special consideration ..A level

[Macforme]

On Sunday morning my lovely step-mum, my children's 'Nanny Pat' died, very suddenly, totally unexpectedly. Needless to say we are devastated.

Unfortunately my two daughters have had to both sit full weeks of GCSEs and A levels following their bereavement. If that wasn't hard enough, my elder daugher has her last A level paper the day of the funeral which means she would not be able to attend.. she is very upset as you can imagine.

We hadn't realised that she could be given any special consideration, but she mentioned it to her teacher at school today that she was very upset about having to miss the funeral and her teacher said that she could miss the final paper and go under special considerations instead..and that they would take the circumstances into account for the exams she has sat this week (one a day poor kid)

Does anyone have any idea how the grade is decided if an exam has to be missed this way? Do they go by predicted grades, average the rest of the papers or what?

Any info gratefully received.

I didn't know you could actually miss an exam. But I know that special consideration is awarded on a scale of 1%-5% added to your mark depending on what the circumstances are. Circumstances seem to range from terminal illness to the dog dying or exam anxiety which requires medication. If you google the exam board and special consideration it shows you the rules.

A boy at my son's school missed all his GCSEs through glandular fever and the marks were worked out based on his coursework and mocks.

Teachers had to do predicted grades about 2 months ago. They look at people in the class with similar predicted grades and how they did in the exam. They will also look at extra evidence the school can provide such as mock exams etc. Most school ill have someone who as to miss an exam so it is a commom procedure. Hope it works out for her and she grades she wants despite th horrendous situation. And sorry for your loss.

Yep - her teacher will nominate the three people above her and below her in the cohort, and the exam board award a grade based on that combined with predicted grades and any other supporting evidence. Speical consideration for exams she has already sat will only be about 1 or 2 marks. They're very strict about things like this now. No chance of anything for the dog dying, BTW! You'll have a lot more joy with contacting the admissions tutors of her university choices directly (if she's going through UCAS) and discussing the special circs, so they may take that into consideration if she misses her offers. If this is relevant, do it before the results come out, and preferably before the exam, or it can look like you're making excuses. You can find the email addresses for most admission tutors on faculty websites. HTH

Just thought - could they possibly treat this like they would a timetable clash, and arrange for her to sit the exam the following day? I know she'd still be upset and underprepared, but I suppose it depends on whether she had good predicted grades or not.

Blunderthebonnet... thanks

I have just emailed her intended Uni to inform them and ask advice. My daughter has a place to read medicine so unfortunately needs straight As, but at least informing them means at least they might take it into consideration if she just misses her offer

Just can't believe it's happened..