The Student Room Group

My solution to a-level fiasco!

As you are probably aware, I am against alevels being dished out like smarties as they have. A better solution would be as follows:

(Original post by Tabbs.x)
So what’s your solution?

My solution:
Phased exams in socially distanced seating in schools. Eg: paper 1 for group A and paper 2 for group b. Make the kids sit exams in august into sep, and start uni a month later if required as it is an exceptional situation. I think something like this is far better than awarding grades on teachers predictions/computer algorithms.

Even if they only sit one paper per subject, it’d be better than no papers and awarding a grade off mocks or teachers predictions. The government got this mega wrong.
Reply 1
What if they haven't been revising?
Original post by gtty123
What if they haven't been revising?


I don’t think anyone would have been revising so everyone would be in the same boat, so it’d all average out in the end.
Reply 3
Original post by boulderingislife
I don’t think anyone would have been revising so everyone would be in the same boat, so it’d all average out in the end.

But, would they achieve better grades?
Unfair to sit different papers. Different students have strengths in different areas.
Original post by gtty123
But, would they achieve better grades?

Possibly, but if not at least it would be a fairer system and not reward the private school elite. Results would be normalised using the normal distribution.
Original post by xoxAngel_Kxox
Unfair to sit different papers. Different students have strengths in different areas.

More unfair than giving people their alevel results based on teachers predictions/mock results?

I think it is the best of very few viable options.
(edited 3 years ago)
You cant just suddenly impose exams on people all of a sudden. Though I do think a jan start date should be available for popular courses at all unis
Original post by boulderingislife

More unfair than giving people their alevel results based on teachers predictions/mock results?

I think it is the best in the series of the few viable options.

I just don't see the need to have two separate papers. In your solution, exams are being sat before the start of the academic year, yes? So surely there would be enough space in an empty building to use classrooms to allow all students to sit the same exam. The invigilators could be split between the classrooms and a few extras if needed. I'm sure there would be lots of staff willing to invigilate to help their pupils do the best they can.

But I do also think that the grades pupils received yesterday - however poor - would still be higher than what they would achieve if they were made to sit an exam now after months of no official teaching or revision.

I think it's a ridiculous situation, with literally no solution that would work, other than the whole of the education system resitting the year.
Original post by Skelly1203
You cant just suddenly impose exams on people all of a sudden. Though I do think a jan start date should be available for popular courses at all unis

The world has essentially shut down. I don’t think a jan start is as crazy And farfetched as it sounds. If that’s what it takes to keep the system’s integrity then so be it.
Original post by xoxAngel_Kxox
I just don't see the need to have two separate papers. In your solution, exams are being sat before the start of the academic year, yes? So surely there would be enough space in an empty building to use classrooms to allow all students to sit the same exam. The invigilators could be split between the classrooms and a few extras if needed. I'm sure there would be lots of staff willing to invigilate to help their pupils do the best they can.

But I do also think that the grades pupils received yesterday - however poor - would still be higher than what they would achieve if they were made to sit an exam now after months of no official teaching or revision.

I think it's a ridiculous situation, with literally no solution that would work, other than the whole of the education system resitting the year.

Remember, scores in exams are normalised so the proportion of A grades etc would be the same. It has been done like this for donkeys years. It means the grade boundary for the various grades would be lowered so only a certain proportion get A/B/C etc grades.

As for the one paper idea, yes that would be ideal, but my two paper solution is for those schools who cannot get everyone to sit the paper on the same day for whatever reason.
Original post by boulderingislife
The world has essentially shut down. I don’t think a jan start is as crazy And farfetched as it sounds. If that’s what it takes to keep the system’s integrity then so be it.

I'd be fine aslong as we keep the highest grade of our predicted or exam
Original post by Skelly1203
I'd be fine aslong as we keep the highest grade of our predicted or exam


That’s a flawed system if that were allowed. No one except those who got predicted bad grades would bother with the exams, in which case you could end up with an untenable situation where some 35-40% of grades awarded are A/A* compared to the current 27%
Original post by xoxAngel_Kxox
I just don't see the need to have two separate papers. In your solution, exams are being sat before the start of the academic year, yes? So surely there would be enough space in an empty building to use classrooms to allow all students to sit the same exam. The invigilators could be split between the classrooms and a few extras if needed. I'm sure there would be lots of staff willing to invigilate to help their pupils do the best they can.


Invigilating is something teachers don't do now - schools employ invigilators many of which are retired.
Original post by Muttley79
Invigilating is something teachers don't do now - schools employ invigilators many of which are retired.

I know that - I did my A Levels 11 years ago and that was the case even then. All I meant was that if needed, if exams were sat in the summer (as was suggested by OP), there would be no shortage of supervision however many rooms the students needed to be split into.

Original post by boulderingislife
Remember, scores in exams are normalised so the proportion of A grades etc would be the same. It has been done like this for donkeys years. It means the grade boundary for the various grades would be lowered so only a certain proportion get A/B/C etc grades.

As for the one paper idea, yes that would be ideal, but my two paper solution is for those schools who cannot get everyone to sit the paper on the same day for whatever reason.

Oh I know that. But then that's not fair either because some students will have worked through lockdown through choice (perhaps with the thought of resitting the year, because they were bored, because they didn't quite trust that they wouldn't have to sit the papers) and others wouldn't, given they were told exams were cancelled and they were getting predicted grades - you can't just keep changing the goalposts because there's a huge difference between the way students have been supported through this, and some would just fail miserably when they might have really excelled in 'normal' times.
Original post by xoxAngel_Kxox
I know that - I did my A Levels 11 years ago and that was the case even then. All I meant was that if needed, if exams were sat in the summer (as was suggested by OP), there would be no shortage of supervision however many rooms the students needed to be split into.

Who would do it? Many of our invigilators aren't available at short notice. Where are the papers going to come from? Imagine all the cleaning needed between each exam ...
Original post by xoxAngel_Kxox
I know that - I did my A Levels 11 years ago and that was the case even then. All I meant was that if needed, if exams were sat in the summer (as was suggested by OP), there would be no shortage of supervision however many rooms the students needed to be split into.


Oh I know that. But then that's not fair either because some students will have worked through lockdown through choice (perhaps with the thought of resitting the year, because they were bored, because they didn't quite trust that they wouldn't have to sit the papers) and others wouldn't, given they were told exams were cancelled and they were getting predicted grades - you can't just keep changing the goalposts because there's a huge difference between the way students have been supported through this, and some would just fail miserably when they might have really excelled in 'normal' times.

As I said earlier, it is perhaps the fairest way out of a short list of very bad alternatives. And even if a small minority have studied over the summer then that’s to their credit and they’ll perform better and get higher grades. So what? Good on them for being so proactive. It’d only be a minority so the overall normal distribution would not distort the proportion of candidates jn each of the grade boundaries imo.
Original post by Muttley79
Who would do it? Many of our invigilators aren't available at short notice. Where are the papers going to come from? Imagine all the cleaning needed between each exam ...


About the same amount of cleaning required between each class when classes resume in a couple of weeks I would guess!

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