Teachers - thoughts on A level results?

[AtomicBlondeRose]

Looking at mine I was initially quite disappointed but on reflection there are no real surprises, it’s just that everyone has got the lower end of my prediction range. Grade boundaries for my subject are through the bloody roof and higher than 2019 so that accounts for much of it - say I have a student consistently doing what I consider A grade work, who could be an A star with the wind behind them, who then has a slight wobble in the exam and gets bobbled by the grade boundaries - my A star potential student is now a B. Bit gutted for some of them who have time after time handed me in really high quality exam answers.

Added to this is their overall lack of exam practice and the lethargy from the post-covid hangover. Only a couple were even planning on university anyway and a lot just plain didn’t really care much about their grades. I have at least two who are way under their potential and it’s straight up
not working and not attending for the last few months!

Hello yes I feel that too. My lot scored at the lower end of my expected and lost below the ucas prediction. Seems across the board

Even the gov website reminds the students that in normal years, only 20% of UCAS predictions are achieved and most achieve less. It’s always been the way, but with Covid years and a mid-point last year, I think we’ve all forgotten what it’s like usually.

We found that some of our students missed their offer but still got taken by their first choice, even if 2 or even 3 grades below.

Looking at comparisons to 2019, top grades are still up a bit.

I guess some students are always a bit disappointed on results day. In the past, they just decide it was a hard paper or they didn’t revise enough or whatever….but this year, they feel like the system itself has worked against them. I don’t think that’s true, but this is how they feel. And the media seem to fuel the focus on comparing to the last 3 years, rather than comparing to 2019 and before which are the meaningful comparisons.

I found it a pretty good day. UCAS was actually smoother than for a good few years for us and kids largely got what they needed to progress, which is the important thing really. The kids were mostly happy.

I actually think it felt quite healthy to have a set of “normal” results and to remind the kids that not everyone gets three A*s and that three As or ABB is a great set of results that can open doors and let them do things they want to do. I don’t think all their grade 7-9s at GCSE were actually good for a lot of them in terms of their mental health and self esteem. The level of anxiety this exam season was shocking, particularly among the brightest.

I agree with this and I said as much to my HOD that it would be good to get back to more realistic grading and predictions.

Yes. I guess lots who were given 8/9 at GCSE in TAGs weren’t really 8/9 standard. They then wanted A Level predictions that seemed to follow on from very top GCSE grades….but were unlikely to get them in a normal distribution year….but won’t have known they weren’t ‘genuine’ 8/9 or top A Level students. It’s more of a nasty shock then when the reality becomes apparent. Too many parents on social media seem to think any grades below A/A can only be explained by government meanness in changing boundaries, and forget that in normal years few got these grades. In fact, more this year have A/A than in any year apart from the last 3.

I do blame the media for hyping the comparison to the peak year of 2021 rather than comparing to 2019 or earlier….but then that doesn’t make such an exciting news story for people to get incensed about.

Our results were oddly good - every student achieved a grade higher than I predicted. School-wide not as good, with a definite return to 2019-ish results. More than usual in Clearing.

Results probably overall a little bit down on where we might have hoped they would be- but students have mostly got what they needed to get onto the next stage, so that's great.

I think some really struggled with mental health issues/exam pressure around the time of their exams, and that's unfortunately reflected in their results. But most did well!

In my subject, every student got the grade they deserved according to both their natural aptitude and their dedication to the A-level course. This seems to be the measure of a good exam system - nobody was either over awarded or under rewarded. It’s very encouraging that the examiners can differentiate accurately in the quality of students. I’m almost positive that this might not be the case across the spectrum of subjects.