Exam Results.

[1of4]

20 hours ago, rammieib said:

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.

Sad that you've gone down the teacher bashing route in the trying to find a cause the this mess. I will just refer you to @CocuBarmyArmy post on teachers estimations.

As for students being allowed to actually sit the exam. This throws up many problems.

When do they sit it?  Students revise and prepare for weeks if not months before the day of the exam.

What questions should be set on the exam paper?  Individual schools may teach a section of a particular subject at a different part of the year to other schools. Due to the closing of schools parts of a subject may not have been fully covered.

[rammieib]

1 hour ago, 1of4 said:

Sad that you've gone down the teacher bashing route in the trying to find a cause the this mess. I will just refer you to @CocuBarmyArmy post on teachers estimations.

As for students being allowed to actually sit the exam. This throws up many problems.

When do they sit it?  Students revise and prepare for weeks if not months before the day of the exam.

What questions should be set on the exam paper?  Individual schools may teach a section of a particular subject at a different part of the year to other schools. Due to the closing of schools parts of a subject may not have been fully covered.

I didn’t say that about sitting exams - I didn’t say they should now sit an exam, I said they should not be downgraded without sitting an exam so please don’t misrepresent my words.

Also I said ‘part of the blame’ and you use the words ‘teacher bashing’.  It’s interesting that you take a post and manipulate it to your views.

Anyway, looks like there will be news today to amend the results which is the right thing to do.

[sonofmidnight]

Well I think the teachers grading should stand. You never know during the first few weeks of lockdown when there was little for students to do they might have done more work than usual. Who knows. It annoys me immensely that by and large private schools have escaped having grades lowered. In this one year when there has been so much uncertainty and youngsters schooling has been interrupted they ought to be allowed to keep their grades. 

[1of4]

23 hours ago, rammieib said:

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.

 

31 minutes ago, rammieib said:

Also I said ‘part of the blame’ and you use the words ‘teacher bashing’.  It’s interesting that you take a post and manipulate it to your views.

Sorry if I've manipulated your views.

[DarkFruitsRam7]

On 14/08/2020 at 20:20, 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 mate. Always good to see people my sort of age on the forum.

[Day]

 

[Day]

 

[ariotofmyown]

Should the EFL and The Cabinet swap jobs?

[1of4]

The U turn will have probably come to late for some. Namely students who have seen their offer from their first choice of university already withdrawn.

[Rev]

A friend's daughter was predicted A's in both her English A-Levels.

Her results for both were U!

'Clear and obvious clerical error' was the official response, without setting out how it can be resolved.

[Stive Pesley]

2 hours ago, 1of4 said:

The U turn will have probably come to late for some. Namely students who have seen their offer from their first choice of university already withdrawn.

Everyone I know that didn't get their predicted grades has lost the place they were aiming for and gone through clearing on the lesser grades and in elsewhere now

What a joke

Would be nice to think that next January if it turns out the government have made a mess of the Brexit withdrawal - they can just do a U-turn !

 

 

 

 

 

[1of4]

7 minutes ago, SchtivePesley said:

Everyone I know that didn't get their predicted grades has lost the place they were aiming for and gone through clearing on the lesser grades and in elsewhere now

What a joke

Would be nice to think that next January if it turns out the government have made a mess of the Brexit withdrawal - they can just do a U-turn !

 

 

 

 

 

As much as I'd like to discuss the algorithm used for brexit. Forum rules say no.

[CocuBarmyArmy]

Mixed feelings tonight, many of my mates celebrating, can’t bring myself too, I’m pretty distraught to be honest. Teacher predicted works for so many kids up and down the country, I was hoping for a mock based system as my attainment is far above my centre assessed grades, got two As and a B in my last mocks and ended up with 3 Bs, tough to take given the government initially promised me I could appeal based on my mocks but that will be that now I think, I suppose my teachers assumed I’d get worse over the year which is a bit of a knock to my confidence (always got along very well with them aswell) :(

Teachers are gonna get dragged now though unfortunately, I have emailed my assistant head asking for the schools reason behind my predicted regression, I’ve been very reasonable however and I know a lot of kids won’t be. I’ve seen all sorts going off and I do feel for those who have had to make some tough decisions. Equally though, all the top unis are going to be full now, it’s going to be mayhem.

[1of4]

Talking of algorithms, I'd be interested to find out who was responsible for the writing the algorithm for the test results. How it was checked for It's accuracy. Finally who gave permission for it to be used

[rammieib]

47 minutes ago, 1of4 said:

Talking of algorithms, I'd be interested to find out who was responsible for the writing the algorithm for the test results. How it was checked for It's accuracy. Finally who gave permission for it to be used

Neil Ferguson.

[Wolfie]

What a mess.

The government clearly wanted to stick to its guns on results moderation but found it untenable when the unfairness brought about by the algorithm was laid bare. After what happened in Scotland, they should have really seen this coming. It's a shame because the huge grade inflation problem has now been kicked into next year and this year's results will always be tainted as over-generous.

I know from work my company does in AI and machine learning that algorithms work well but only when there are large datasets (hundreds or thousands of data points). From what I've heard, it sounds like private schools were looked at individually, so very small amounts of data - rather than taking all private schools as one data set, which would have produced safer results.

Very poor planning either from the Govt or Ofqual but the problem is caused by over-generous predictions. I suspect that this has become a bit of a vicious circle: schools know that results are going to be moderated downwards, so this encourages them to be pre-emptively optimistic & therefore, grade inflation means that results are moderated downwards.....etc.....etc.

[Gone]

Glad they finally did the U turn, but I dont understand why they didn’t just sit the exams like most other countries in Europe. Shame we seem to rooster everything up based on mass hysteria and scaremongering 

[Gaspode]

11 hours ago, 1of4 said:

Talking of algorithms, I'd be interested to find out who was responsible for the writing the algorithm for the test results. How it was checked for It's accuracy. Finally who gave permission for it to be used

Given the scale of problem, you could question whether it was tested at all.....

[EtoileSportiveDeDerby]

Congratulations to young Curties Davies for getting a first from Staffordshire Uni

[GboroRam]

16 hours ago, 1of4 said:

The U turn will have probably come to late for some. Namely students who have seen their offer from their first choice of university already withdrawn.

I think officially it's been upgraded to an F turn.