The Exam Situation

My daughter has been let down. Her teachers have been in touch and confirmed that they are appealing as the grades go against her mocks and teacher input.
It is truly shocking and I feel for a level leavers, gcse leavers and those going into last year secondary having had 6 months off.
We’ve let a generation down but atleast we got the pubs open and half price meals.
Shocking shocking decisions
 
boromike85 said:
No. I'm not blaming anyone. I am sure that they did what they did with good intentions without knowing how the data they provide would be used. However, teachers have over-marked, was it 12% nationally I read, and that has had an impact. E.g. If they have two almost identical students who are sitting on the border of an A and a B. The teacher marks them both as an A had they sat exams one of them gets an A and one gets a B. For the system to work the teacher should know which one was going to get an A and which would get a B and mark them accordingly but in reality it is impossible to know and so they both are given As. When that happens at every boundary it means grades are over-inflated and because the exam body don't have any data for which ones are right and which are wrong they have to downgrade everyone equally.
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Your post did include blaming teachers and you’re still doing it. Where’s your evidence that the predictions were inaccurate. In addition in subjects where schools entered more than 15 students they didn’t even use the predictions and used an algorithm which has penalised disproportionately students from poorer households. You only need to look at the results image posted earlier in this thread. Great mock results, great teacher predictions and huge downgrading. This system is a joke and none of it is one bit the fault of the teachers.
 
Concrete Dreams said:
Or perhaps teacher predictions are accurate but don’t fit into the bell curves that are used to assign grades? Maybe it’s the fixed system, the system moves the goal posts each year, after students have completed exams, that is broken and needs changing?
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An exam gives a score out of 100 let's say. The teacher might know what range to expect but they would be unlikely to get the exact number. Even if they can be accurate to 2 marks then wherever the border lies means they aren't going to get it right every time. It's also kind of like how we talk about footballers. We will say that "on his day" he is x,y,z. It's the same for teachers. They probably know that a pupil could get an A "on his day" but they can't guarantee that the pupil will be on form that day. That's why we have exams with standardised marking because otherwise it can be too subjective. Do we grade to what the pupil could get when on form or do we let teachers decide based on more knowledge of the pupils? The teachers might be better if they had 5-10 pupils per class but not in a class of 30+.
 
bear66 said:
Statistically, private schools more accurately predict A level grades than schools in more deprived areas . . . . except in the prediction of A / A* students where schools in deprived areas get more accurate predictions. I hope the algorithm doesn't penalise these good performing kids.
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Funny that it’s easier to predict the outcomes of students who have much more stable and supportive environments at home. I mean I’m shocked by this.
 
boromike85 said:
An exam gives a score out of 100 let's say. The teacher might know what range to expect but they would be unlikely to get the exact number. Even if they can be accurate to 2 marks then wherever the border lies means they aren't going to get it right every time. It's also kind of like how we talk about footballers. We will say that "on his day" he is x,y,z. It's the same for teachers. They probably know that a pupil could get an A "on his day" but they can't guarantee that the pupil will be on form that day. That's why we have exams with standardised marking because otherwise it can be too subjective. Do we grade to what the pupil could get when on form or do we let teachers decide based on more knowledge of the pupils? The teachers might be better if they had 5-10 pupils per class but not in a class of 30+.
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Surely you’re aware that teacher predictions and particularly this year as the students had to be ranked in each grade classification rely on all of the work the student has done in class plus assessments plus mock exams etc. It’s not as subjective as you’re suggesting.
 
boromike85 said:
An exam gives a score out of 100 let's say. The teacher might know what range to expect but they would be unlikely to get the exact number. Even if they can be accurate to 2 marks then wherever the border lies means they aren't going to get it right every time. It's also kind of like how we talk about footballers. We will say that "on his day" he is x,y,z. It's the same for teachers. They probably know that a pupil could get an A "on his day" but they can't guarantee that the pupil will be on form that day. That's why we have exams with standardised marking because otherwise it can be too subjective. Do we grade to what the pupil could get when on form or do we let teachers decide based on more knowledge of the pupils? The teachers might be better if they had 5-10 pupils per class but not in a class of 30+.
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I was raising the point of moving grade boundaries each year and the fixing of certain numbers of students getting certain grades. It is how exams work in every series bar this year, for obvious reasons. Maybe it’s time we looked at this issue.
 
Facefuzz said:
My daughter has been let down. Her teachers have been in touch and confirmed that they are appealing as the grades go against her mocks and teacher input.
It is truly shocking and I feel for a level leavers, gcse leavers and those going into last year secondary having had 6 months off.
We’ve let a generation down but atleast we got the pubs open and half price meals.
Shocking shocking decisions
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My son has a mock result at C, downgraded to D and a teacher prediction of D downgraded to E
 
hopefully he gets s
Borobuddah said:
My son has a mock result at C, downgraded to D and a teacher prediction of D downgraded to E
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Hopefully he gets sorted bb. My daughter was told by her teacher that it was across 1 of the exam providers/boards? It might be called AQA or something like that
 
the_holgate_roof said:
Is the a revenue opportunity, I assume people have to pay to appeal?
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There’s no cost holgate. Apparently just fill a form out at college. Not sure if the teacher has to support it or apply on your behalf.
Luckily my daughters plans for next year won’t change. Not sure on bb’s sons situation but it’s the kids who’s plans are thrown into chaos I feel for.
 
He has lost his university place and had no luck in clearing, the C grade may be reinstated on appeal, but at present it doesn’t help him
 
How many pupils have been denied that moment of euphoria of achieving something? The circumstances are obviously difficult and appreciate the challenges but an ill thought out policy has just created so much angst amongst our 18 year old population.
 
boromike85 said:
No. I'm not blaming anyone. I am sure that they did what they did with good intentions without knowing how the data they provide would be used. However, teachers have over-marked, was it 12% nationally I read, and that has had an impact. E.g. If they have two almost identical students who are sitting on the border of an A and a B. The teacher marks them both as an A had they sat exams one of them gets an A and one gets a B. For the system to work the teacher should know which one was going to get an A and which would get a B and mark them accordingly but in reality it is impossible to know and so they both are given As. When that happens at every boundary it means grades are over-inflated and because the exam body don't have any data for which ones are right and which are wrong they have to downgrade everyone equally.
Click to expand...

Genuinely don't think you could have got more wrong in one post. Quite impressive really.
 
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