Latin A2 AHHHHH
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Original post by JF24
That's totally shocking, and a maddeningly unfair advantage.
I'd have thought OCR would bother to check whether another board had used the same passage, given the plethora of elegiac passages from which they could choose.
I'd have thought OCR would bother to check whether another board had used the same passage, given the plethora of elegiac passages from which they could choose.
I have to say I agree. Mind you, I suppose there will always be somebody who has translated whatever it is before. Hopefully not too many schools did it or it will shock the grade boundaries something horrible. :/
Is the Caesar guaranteed to be from the Gallic/Civil Wars?
Original post by michael321
Is the Caesar guaranteed to be from the Gallic/Civil Wars?
Yes isn't it just de bello gallico?
Original post by blahblah16
Yes isn't it just de bello gallico?
It can be either, I think. :s
Original post by blahblah16
Yes isn't it just de bello gallico?
Unfortunately, judging by the specimen/past papers, it's either. More to read, which is annoying. But I think it'd be a few hours well spent over the weekend. It's about 400 pages of reasonably small script, all in.
I've spoken to my Latin teacher about the fact that this exam paper was compromised by the Pre-U Specimen. He isn't surprised in the least, because OCR don't have a blacklist of texts they shouldn't use in exams: those in past papers, in books like John Taylor's 'Latin Beyond GCSE' or Ashley Carter's 'Latin Unseens for A-level', or demonstrably the Pre-U specimen.
He's more concerned because, obviously, there'll be little to no way of telling who did well because it wasn't quite Unseen, and who did well because they're genuinely good at Latin. So unless OCR come under media scrutiny because of this, it seems this issue may be quietly dealt with at the Standardisation/Awarding meetings with a softening of the grade boundaries.
He's more concerned because, obviously, there'll be little to no way of telling who did well because it wasn't quite Unseen, and who did well because they're genuinely good at Latin. So unless OCR come under media scrutiny because of this, it seems this issue may be quietly dealt with at the Standardisation/Awarding meetings with a softening of the grade boundaries.
(edited 12 years ago)
Original post by AmroTT
I've spoken to my Latin teacher about the fact that this exam paper was compromised by the Pre-U Specimen. He isn't surprised in the least, because OCR don't have a blacklist of texts they shouldn't use in exams: those in past papers, in books like John Taylor's 'Latin Beyond GCSE' or Ashley Carter's 'Latin Unseens for A-level', or demonstrably the Pre-U specimen.
He's more concerned because, obviously, there'll be little to no way of telling who did well because it wasn't quite Unseen, and who did well because they're genuinely good at Latin. So unless OCR come under media scrutiny because of this, it seems this issue may be quietly dealt with at the Standardisation/Awarding meetings with a softening of the grade boundaries.
He's more concerned because, obviously, there'll be little to no way of telling who did well because it wasn't quite Unseen, and who did well because they're genuinely good at Latin. So unless OCR come under media scrutiny because of this, it seems this issue may be quietly dealt with at the Standardisation/Awarding meetings with a softening of the grade boundaries.
What if we all complain..either through our schools or bombard OCR with letters..?!?
Original post by Choca Mocha
What if we all complain..either through our schools or bombard OCR with letters..?!?
The problem is, I doubt we'd have much of a case anyway. Ovid's work is freely available in the public domain. There will always be some people who have studied that particular section before.
In truth, it logically shouldn't press the boundaries too hard. Some people will score highly who were doubtless going to anyway. Others might score higher than they would, but then again may not do that much better since they don't remember working on the passage too well. (apparently we'd done it before but I'm damned if I remember it, so I was probably away. However, my friends did do it before but could only recollect so far as to remember that there was a dolphin in there somewhere.) Some will score higher than they would but will be literature weak and fall down on that. So hopefully there shouldn't be too much sway. At the end of the day, it annoys the hell out of me but there's really nothing that we could have done about it. It's not like preparing any better would have helped, it just so happened that some people had studied it before. There's no point over worrying ourselves about it, all we can do is wait it out and hope that, come results day, we'll get what we all want and need. :/
There will also be people, like myself, who have just happened to have seen it before. My teacher made us loads of practise questions out of Ovid's Amores/Fasti/Tristia/Heroides etc from whatever he thought could be picked, so I'd seen half of the one we got in the exam before.. To be honest, I don't think it makes much difference. People who've seen it before might get cocky and not look properly at the latin and make silly mistakes - my other latin teacher says that happens a lot.
I agree with @Mouse Potato, it seems so unfair, but I think it's unfortunately inevitables.
Hugs to everyone
I agree with @Mouse Potato, it seems so unfair, but I think it's unfortunately inevitables.
Hugs to everyone
Hi, I had seen the passage b4 and it didnt help. If anything it distracted me, and I worked out I lost at least 14 marks just on the passage, another 2 on the hard question about the other armed men lol in the verse and probs a few more on lit questions.
so dont worry.
+ i didnt have much time to do it because i wrote loads on the virgil
so dont worry.
+ i didnt have much time to do it because i wrote loads on the virgil
To anyone who hadn't seen that 'unseen' passage in the Latin verse paper before and is feeling cheated:
My class and I are pushing a complaint forward about it because we feel we've been screwed over and disadvantaged because of the amount of students who seem to have done the supposed unseen before. We are complainingg through our school as well as individually, threading legal action if nothing is done to make it fair, we've also contacted the media to inform them of this screw up on behalf of OCR.
If you feel cheated like we do, please please complain also to OCR you can submit a complaint on the website but it would be better if you did it through your school/institution. Don't let this disadvantage you and effect your grade, it isn't fair and we can get something done about it.
My class and I are pushing a complaint forward about it because we feel we've been screwed over and disadvantaged because of the amount of students who seem to have done the supposed unseen before. We are complainingg through our school as well as individually, threading legal action if nothing is done to make it fair, we've also contacted the media to inform them of this screw up on behalf of OCR.
If you feel cheated like we do, please please complain also to OCR you can submit a complaint on the website but it would be better if you did it through your school/institution. Don't let this disadvantage you and effect your grade, it isn't fair and we can get something done about it.
Original post by philly.tidd
Anyone else doing prose composition? Any tips... ? to be honest I'm relatively confident but it can't hurt
Afraid not (my school always chose to spend extra time on literature rather than attempt to teach us prose comp... we did some for a few weeks in year 12 and it was an absolute disaster! XD ) but... I didn't even know you could do prose comp at A2, which paper is it on? Is it an extra section on prose meaning that you don't have to do Caesar, or...? Just curious, prose comp is a whole new world to me!
As for complaining to OCR, to whoever said above: I doubt they'll do much about it. Personally I find it a little annoying, but there's NOTHING we could have done about it. I came out of that exam feeling that, whilst it was a struggle, there was literally nothing else I could have revised that would have helped, my natural level is just not good enough to breeze through that unseen. Let me know if anything does come of it, but I think I'm just going to buckle down and revise Caesar to hell and back in the hope of being able to scrape that all important A grade. :/
Yeah I'm doing prose comp, I wouldn't worry they are usually really easy and if stuck you can just reword them. The one we had in the Greek exam this year was pretty easy so I'm expecting similar for the latin, just focus on your prose being right and don't try and use unfamiliar stuff so the english is perfectly conveyed, show you can manipulate etc. the style marks are fairly easy to get.
Original post by libertymayWHS
To anyone who hadn't seen that 'unseen' passage in the Latin verse paper before and is feeling cheated:
My class and I are pushing a complaint forward about it because we feel we've been screwed over and disadvantaged because of the amount of students who seem to have done the supposed unseen before. We are complainingg through our school as well as individually, threading legal action if nothing is done to make it fair, we've also contacted the media to inform them of this screw up on behalf of OCR.
If you feel cheated like we do, please please complain also to OCR you can submit a complaint on the website but it would be better if you did it through your school/institution. Don't let this disadvantage you and effect your grade, it isn't fair and we can get something done about it.
My class and I are pushing a complaint forward about it because we feel we've been screwed over and disadvantaged because of the amount of students who seem to have done the supposed unseen before. We are complainingg through our school as well as individually, threading legal action if nothing is done to make it fair, we've also contacted the media to inform them of this screw up on behalf of OCR.
If you feel cheated like we do, please please complain also to OCR you can submit a complaint on the website but it would be better if you did it through your school/institution. Don't let this disadvantage you and effect your grade, it isn't fair and we can get something done about it.
I just sent an email to ofqual and BBC, and the head of classics at my school is sending an email to loads of other classics departments in the country getting them to complain, it's completely unfair and everyone at my school is pissed off ( especially me since I took the other OCR blunder of biology on the same day) there Is no way of differentiating those of us who genuinely are able at latin and hadnt seen the paper and those who are simply good at recalling from memory, if u want to complain send an email to ofqual, OCR skim over issues and will do nothing!
Original post by HollyEwart
I just sent an email to ofqual and BBC, and the head of classics at my school is sending an email to loads of other classics departments in the country getting them to complain, it's completely unfair and everyone at my school is pissed off ( especially me since I took the other OCR blunder of biology on the same day) there Is no way of differentiating those of us who genuinely are able at latin and hadnt seen the paper and those who are simply good at recalling from memory, if u want to complain send an email to ofqual, OCR skim over issues and will do nothing!
I've just stumbled across this statement on the Ofqual website. Clearly the additional checks that OCR performed at Ofqual's orders didn't pick this one up.
EDIT: I've read further and found that Ofqual don't regulate International qualifications - like the Pre-U, I'm afraid - so I'm not sure where this would lead. I'm still calling/emailing tomorrow though.
(edited 12 years ago)
Teachers and student's parents are threatening with legal action so something will be done and it looks likely that the only thing they can do kahuna us our predicted grades.
It really is worth complaining about when it could be the difference of you getting into uni or not.
It really is worth complaining about when it could be the difference of you getting into uni or not.
*is give us our predicted grades.
Original post by libertymayWHS
Teachers and student's parents are threatening with legal action so something will be done and it looks likely that the only thing they can do kahuna us our predicted grades.
It really is worth complaining about when it could be the difference of you getting into uni or not.
It really is worth complaining about when it could be the difference of you getting into uni or not.
I find it unlikely that they would award us our predicted grades as in those that we give to UCAS. If they do indeed take action in this way, they will refer to a system I've been informed about that teachers have to complete earlier in the year. As far as I've been told, this states clearly what each student is expected to gain on each paper - this is in case of hospitalisation, art departments burning down and other such situations whereby it would be impossible to award a grade by normal methods. This is supported by evidence gathered throughout the year, so may not be the same grade as predicted on UCAS.
Out of curiosity, if I'm allowed to ask, what's the case for legal action? As in, are parents attempting to sue OCR on some grounds, and if so, what grounds?
Of course I'd be gutted if it meant that I missed my firm, but ultimately I honestly don't think there's much ground to stand on. I doubt it even helped many people out too significantly, as the responses on this thread confirm. :/
Still, good luck and keep us posted on the response I guess.
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