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A levels grade drop 2014?

Given the depature of January modules from the A level syllabus, do you think overall grades across the country will fall? And if so what will it do come results day with the fight for uni spaces?

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Reply 1

06shawm

Original post by 07marfligeo

Given the depature of January modules from the A level syllabus, do you think overall grades across the country will fall? And if so what will it do come results day with the fight for uni spaces?

I think the summer exams would of been a more stressful experience for most candidates since they had to sit all A2 modules in one sitting plus any AS module resits. If there was a drop in performance in exams, it is likely to be counteracted with lower grade boundaries to maintain a fair distribution of grades.

Reply 2

FanaticEV

Loooooool at OPs profile picture

Reply 3

newblood

I dont think theyre will be any noticeable effect.

No jan exams may mean more summer exams, but it also means a whole month or two (Dec,Jan) more for learning material.

There may be a small drop overall but i doubt it would be significant. Grade boundaries should continue to reflect the difficulty of the paper....as a whole for each exam candidates will still be as well prepared as they always are.

Reply 4

AlphaDog0127

Original post by 07marfligeo

Given the depature of January modules from the A level syllabus, do you think overall grades across the country will fall? And if so what will it do come results day with the fight for uni spaces?

Yeah, I think there will be a grade drop. I remember in my AS January exam I had a D, resat it in Summer and ended up with straight As in that subject. A D+A grade is significantly lower overall grade than 2 As.

I sat my A2s this summer, and it was the first time that I have ever been phased by the thought of exams. I had no idea how well I'd do, having had never sat an A2 exam before and knowing that for my subjects they are completely different to the AS exams was not comforting. There's always past papers, but from my experience the questions that popped up on those are always on a different end of the spectrum to ones I actually ended up sitting. I was so worked up in one exam that I literally sat and stared at my paper for the first 20mins, then with maybe 5-10mins 'til the end of the exam I realised I'd answered a whole essay question wrong!

A lot of my friends had similar experiences to this, and most peopled I know were retaking AS modules on top of all their A2s, so I should think that grades will drop this year. It's going to be a real shame because I know so many ridiculously capable students that wont be getting their first choice :frown:

There was crying at my AS results day, I am sure people will be bawling at this one because let's face it... these results are determining where you may be attending for the next 3+ years.

Reply 5

Acidy

You raise an interesting point. I'd also like to know more about this..

Reply 6

tnetennba

I highly doubt it. When January modules were still available, most people at my school failed them.

Reply 7

username1155480

the whole point of removing January module exams was to reduce the number of people getting A's/A*'s... they're not going to put the boundaries down to counteract this or it would have been completely pointless...

Reply 8

aliman65

It really depends on whether they want to lower the number of top grades this year. Regardless of how well people have done, they might decide to only award half the number of A grades to make it seem more prestigious.

Reply 9

fnatic NateDestiel

Original post by aliman65

thats such bs if that happens - whats the point in that they may as well do a star with distinction lol

Reply 10

Hellomoto.

I think it will come down to the difficulty of the exam, but will be the same as last year as there are loads of past papers! Ie i hope the C2 maths exam will be lower due to the difficulty

Reply 11

aliman65

Original post by Hellomoto.

I think it will come down to the difficulty of the exam, but will be the same as last year as there are loads of past papers! Ie i hope the C2 maths exam will be lower due to the difficulty

The number of past papers has always been high. With access to solomon papers and other papers outside the examboard there has never been a shortage of papers. Anyway, the sort of questions they are setting now are so different from past papers that they have almost become misleading as they are a lot easier than the exams we have to sit now.

Reply 12

06shawm

If we had just one exam board, things would be so much easier.

Reply 13

The Empire Odyssey

Original post by 07marfligeo

Given the depature of January modules from the A level syllabus, do you think overall grades across the country will fall? And if so what will it do come results day with the fight for uni spaces?

There was an article about this on the Daily Telegraph Professionals/Specialists do believe, overall grades in A-level and GCSEs will drop because of the November/Jan/March exams being axed. Which meant, there was more pressure on the students and teachers to finish content. So, Headmasters, Heads of Departments, Senior Management, Head of Sixth Forms (all schools) have been given a letter from Ofqual saying that they should prepare themselves for low grades than what would usually be expected if they had exams in the 3 above.

Because of this, I think Unis will be pressured a lot to obviously hold onto the students who do get the offers, but consider clearing and perhaps a lot more subjects will be in clearing due to the fall of grades. However, this will only effect subjects and schools that have a history of using the Jan exams for A-levels. So for example, English A-level, most if not all schools enter their students in June exam because in Jan they are most likely dealing with coursework. However, for Psychology, they used to put one exam in Jan, but now it's been axed, they are expecting grades to be low in subjects like Psychology.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 14

Old_Simon

Headlines will be "Gove sacked then A level grades plummet".

Reply 15

newblood

Original post by Jaska

finally someone speaking some sense. everyone on here is too naive methinks

Reply 16

newblood

Original post by The Empire Odyssey

There was an article about this either on BBC Education or The Guardian's Education and Educational Professionals/Specialists do believe, overall grades in A-level and GCSEs will drop because of the November/Jan/March exams being axed. Which meant, there was more pressure on the students and teachers to finish content. So, Headmasters, Heads of Departments, Senior Management, Head of Sixth Forms (all schools) have been given a letter from Ofsted saying that they should prepare themselves for low grades than what would usually be expected if they had exams in the 3 above.

Because of this, I think Unis will be pressured a lot to obviously hold onto the students who do get the offers, but consider clearing and perhaps a lot more subjects will be in clearing due to the fall of grades. However, this will only effect subjects and schools that have a history of using the Jan exams for A-levels. So for example, English A-level, most if not all schools enter their students in June exam because in Jan they are most likely dealing with coursework. However, for Psychology, they used to put one exam in Jan, but now it's been axed, they are expecting grades to be low in subjects like Psychology.

any proof for this? i doubt that is true, but in this case i'm happy to be proved wrong

Reply 17

07marfligeo

Original post by The Empire Odyssey

However, this will only effect subjects and schools that have a history of using the Jan exams for A-levels. So for example, English A-level, most if not all schools enter their students in June exam because in Jan they are most likely dealing with coursework. However, for Psychology, they used to put one exam in Jan, but now it's been axed, they are expecting grades to be low in subjects like Psychology.

This^
I was a resit student, doing law. Law is a subject with a history of January exams, the amount you have to remember is crazy with case law etc, the idea of doing law03 and law 04 together is horrific one.

I also agree that grades are going to drop rather than boundaries. It would seem counter intuitive to introduce the axing of modules to drop grade inflation and then reduce grades.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 18

07marfligeo

Original post by newblood

any proof for this? i doubt that is true, but in this case i'm happy to be proved wrong

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10927904/Schools-told-GCSE-and-A-level-grades-may-drop-in-2014.html

Reply 19

newblood

Original post by 07marfligeo

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10927904/Schools-told-GCSE-and-A-level-grades-may-drop-in-2014.html

Hmm, I'm rather skeptical of this given that it was written on 26th June ... i.e. when exams were still going on so marking will not have even started by then (or enough wont have been marked to make any valid comments)

That seems to be a 'speculation' worry just as we are all speculating on here, so it should certainly be taken with a pinch of salt (and doesn't tell us anymore than we already know).