Exam Results.

[1of4]

3 hours ago, R@M said:

So you are saying that due to your nerves you were not able drive correctly, but should have been given your license anyway as your instructor (whose reputation depends on passes) thought you could drive?

I didn't say I should have been given a pass because my instructor had estimated that I was capable of passing the test. I was showing that the grade given by an instructor, teacher isn't a wrong or a over estimation of a student's ability. As there can be a number of reasons why the student on the day of the test, was unable to perform to the level estimated of them.

The algorithm normally used to balance out A level test scores from year to year, wasn't suitable to be used for how grades were awarded this year.

[Mafiabob]

New advice for students who are affected by the new grading algorithm.

[R@M]

1 hour ago, 1of4 said:

I didn't say I should have been given a pass because my instructor had estimated that I was capable of passing the test. I was showing that the grade given by an instructor, teacher isn't a wrong or a over estimation of a student's ability. As there can be a number of reasons why the student on the day of the test, was unable to perform to the level estimated of them.

The algorithm normally used to balance out A level test scores from year to year, wasn't suitable to be used for how grades were awarded this year.

But the percentage downgraded was approx 30%? There was an overall pass increase of about 7%? 

It is hard to find many schools that manage to increase their pass percentages by 5% year on year let alone 37%. (Approx)

I will however reserve some judgement until year on year individual school comparisons can be made. That is where the actual accuracy can be determined. There will always be some anomalies, but there is an appeals process. 

[CocuBarmyArmy]

After quietly looking at the forum for a few years following Derby, this is finally the thread that’s convinced me to sign up.

I got my A Levels yesterday, my schools way of assessing grades was deliberately conservative so not to provoke the Ofqual higher ups, so I went from AAB to BBB, well okay that’s a harsh but somewhat fair I suppose, I was always pushing and up hill battle really and I can’t argue too much. However Ofqual was not done with me, as they decided that my B in Maths was going to become a C and my B in economics was also going to suffer the same fate. My last mock in economics was 3 marks of an A so obviously I was shocked when I saw the results. Many kids suffered worse than me though, one of my mates was predicted A*AA and ended up with BCC, which is beyond parody.

I definitely understand the opinions of many which is that the appeals process is present and we can retake, but the reality is many kids just don’t want to waste another year of there lives not earning, waiting for appeals or retaking to reapply next year. With that being said a Scotland style solution would be a disaster, the top unis would be overloaded. However the issues absolutely need addressing, I’ve seen kids have Cs turned into Us, and that’s not fair.

Honestly I do feel like I was punished for my school, almost like I was placed into the body of another student and got their grades instead of my own which is hard to take. I wasn’t really expecting to get my first choice uni as it would of required me having a ‘good day’ in my exams, but to have my grades put down so low was a shock.

Also, as for the overall upgrade in kids getting top grades, that’s a bit of a government falsehood unfortunately. Private schools grades went up 5 percent, compared to state sixth forms at 0.4 percent, of course in a competitive jobs/university market that results in more state schooled kids losing out. I totally understand that privately educated kids would tend to do better, but I think any changes should of been on the side of the state schooled kids this year, and I think the government will change is policy yet.

[Will Hughes Hair]

1 hour ago, CocuBarmyArmy said:

After quietly looking at the forum for a few years following Derby, this is finally the thread that’s convinced me to sign up.

I got my A Levels yesterday, my schools way of assessing grades was deliberately conservative so not to provoke the Ofqual higher ups, so I went from AAB to BBB, well okay that’s a harsh but somewhat fair I suppose, I was always pushing and up hill battle really and I can’t argue too much. However Ofqual was not done with me, as they decided that my B in Maths was going to become a C and my B in economics was also going to suffer the same fate. My last mock in economics was 3 marks of an A so obviously I was shocked when I saw the results. Many kids suffered worse than me though, one of my mates was predicted A*AA and ended up with BCC, which is beyond parody.

I definitely understand the opinions of many which is that the appeals process is present and we can retake, but the reality is many kids just don’t want to waste another year of there lives not earning, waiting for appeals or retaking to reapply next year. With that being said a Scotland style solution would be a disaster, the top unis would be overloaded. However the issues absolutely need addressing, I’ve seen kids have Cs turned into Us, and that’s not fair.

Honestly I do feel like I was punished for my school, almost like I was placed into the body of another student and got their grades instead of my own which is hard to take. I wasn’t really expecting to get my first choice uni as it would of required me having a ‘good day’ in my exams, but to have my grades put down so low was a shock.

Also, as for the overall upgrade in kids getting top grades, that’s a bit of a government falsehood unfortunately. Private schools grades went up 5 percent, compared to state sixth forms at 0.4 percent, of course in a competitive jobs/university market that results in more state schooled kids losing out. I totally understand that privately educated kids would tend to do better, but I think any changes should of been on the side of the state schooled kids this year, and I think the government will change is policy yet.

I already like you. Stay strong.

[Day]

 

[ariotofmyown]

2 hours ago, Will Hughes Hair said:

I already like you. Stay strong.

I don't like them. That first post was too good!

@CocuBarmyArmy were you planning to go to uni and did you get to where you want to be? Don't give up hope if things haven't turned out well, Gavin Williamson is utterly clueless and he's ended up with a top job.

 

[EtoileSportiveDeDerby]

4 hours ago, CocuBarmyArmy said:

After quietly looking at the forum for a few years following Derby, this is finally the thread that’s convinced me to sign up.

I got my A Levels yesterday, my schools way of assessing grades was deliberately conservative so not to provoke the Ofqual higher ups, so I went from AAB to BBB, well okay that’s a harsh but somewhat fair I suppose, I was always pushing and up hill battle really and I can’t argue too much. However Ofqual was not done with me, as they decided that my B in Maths was going to become a C and my B in economics was also going to suffer the same fate. My last mock in economics was 3 marks of an A so obviously I was shocked when I saw the results. Many kids suffered worse than me though, one of my mates was predicted A*AA and ended up with BCC, which is beyond parody.

I definitely understand the opinions of many which is that the appeals process is present and we can retake, but the reality is many kids just don’t want to waste another year of there lives not earning, waiting for appeals or retaking to reapply next year. With that being said a Scotland style solution would be a disaster, the top unis would be overloaded. However the issues absolutely need addressing, I’ve seen kids have Cs turned into Us, and that’s not fair.

Honestly I do feel like I was punished for my school, almost like I was placed into the body of another student and got their grades instead of my own which is hard to take. I wasn’t really expecting to get my first choice uni as it would of required me having a ‘good day’ in my exams, but to have my grades put down so low was a shock.

Also, as for the overall upgrade in kids getting top grades, that’s a bit of a government falsehood unfortunately. Private schools grades went up 5 percent, compared to state sixth forms at 0.4 percent, of course in a competitive jobs/university market that results in more state schooled kids losing out. I totally understand that privately educated kids would tend to do better, but I think any changes should of been on the side of the state schooled kids this year, and I think the government will change is policy yet.

Great post, I feel for you.  What a sh!tty way to treat your year, said it before if ever there was a year to be lenient this should have been it. You dont get taught have to stay at home and get shafted badly. Stay strong, really hope it works for you in terms of Uni choices, remember one thing they need bums on seats, it's a business and lack of foreign student should help you out. 

As for private school benifiting whoever thought that is a given 

[CocuBarmyArmy]

9 minutes ago, ariotofmyown said:

I don't like them. That first post was too good!

@CocuBarmyArmy were you planning to go to uni and did you get to where you want to be? Don't give up hope if things haven't turned out well, Gavin Williamson is utterly clueless and he's ended up with a top job.

 

I had originally applied to Kings College in London for economics, they had actually lowered the offer for me as I’ve been in deprived state schools my entire life (not to sound like a sob story), and I had a decent chance of going I think. As I said in my original post, it was going to be a tough ask, it all came down to my final exams really and I was hopefully of getting lucky on the day, it was honestly at the point where I was thinking of it like a play off final. I ended up getting accepted by City University for econ, which was my insurance, I was really lucky as they had actually changed my offer to unconditional a few days before results day and I hadn’t realised. Kings are holding my place on appeal, but it will only be until the 31st of August but there’s no way anything will be sorted by then. It’s tough to take but I think I’m gonna have to swallow it and move on, City is still a good uni in fairness. I just feel like a lot of kids like me up and down the county who needed a slice of luck in the exams have had our ambitions stamped out by the government. I think what hurts more than anything is that our good friend Gavin actually went to state school himself! 

[Tamworthram]

On 13/08/2020 at 13:08, Gaspode said:

Over a third of teacher estimates downgraded by one grade yet overall results still higher than last year - seems there may have been quite widespread over-estimating....

I was just waking up but I’m sure someone from Nottingham Trent uni said on the radio this morning that in 2019 50% of pupils didn’t achieve their predicted grades so, maybe over-estimating is an annual occurrence.

[GboroRam]

 

[Shipley Ram]

[1of4]

If the algorithm used to determine this year's grades was apllied to last year's exams. Then dependent on the subject taken, 30% of the grades actually gained by students in last exams, would have been downgraded.

[djfred84]

GCSE Next on the horizon and Some B-tech students have still not got their grades. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/aug/15/ofqual-suspends-a-level-appeal-criteria-hours-after-announcing-them

Does not surprise me in this 180 government.

[1of4]

Ofqual now back tracking on their own criteria regarding the students appeal procedure.

I'd had originally estimated them a D for their dealing with the whole of the exam debacle. Looks like I grossly misjudged their abilities and even without resorting to any algorithm, they should now be marked down to a U.

[rammieib]

On 14/08/2020 at 07:29, Gaspode said:

Teachers are aware of the importance of school league tables and also want pretty  much all of their kids to get the best possible grades, so the natural reaction is to be over generous when asked to predict grades (as is apparent from the numbers being downgraded).

It should have been announced that league tables would be suspended this year and teachers should have been asked to predict percentage scores rather than individual grades to allow flexibility in grade boundaries when the final grades were allocated.

However unfair it seems, a system that has excessive numbers of higher grades devalues the results and has a knock on effect on universities who end up admitting kids that simply aren’t up to the demands of their chosen courses. Next summer there will likely be far higher numbers of university dropouts as kids realise they can’t cope with the pressures of competing with higher attaining students or simply can’t ‘make the grade’ in their end of year exams.....

 There has to be moderation in awarding results and however unfair that seems, the frankly ridiculous suggestion to ‘go with the teachers’ will cause far more issues than it solves......

Yes there probably should be some level of criticism of teachers predicated grades for students as if the bodies had gone with them, the results would be 10% higher. The teachers predictions have caused the problems here.

However absolutely no way should any individual child have their results downgraded without the chance to sit exams. That’s just wrong in all circumstances.

[CocuBarmyArmy]

This is going to really kick off on Thursday, it's one thing to tell me and other kids in my positions that we can't attend our first choice university, but when a lad gets his 4 (C in old money) in maths and english overturned that's inexcusable. Kids who might be hoping to get an apprenticeship or find some work after their exams could be completely screwed. We could even see see 6s and 7s being downgraded below 4s given how the algorithm works which will cause near riots I'd expect.

On teachers over-predicting as well, yes, technically speaking they predicted far higher than they should have, but I don't think it's quite that simple. Most teachers will have predicted right when it comes to a students raw ability, but the ultimate leveller (as I found out with my GCSEs) is if the kids can hack the pressure of exam day or not. That's when A grades actually do turn in to C grades etc. But the government have tried to replicate that, issue being, you can't randomly associate 'bottler' status to kids. You can't go up to a kid who's predicted an A and say 'I don't think your mentally strong enough to perform in exam' and downgrade them when they haven't even sat the thing. I think the teacher assessed grades will be accurate in more ways, however it isn't including the exam day nightmares many kids face, and rightfully so because you can't artificially replicate that.

[1of4]

Northern Ireland as now joined Scotland on the use of teachers' A level grade estimates.

Two of the countries that form the UK, now have a different criteria on the awarding of A levels.

Which must an cause issue when it comes to how and to who, universities offer places to.

[Day]

 

[sage]

13 minutes ago, David said: