yup, i had to do nearly 3-4 exams per week for 7 weeks straight in order to prove my grade and to ensure that my teachers had sufficient evidence to choose my grade appropriately. It was such a draining process, glad I never have to do that again. Not to mention, some schools also continued doing examinations, despite what the exam boards said. :frown:

Reply 65

SupposedlyIronic

Honestly calm. I just want to know at this point but it doesn't feel as serious as GCSEs. Maybe it feels like mocks did because we didn't have national papers.

Reply 66

lisani1_00

Original post by ashtolga23

Honestly calm. I just want to know at this point but it doesn't feel as serious as GCSEs. Maybe it feels like mocks did because we didn't have national papers.

Yeah i get what you mean, oddly im much more relaxed (and a little exicited too) than i was during the wait to GCSE results day. I honestly find it weird, but then again nothing this year has been normal. :]

Reply 67

Compost

Original post by CurryCurry2468

@Compost

Hi I need some advice.

So basically my school shared with us the initial list of evidence that was being used for our TAGs (this was shared back in May) and for Maths it indicated that they are only using the mocks we did throughout April & May. They said a final list would be sent out once the TAGs had been submitted and that if there were any changes from the initial list, that they would inform us and allow us to raise any concerns or queries.

So the deadline passed and they never actually shared the final list with us.

Today I went on to the school website to see if I could find anything and to my surprise there is a whole page with the documents regarding TAGs and in the list is the final list of evidence bases they used and so I checked it and the list shows for maths, they are using a set of papers we did for class work back in November 2020 and a set of mocks we did in May 2021 for the evidence. The ones we did in November, most of us performed poorly on yet the head of maths reiterated that they would only use the mocks we did the best on

So there has been a change in the evidence bases used yet we were never informed and lets be honest, we finished school back in May so no one is really gonna check the school website anymore. What really annoys me is that they were not transparent about the whole process (initially they were very transparent and insisted they would inform us if any changes were made before the grade submission deadline). Plus I don't why they resorted to using a set of papers we did as classwork back in November 2020 (which tbf was very early on in Year 13, it was a full A-Level paper and they kept some questions in on topics we had not covered yet). Surely this puts us at a disadvantage and they must have acknowledged this. I still don't get why they chose to use some set of papers we did in November 2020 instead of just sticking to using the 2 full set of mocks we did throughout April & May. Back in November we all performed poorly on those papers as it was our first time doing a full A-Level paper in class or anything similar to that as we never did any mocks in year 12. As well as this, from that point on, we had a good 4 months to improve and surely those improvements would have been shown in the April mocks.

I am really worried that all of us will be screwed over for maths, I am legit worrying rn. Idk what to do, its summer holiday so none of the teachers will be checking their emails, and it annoys me that they did not let us know of the change in evidence bases earlier.

Please can u give me some advice on what course of action I should take, if any?

You may be worrying unnecessarily. No one expects students to get the grade on a full paper in November that they will achieve the following Summer but the rank order may have value. I believe that many schools that set 'secure' papers as mocks discovered just how widespread the cheating was and have had to adapt their method to try to avoid advantaging the people who obtained the mocks papers and practised them over the people who did their legitimate best. They may have decided the April mocks were too compromised to be worth using without rewarding the cheaters. If you're concerned then all you can do is talk to your school.

Reply 68

CurryCurry2468

Original post by Compost

Yeah I think its probs to do with the cheating. My class was very small and for the may mocks, two people had the papers and cheated but the teachers did not discard the may mock, they only discarded the April mock.

Anyways thanks for the advice, I did send an email to the exams team yesterday and I doubt I will get a reply till some time before results day.

Reply 69

SB1234567890

Even though if my assessments are at the standard I've been at for the last 2 years I should be fine for my firm and definitely fine for my insurance, I still feel sick

Reply 70

CurryCurry2468

Original post by Unknown1232003

How is everyone feeellliinng? Its so close i cant believe it!

I was feeling really good until I found out two days ago that for maths, my school decided to use our May mock and a set of papers we did back in November as part of class work for the evidence to derive our grades. Before school finished for us, they sent a list around and for maths it said they are only using the April & May mocks to derive our grades but they said it could change and if it does, they would let us know.

They never told us of the change and what worries me is that for the papers we did in November, majority of us performed poorly as it was a full a-level paper, plus the boundaries were higher compared to 2019 and 2020 as it mainly a FM cohort who sat those exams back in 2018 yet the head of maths did not alter the boundaries.

Reply 71

katie.weston

Original post by CurryCurry2468

They need to provide evidence for more than one set of mocks. We were told they would use mocks from through the year

Reply 72

CurryCurry2468

Original post by katie.weston

They need to provide evidence for more than one set of mocks. We were told they would use mocks from through the year

I understand that they need to provide evidence from more than one set of mocks which they originally planned to do. The original evidence base was our mocks from April and then our mocks from may, so it was two full set of mocks which was equal in size to 9 pieces of evidence.

They insisted they would only use evidence from earlier on in year 13 only if it would be beneficial to us.

We had our first official year 13 mock for mathe in January 2021 which was done remotely, the one papers from November that they are using as evidence were done as part of class work.

Reply 73

Unknown1232003

Original post by CurryCurry2468

Honestly i totally understand you, the process hasnt been transparent at all and i feel like this years results are going to be more chaotic than last year due to many factors for example the exams schools used and grade boundaries etc. My college havent even told us how our grades are going to be calculated.. they said theyre using 'everything' but idek how lol. And we didnt even get grades for mocks we did we only got percentages so even if we tried appealing our grades its like we cant even prove it if you get what i mean. Its totally unfair and i wouldve rather just sat the official exams instead of all this fuss. Best of luck with your results though, remember that you have tried your best and you should be proud of yourself for getting a levels done throughout these really tough times! :smile:

Reply 74

2 names.

Pass or fail they don't determine who you are

Reply 75

CurryCurry2468

Original post by Unknown1232003

Dammm, that is really bad by ur school. We never got given any raw Mark's or percentages but in the school's centre policy, it states we will get a breakdown of Mark's for the assessments that were used on results day.

Legit my school were being so transparent and open about the whole process from the beginning back in March up to when we finished school in May. They insisted of anything changed from their original plans then they would let us know.

good luck!

Original post by PQ

Switching to a daily countdown now we’re under 20 days :eek3:

Bump

Reply 78

Emmygus

1. AS or A level? A level
2. What subjects? Maths, Biology and Psychology

For Yr 13:
3. What university is your firm/insurance? Royal veterinary college/Middlesex Uni
4. Which subject? Animal biology, behaviour, welfare and ethics/ Veterinary nursing
5. What grades are required? BBB/BCC
6. Going to uni this year or taking a gap year? Gap year

For everyone:
7. What grades are you predicted? BBC
8. How are you feeling about results day? really nervous as I don't know what grade boundaries my centre (Im a private candidate) used and they gave me allot of essays, assignments, mocks and lessons to complete to add as evidence which took away from my revision time by allot and then had to sit the exams a month earlier than usual so I have no idea what grades I will get :s-smilie:

9. Anything else to add?

Reply 79

CurryCurry2468

Original post by lisani1_00

how's everyone feeling ahead of results day? :smile:

I am fairly confident I will get the grades for my firm and insurance choice although my school decided to include an exam paper that we did as part of classwork as well as our May mocks as part of the final evidence base instead of their original plan which was the April mock and then the May mock.

As a class we overall performed very poorly on that November paper.

My predicted grade for Maths was a B and for my firm choice I need AAB so I am still confident I can get at least a B in maths cuz in the May mock I found it quite easy but when I found out that the November paper was being used instead of our April mock, I got so scared cuz I was thinking they would be grading us based off grade boundaries alone however they are using grade descriptors as well I believe plus more weighting will be given to the May mock so hopefully it all works out and I can still as a minimum, get a B in maths.

Also on results day, alongside our results we will also get a breakdown of the marks we achieved in the assessments we sat