MrsSnape · 23/01/2009 13:53

They do do access courses but its a very popular college and quite hard to get in so even for the lower courses, she's going to be up against competition

OP posts:
CarGirl · 23/01/2009 13:57

Perhaps you can get her into college using her aspergers dx as "special needs" IYSWIM?

bellabelly · 23/01/2009 14:06

I can't understand why the target grade is coming as a surprise to you? Target grades are usually worked out at the start of Year 10 (using data from Y9 sats results - not sure how they'll do it now sats have been scrapped!) and should be referred to often at Parents evenings, on reports, etc etc. There's no way your mum or your sister should have been unaware.

GCSE pass can be anything from A* down to a grade G. For some students, even a G grade represents a real achievement.

For what it's worth, I always told students taht they could expect to achieve at least one grade higher in the real exams than they did in their mocks (assuming they keep on revising and turning up to school).

bellabelly · 23/01/2009 14:10

PS - I also think that the school is doing the right thing by saying "well done, you have achieved your target grade" - what should they say, "that's a terrible grade - shame you aren't a bit brighter"? I'd be very careful before being too negative to your sister about it, encourage her to aim for a C but don't rubbish what she has actually achieved so far. Sorry if that sounds preachy.

Original poster
MrsSnape · 23/01/2009 14:15

No I do understand and agree that her efforts should be recognised, especially when she is working in an environment where chairs and tables often go flying, year 11's are bursting into the classroom fighting and even the teachers walk out (20 teachers have left the school since september) but it just seems such a shame.

The school really are useless, at the last open night my mum was told that my sister would definately be given French as an option in year 10...then it turned out they didn't even have a French teacher!

Her SATS were not that good, she got a 3 in maths, 4 in English and a 5 in science I think.

Cargirl, unfortunately it's proving a nightmare to get the aspergers 'officially' diagnosed and until it is, they don't recognise her as special needs.

OP posts:
CarGirl · 23/01/2009 14:23

I think you need to focus efforts on getting her diagnosed so that she can access college courses once she leaves school. Perhaps she would be able to resit her GCSEs at college and there she would achieve some C grades?

Milliways · 23/01/2009 16:27

A lot of people improve between Mocks & real GCSE's. Maybe she can be encouraged that she has already got to an E, with a big effort she could get to a C by May?

Bumblelion · 23/01/2009 16:33

My DD has just received her GCSE mock results - luckily for her she wants to do HD in Photography at College and is doing a BTEC in Art at school (which she has already passed). She needs 4 GCSE passes at A-C grade to get into the course (for which she has now received the offer letter) and the BTEC Art is worth 4 GCSEs. At parents evening last week they said that all GCSE results should be 1 grade higher than the mock GCSEs. Unfortunately for her she got a U in Maths Now looking to put her into the foundation level rather than higher level (which we have both been asking for, for 2 years) and we would rather she got a C in foundation level rather than anything less than a D at higher level.

In my mind (historically from my 'O' levels), anything less than a C is not a pass.

I have told my DD (and the college has also recommended this) that if she does not get a C pass in Maths and English (looking at a B for literature and A for language) she can re-sit the exams as any future employer will want a C pass in both these subjects.

scienceteacher · 23/01/2009 17:00

Without commenting on the actual mock grade and whether it should be congratulated by post, most pupils move up a grade or two between the mock and the real thing.

twinsetandpearls · 23/01/2009 19:55

If one of my students beat their target grade I would send a postcard home. I teach two bottom sets where some of my students have targets of Fs so it they achieved an E I would send a card home.

PandaG · 23/01/2009 20:05

absolutely Twinset. I think I was most proud when one of my pupils achieved 2 Fs in Eng Lang and Lit, when I had predicted 2G's if not a fail and a G. Not a traditional pass grade I agree,but this was a fantastic achievement for this child and I was so chuffed for them.

Mrs Snape, if your sis is getting a level 4 in English, realistically it is going to be really hard for her to achieve a high grade in history as a lot of it is literacy based (pretty sure essay type answers form part of the exam?)

ravenAK · 24/01/2009 00:26

Ask the school if E is her 'median quartile' prediction (ie. she should get this, given competent teaching, hard work & no major disruption) or 'upper quartile' target (ie. 25% students of her previous attainment will get this - good teaching & really hard work).

If her UQ is E, then good for her & postcard entirely justified. If it's her MQ, not so great.

Either way, it shouldn't be coming as a surprise - both your sister & mum should have been clearly informed of targets long since.