A level results

[blueinsa]

My ears heard her say an "F". If im wrong then i will absolutely apologise.

I will also get them fucking syringed!

 

[I'm With Stupid]

In addition to this I would guess that the private school cohort have more know-how and potentially money (fairly sure there was a fee for challenging grades when I was doing these exams a few years ago) when it comes to appealing results.

Gutted for those who have missed out because of downgrades and hope that unis are being more flexible and accommodating with grades. Also, taking a gap year and giving it another go is probably not the worst option this year given that things won’t be back to the previous norm for a while yet.

There are actually people who have had their grades downgraded to lower than their mock exams ffs. Everyone knows that nobody studies for mock exams. Imagine having your exam marked by an algorithm.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

 

[Blue Potato]

 

[quiet_riot]

My ears heard her say an "F". If im wrong then i will absolutely apologise.

I mean, it's been proven multiple times in the last few pages...

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Talking of universities. The university of life must be popular judging from the amount of people on Facebook who say they studied there - the unoriginal, unfunny fuckers.
Sorry for going off topic, just needed to get that off my chest :-)

Basically means "I'm thick as fuck and likely to make posts about liking and sharing pics of churches being turned into mosques when they actually aren't and I don't go to church anyway"

 

[blueinsa]

I mean, it's been proven multiple times in the last few pages...

Not read, just logged on after working and saw an alert.

Genuinely heard an "F" and it wasnt me taking the piss.

Apologies to the lass concerned and to everyone on here.

Embarrassed lol

 

[Kompany Car]

With the employability of a History degree, next week ;)

Don’t knock yourself fella. One of the best Safety Engineers I have ever worked with had a history degree. His dissertation was on medieval witchcraft of all things.
No background in physics or engineering but had a fantastic skill for organising and presenting complex information in a clear and structured format, something that most engineers are useless at. He now works for the ONR (Office for Nuclear Regulation) as an assessor.

 

[DazWA9]

I am very sorry to read this. If she genuinely feels that her grades do not reflect her true level of ability, then it is very much worth appealing. Advice should be sought through the designated Examinations Officer at her school.

I would also strongly recommend canvassing the views of the staff who were specifically responsible for teaching her to see if they think she has not been awarded the grades she truly deserved. It might just turn out that other members of her set for a particular subject have been similarly affected and the school is intending a wider review of the grades awarded to be undertaken.

Of course, by the time any issues get resolved, it might still be too late for a University place to be taken up.

But even so, there are still options. Unfortunately, I left teaching in August 2019. So I am very much out of the loop. However, I think I read somewhere that students might have the option of sitting an examination in the Autumn if the appeals process does not work out for them. Unfortunately, I don’t recall where I read this or even whether it applies to A level or GCSE. So it certainly requires verification. One of the boards (e.g. OCR, AQA, Edexcel) may
carry this information on their website or they could be rung directly.

Taking a year out might not turn out to be the worst option, given the uncertainty surrounding the future impact of Covid-19 and its impact on University teaching.

Lastly, on the Times Educational Supplement (TES) Forum this morning, some teachers were ruminating on their own A level results that they received when they were 18.

More than one mentioned that although they did not end up studying at their preferred university, the institution they subsequently went to and the course of study that they undertook were ones to which they were better suited.

Hope this helps in some way.

When the teacher-predicted grades were provided, they recommended that five of the psychology students (my daughter was one) would easily attain a grade A if they had an exam.
They were then notified by Ofqual that this wouldn't be acceptable and there would only be one allowed a grade A mark and also one of the class HAD to be given a grade U.
That is straight from my daughters psychology teacher who is also the vice principal at the Academy.

She is appealing her results but I'm currently not holding out much hope. The idiots at Ofqual don't even know how they are going to handle the appeals process yet.
So it's looking like she'll be resitting in October.

 

[DazWA9]

I don't understand why they couldn't or can't tell universities to delay their start dates until november. The kids could then sit their exams in October as they were going to do the re-sits then anyway.
Half the bloody uni's are only doing online lectures only for the first semester as well so offsetting the start/finish term dates wouldn't be such an inconvenience. That way they still get their precious money and the A levels are graded fairly on merit and not by a postcode lottery.

 

[ZenHalfTimeCrock]

When the teacher-predicted grades were provided, they recommended that five of the psychology students (my daughter was one) would easily attain a grade A if they had an exam.
They were then notified by Ofqual that this wouldn't be acceptable and there would only be one allowed a grade A mark and also one of the class HAD to be given a grade U.
That is straight from my daughters psychology teacher who is also the vice principal at the Academy.

That is just appalling. I haven’t been following the methodology adopted by Ofqual too closely but would assume that they have adopted a rigidly deterministic framework based on the performance of previous cohorts in the subject at your daughter’s school and the overall attainment of pupils there in public examinations in the past.
If so, this is daft as it is well-known that no two sets (and sometimes year groups) are alike.
I already had a low opinion of Ofqual before I read your post. If my assumptions are correct, I am left thinking that (like Ofsted), they are no longer fit for purpose.

 

[kaz7]

When the teacher-predicted grades were provided, they recommended that five of the psychology students (my daughter was one) would easily attain a grade A if they had an exam.
They were then notified by Ofqual that this wouldn't be acceptable and there would only be one allowed a grade A mark and also one of the class HAD to be given a grade U.
That is straight from my daughters psychology teacher who is also the vice principal at the Academy.

She is appealing her results but I'm currently not holding out much hope. The idiots at Ofqual don't even know how they are going to handle the appeals process yet.
So it's looking like she'll be resitting in October.

Sounds like they are allocating grades per the projected grades for the whole school and not the individual students,it stinks,the gov have had months to plan for this

 

[CityStu]

While the government's algorithm clearly looks like a discriminatory piece of shit, it wouldn't have been an issue had teachers graded sensibly. Predicting over a 12% grade inflation year-on-year is ridiculous. I don't doubt that many teachers feel they did their bit (I am friends with many who are furious), but it seems that some let the side down.

 

[DazWA9]

While the government's algorithm clearly looks like a discriminatory piece of shit, it wouldn't have been an issue had teachers graded sensibly. Predicting over a 12% grade inflation year-on-year is ridiculous. I don't doubt that many teachers feel they did their bit (I am friends with many who are furious), but it seems that some let the side down.

No childs future should be graded on a bloody algorithm, they should be given the chance to choose their future through merit.

 

[BobKowalski]

Talking of universities. The university of life must be popular judging from the amount of people on Facebook who say they studied there - the unoriginal, unfunny fuckers.
Sorry for going off topic, just needed to get that off my chest :-)

Yeah, it’s tedious, also I did go to the University of Life and it was shit :)

I think I read somewhere that France decided to go for teacher assessed end-of-school grades, and created 10,000 extra uni places, so kids of this generation don’t miss out.

Why couldn’t we do the same? Anyone know?

 

[CityStu]

No childs future should be graded on a bloody algorithm, they should be given the chance to choose their future through merit.

I agree with that too. Any resit (not sure why they're being called resits when no exams have been sat) fees should be waived next year.

I understand the necessity of having an algorithm to bring grading in line though. They will be used every year on actually marked papers.

 

[jma]

When the teacher-predicted grades were provided, they recommended that five of the psychology students (my daughter was one) would easily attain a grade A if they had an exam.
They were then notified by Ofqual that this wouldn't be acceptable and there would only be one allowed a grade A mark and also one of the class HAD to be given a grade U.
That is straight from my daughters psychology teacher who is also the vice principal at the Academy.

I'm not here to defend Ofqual - the awards that have been made at A Level are a shambles.

However, the school stating that they submitted grades and then were contacted by Ofqual to be told that they must apply one of this grade and one of that grade doesn't sound particularly viable to me. The whole point of the process that they have undertaken is that schools submit what they think should be awarded and then Ofqual themselves change them to fit with what they (but not many other people) consider to be a fair model.

To the best of my knowledge, schools will have had no indication (outside of reports in the press that nationally grades were going to drop significantly from those submitted) of how their individual grades had been affected, prior to receiving them on Wednesday.

I would imagine that there would be total uproar if there was genuine evidence that Ofqual have told a school, prior to the standardisation process, that they must go back and change the grades they originally submitted to grades that Ofqual recommend - which then could still be altered further by standardisation.

Not that it makes any difference to the nasty circumstances that you find yourself and your family in - obviously the grade awarded is the grade awarded - but the explanation given sound dubious or at least confused.

Many of those kids have been failed here. The fact that grades awarded have risen on previous years, or even would have risen significantly if left unaltered is not the issue. The issue is that these kids haven't had the chance to prove themselves in exams and therefore should have been given every opportunity to get into their uni of choice and prove themselves there instead. Any results are going to be false anyway so it doesn't matter whether - for one year - they were normal, inflated or whatever.

 

[Stoned Rose]

Don’t knock yourself fella. One of the best Safety Engineers I have ever worked with had a history degree. His dissertation was on medieval witchcraft of all things.
No background in physics or engineering but had a fantastic skill for organising and presenting complex information in a clear and structured format, something that most engineers are useless at. He now works for the ONR (Office for Nuclear Regulation) as an assessor.

Sounds like a right raver.

 

[BobKowalski]

Some details on how France graded its Covid affected students.

‘Taking the average of 1st and 2nd term marks, always rounding "up" and creating 10,000 extra university places. No negative algorithms.’

France to create 10,000 new university places after record numbers passed school exams

France’s minister for higher education says 10,000 new university places will be created to cope with the huge demand after record numbers of students passed the Bac exam this year, qualifying them for…

www.rfi.fr

 

[Uffa]

I haven't read the whole thread but from what I'm gathering, most if not all your universities have restricted access. That's crazy.