How can you award a grade based on estimates

It’s a tricky one my godson is looking at three A’s at a levels which he admits himself he would not have got. The comment about foreign students staying away is true so he will likely get into a better uni than expected. For me circumstance has given him a chance but now he has to work harder than ever to take advantage of that chance.

I keep joking with him that he’s got a covid A.

I’m I guess it’s one of the few upsides of this pandemic.
 
It's OK to point out the difficulties, but I don't hear anyone coming up a better suggestion for the way out of this mess.

My daughter is in her GCSE exam year, so she will receive her grades in a few weeks time.
 
I didn't read every reply to this thread, but there is a bot of nonsense here. I went to teesside uni and this is a fact, 5% of your overall grade comes from year 1, 10% of your overall grade comes from year 2, your dissertation makes up 60% of your grade. So 75% of your grade is known before you sit a single exam in your final year, I don't see any problem with this at all.
 
Laughing said:
I didn't read every reply to this thread, but there is a bot of nonsense here. I went to teesside uni and this is a fact, 5% of your overall grade comes from year 1, 10% of your overall grade comes from year 2, your dissertation makes up 60% of your grade. So 75% of your grade is known before you sit a single exam in your final year, I don't see any problem with this at all.
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This is about GCSE and A-Levels. However, at uni I don't think a single one of my tutors would have known my name and I had a rubbish exam period in the January before my final exams in the May and I had no dissertation. I had to average a 1st in my final set of exams to get a 2:1, which I did. If they had used averages I would have only got a 2:2. It's very different letting a teacher that should know you and your capabilities decide what level of student you are than someone that doesn't know a thing about you and only using past results. I believe most university courses switched to online tuition and still sat online exams anyway.
 
Ah right boromike, should have read more of the thread - doh! My Daughter has just finished her degree at newcastle and they had online help and open book exams they could do unsupervised.
 
Not the first time they have had to do it. In 1974 when I was sitting my school exams one of the teaching unions went on strike. They refused to work or mark exams.
2 of my results were grades based on class work and teachers assessment of work already done towards the final grade.
 
Blf said:
Not the first time they have had to do it. In 1974 when I was sitting my school exams one of the teaching unions went on strike. They refused to work or mark exams.
2 of my results were grades based on class work and teachers assessment of work already done towards the final grade.
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I always knew you were a fraud...o_O
 
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Lefty said:
Hopefully my son is lucky/rewarded in that he already had already sat a TMUA exam for Maths and managed a very good result which his chosen Universities knew about and had already given him reduced offers.
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When gigs are back on Lefty, who'll you be going with if he's at Uni!
 
tripleheader said:
Don't forget a lot of the students work is marked and continually assessed throughout the course. And those marks would have contributed towards their final grade. A better way IMHO, than purely based on a final exam like back in the day where you passed or worse, failed because of exam nerves or whatever.
My views on this has gone full circle, and continual assessment is the way. The kids these days have to work so hard, good luck to them.
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Couldn't agree more, lots of youngsters have not reached their full potential because of nervousness during their exams, it seems a shame that some better/fairer system has not been introduced long before now.
 
Why couldn't they use / convert school buildings into the ones similar to having your theory driving test? That's just your own cubicle

I understand everyone needs to take the exam at the same time... across the country so there's no cheating- i can obviously see how it could be difficult to implement... but still it's an option
 
It’s a tricky one my godson is looking at three A’s at a levels which he admits himself he would not have got. The comment about foreign students staying away is true so he will likely get into a better uni than expected. For me circumstance has given him a chance but now he has to work harder than ever to take advantage of that chance.

I keep joking with him that he’s got a covid A.

I’m I guess it’s one of the few upsides of this pandemic.
Laughing said:
I didn't read every reply to this thread, but there is a bot of nonsense here. I went to teesside uni and this is a fact, 5% of your overall grade comes from year 1, 10% of your overall grade comes from year 2, your dissertation makes up 60% of your grade. So 75% of your grade is known before you sit a single exam in your final year, I don't see any problem with this at all.
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I think it depends when you went - our first year was 0 per cent. I can’t remember how much the dissertation made up but it was something around the 20 per cent mark. 25per cent for your final exams sounds very low, again I’m sure my final exams were well over fifty percent.
 
RandySavage said:
Let them take the exams they've been working towards?
Not difficult. Just pure laziness from the authorities.
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Having students taking exams was ruled out as an option for many reasons - to suggest it's laziness is to show a total lack of understanding.

We can debate the merits of different approaches all you want but slinging accusations gets us nowhere.
 
Juninho10 said:
Why couldn't they use / convert school buildings into the ones similar to having your theory driving test? That's just your own cubicle

I understand everyone needs to take the exam at the same time... across the country so there's no cheating- i can obviously see how it could be difficult to implement... but still it's an option
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Probably because they had no idea how long we were going to be in the most stringent lockdown and they needed students to be able to progress to college/university/apprenticeships etc in September.
 
Primus84 said:
Having students taking exams was ruled out as an option for many reasons - to suggest it's laziness is to show a total lack of understanding.

We can debate the merits of different approaches all you want but slinging accusations gets us nowhere.
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Sorry not good enough when it comes to kid's educations and futures.
Absolutely no reason why as @Juninho10 said that special measures couldn't have been put in place. Temperature checks, socially distant desks with screens, one way in and out systems.

Lots of other areas of the country have adapted to the current state of affairs whilst teaching unions play pissy politics using our kid's futures as a shield and covid-19 as a weapon.
 
RandySavage said:
Sorry not good enough when it comes to kid's educations and futures.
Absolutely no reason why as @Juninho10 said that special measures couldn't have been put in place. Temperature checks, socially distant desks with screens, one way in and out systems.

Lots of other areas of the country have adapted to the current state of affairs whilst teaching unions play pissy politics using our kid's futures as a shield and covid-19 as a weapon.
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The childish language doesn't help. At the time decisions were being made there was simply no way to know when we might be able to even slightly ease lockdown. The lack of certainty was further damaging and a system had to be chosen within the constraints there were at the time.

If you trust teachers to educate your children as professionals then trust them to assess them as professionals - every system is flawed but the current system does have checks and balances both within the school and nationally - Ofqual really aren't afraid of stepping in even if it upsets huge numbers of teachers or students.
 
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