Exam Results

[maggiebee]

Considering the debacle surrounding the Scottish exam results, you would gave thought that England would have learned from it. Apparently not.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/aug/11/pressure-grows-on-government-over-england-a-level-results-mess-coronavirus

[Cloverjo]

It’s a massive mess. I feel so sorry for these teenagers. My step-granddaughter was predicted As by her teachers but ended up with BCC

[maggiebee]

"have" not gave duh!

[Old_Geezer]

Unsure what everyone wants. There's been a global crisis and we all have to live with that and not expect things to have gone as normal. Folk can accept the official solutions or they can wait and take the exam when it becomes possible to do so. Everyone wanting 'A's right now is just pie in the sky. Life sucks sometimes and one has to make the best of it.

[maggiebee]

OG, I think that everyone just wants a fair assessment based on past results and course work. Some of these youngsters will have their hopes of a university place dashed, there's just so much competition.

[elliemay1]

N.I's results are a mess too

[maggiebee]

ellimay, did wonder about NI and Wales. Are they all using the same system do you know?

[Old_Geezer]

But what one person considers fair miffs another because they think they deserve better. There's no magic formula to please everyone.

[fiction-factory]

I am pretty sure this year's results are better than last year's. You can never have everyone happy with their results. The parents and schools know that if they keep pushing they'll get better grades as ministers will cave in/compromise to get the problem over with- but it will just be further grade drift and there will be no winners in the long run

[fiction-factory]

It's an inevitable mess for which there was never going to be an answer that would please everyone. perhaps they should have just scrapped the whole year or rearranged all the exams until November or 2021.

[fiction-factory]

>I think that everyone just wants a fair assessment based on past results and course work. Some of these youngsters will have their hopes of a university place dashed, there's just so much competition

How do you know that's not happened. The results overall are up on previous years. What would it take to make everyone happy? Give teachers free choice over grades even though studies have shown teachers generally over predict

[fiction-factory]

Here is the missing question mark: ?

[fiction-factory]

With hindsight back in June/July the predicted grades should have been sent back to schools to be revised in those cases where they deviated too much from the usual pattern. There should have been time allowed for schools to correct their over optimistic predictions

[ichkeria]

"Increasing the A level grades" said Gavin Williamson, "could mean a whole generation promoted beyond their abilities"

Irony klaxon at deafening levels.

[andy-hughes]

ich - // "Increasing the A level grades" said Gavin Williamson, "could mean a whole generation promoted beyond their abilities"

Irony klaxon at deafening levels. //

I hope that remark comes back to haunt him.

I appreciate that predicting grades can be tricky, but for an A* predicted student to receive a C should surely ring alarm bells somewhere, and there are many many of them.

[fiction-factory]

But you will probably find, andy, that that school still has ended up with more A* students than it normally had, and probably more A/Bs, in lieu of Cs.
Having said that, how on earth you downgrade a single person's prediction that much without going back to check first with the school or to check the data input is a mystery. An alarm bells should have rung and a discussion/negotiation should have taken place.

[Cloverjo]

How are there so many A*s over the last 20 years or so, anyway?
When I was that age only the superbrains got straight As.

[andy-hughes]

FF - // But you will probably find, andy, that that school still has ended up with more A* students than it normally had, and probably more A/Bs, in lieu of Cs.
Having said that, how on earth you downgrade a single person's prediction that much without going back to check first with the school or to check the data input is a mystery. An alarm bells should have rung and a discussion/negotiation should have taken place. //

What is fundamentally unfair about the current grading system the government has used, is that it is based on the exam profile of the school.

That means that a school with an intake of exceptionally gifted students, and correctly predicted high grades for them, will see those students downgraded purely on the basis of the past exam history of the school, over which they have no control, and to which they have had no input.

That cannot ever be seen as a fair and just system to award grades that are going to affect students' future career paths, and future lives.

[Cloverjo]

Actually not 20 years, but you know what I mean.

[Cloverjo]

I agree, Andy. Totally unfair.

[andy-hughes]

fiction-factory - // Having said that, how on earth you downgrade a single person's prediction that much without going back to check first with the school or to check the data input is a mystery. //

Maybe the government should have considered that a teacher of A Level Students is a professional of sufficient personal and professional integrity that they assess their students fairly and accurately, and predict grades accordingly.

That would be an improvement on sitting on its hands since March, and then using some bizarre computer system to defraud students of their rightful grades and university places, as the government has done.