Ofqual recommends students take mock exams every term for 2022 contingency plans

Poll

Do you think it's a good idea to have extra mock exams as a contingency plan?

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-letters-arrangements-for-gcses-as-and-a-levels-in-2022/letter-to-students

https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/pupils-should-take-exams-every-22137099

Ofqual has given out guidance to teachers and schools to support them with preparing for pandemic contingency plans if exams are cancelled again in 2022, with termly testing at the top of the list. TAG's (Teacher Assessed Grades) will need to be used next year if exams are cancelled, and Ofqual wants you to feel you have had ample opportunity to showcase what you can do over the next few months.

This includes mock exams before Christmas, early next year and before the summer term. These may be full or part of past papers or similar, but Ofqual have tried to stress that these exams need to be "as useful as possible" for students and that schools should "guard against over-assessment".

This is in addition to some advance information that students will be receiving in February to help with summer revision.

How do you feel about this? Are you worried that it's going to add more stress onto your already busy exam years, or are you happy to get more opportunities to showcase what you can do?

Let us know your thoughts :heart:

Reply 1

CatInTheCorner

19

Original post by StrawberryDreams

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-letters-arrangements-for-gcses-as-and-a-levels-in-2022/letter-to-students

https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/pupils-should-take-exams-every-22137099

Ofqual has given out guidance to teachers and schools to support them with preparing for pandemic contingency plans if exams are cancelled again in 2022, with termly testing at the top of the list. TAG's (Teacher Assessed Grades) will need to be used next year if exams are cancelled, and Ofqual wants you to feel you have had ample opportunity to showcase what you can do over the next few months.

This includes mock exams before Christmas, early next year and before the summer term. These may be full or part of past papers or similar, but Ofqual have tried to stress that these exams need to be "as useful as possible" for students and that schools should "guard against over-assessment".

This is in addition to some advance information that students will be receiving in February to help with summer revision.

How do you feel about this? Are you worried that it's going to add more stress onto your already busy exam years, or are you happy to get more opportunities to showcase what you can do?

Let us know your thoughts :heart:

Oh no, not more exams. Just give us our predicted grades If we're happy with them, exams only for those who aren't.

Reply 2

Interea

19

Many schools do at least that many exams throughout the year anyway, so officially saying that they could be part of a contingency plan means you don't end up with the situation of the last few years where people thought their mocks didn't matter and then were caught out. It'll add more pressure on mocks, which is less than ideal, but at least it saves a bit of uncertainty :dontknow:

Reply 3

lunariumxo

16

I feel as though many of us have been so busy and over whelmed with uni stuff and admissions exams these mocks really should not be representative of the official outcome someone may have after the exams

Reply 4

R_A07

12

i think its not fair that we don't get the same advantage as the year before us our learning was severely hindered during lockdown when we were being taught AS content like how tf are we gonna be able to do a-level content wen most of its based on AS ie take into account bio/chem alevel u cant do the 2nd year without knowing wat biological molecules etc is ..

giving us a topic list later in feb ain't gonna help us cause they'll take out like AS topics but were still gonna have to revise it fr us to answer the a level questions ie titrations in chem

im pissseddddddddddd and praying they do TAGS one last time ffs
im writig to the gov ngl :mad:

Spoiler

Reply 5

username5801834

17

Original post by CatInTheCorner

Oh no, not more exams. Just give us our predicted grades If we're happy with them, exams only for those who aren't.

No. That would lead to massively inflated grades, yet again, which makes the whole process a bit pointless and devalues the top grades.

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 6

CatInTheCorner

19

Original post by SpaceLover29

No. That would lead to massively inflated grades, yet again, which makes the whole process a bit pointless and devalues the top grades.

Fair enough, but I feel if you ask any of our cohort they'll suggest solutions that will lead to inflation, everyone wants to do well I suppose :smile:

Reply 7

R_A07

12

Original post by SpaceLover29

No. That would lead to massively inflated grades, yet again, which makes the whole process a bit pointless and devalues the top grades........

so if u dont mind me askin wats wrong with that

Reply 8

bunsenburner92

12

Original post by R_A07

so if u dont mind me askin wats wrong with that

I really hope you’re joking…

Reply 9

R_A07

12

Original post by bunsenburner92

I really hope you’re joking…

NO IM NOT

inflated grades
deflated grades
ur still complaining whether its gopnna be good/bad
"top grades and their value"
wat about the fact weve gt such a big shortage of workers and we need more students going onto the top courses at uni
teCHERS arent dumb enough to give A/A* to people who dont deserve it
theyre held accountable they have to give evidence
thats why we got mocks
selfishness at its peak
i

Spoiler

Original post by R_A07

i think its not fair that we don't get the same advantage as the year before us our learning was severely hindered during lockdown when we were being taught AS content like how tf are we gonna be able to do a-level content wen most of its based on AS ie take into account bio/chem alevel u cant do the 2nd year without knowing wat biological molecules etc is ..

giving us a topic list later in feb ain't gonna help us cause they'll take out like AS topics but were still gonna have to revise it fr us to answer the a level questions ie titrations in chem

im pissseddddddddddd and praying they do TAGS one last time ffs
im writig to the gov ngl :mad:

Spoiler

this A-level cohort didn't sit official GCSE exams for the most part (sorry for saying this over and over again in different places online and somewhat being salty but need to point this out) so that alone should be a good enough reason to make sure that CAGs do not happen for at least A-level students this year as they'll walk into the uni or whatever without having ever sat a national, standardised exam.

Advantage for the 2021 cohort? listen grades were massively overinflated last year and some (really keyword called some here) people were at a (massive) advantage last year (got to sat open-book exams, were overpredicted, exams were easier, would have never gotten that A/A* but lower grades if they had sat their exam in 2019 however much they'd like to deny it etc) but overall having to constantly sit tons of exams over a 2-3 month period was hell, trust me you do not want this unless your like resitting the year and are mentally prepared to do it again as you had to do it last year.

Original post by StrawberryDreams

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-letters-arrangements-for-gcses-as-and-a-levels-in-2022/letter-to-students

https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/pupils-should-take-exams-every-22137099

Ofqual has given out guidance to teachers and schools to support them with preparing for pandemic contingency plans if exams are cancelled again in 2022, with termly testing at the top of the list. TAG's (Teacher Assessed Grades) will need to be used next year if exams are cancelled, and Ofqual wants you to feel you have had ample opportunity to showcase what you can do over the next few months.

This includes mock exams before Christmas, early next year and before the summer term. These may be full or part of past papers or similar, but Ofqual have tried to stress that these exams need to be "as useful as possible" for students and that schools should "guard against over-assessment".

This is in addition to some advance information that students will be receiving in February to help with summer revision.

How do you feel about this? Are you worried that it's going to add more stress onto your already busy exam years, or are you happy to get more opportunities to showcase what you can do?

Let us know your thoughts :heart:

nope against it. I would support standardised mocks from the exam boards to replace the mocks that schools set but if it's simply extra mocks then it's a no, especially not extra mocks from schools (i.e they'll get to construct their own mock papers as usual thus the mocks won't be standardised).

Original post by CatInTheCorner

Oh no, not more exams. Just give us our predicted grades If we're happy with them, exams only for those who aren't.

you do realise that you may have to sit even more exams if the exams are cancelled right? Look at the threads from 2021 cohort students. I personally am somewhat mentally prepared this time if the exams get cancelled but trust me you don't want to go through what pupils last year had to go through.

Original post by R_A07

so if u dont mind me askin wats wrong with that

devaluates grades, makes people who want to do academic stuff less prepared for the next stage, can lead to employers (even if they're not supposed to) question your grade compared to a 2019 and prior grade (i.e they may (again they're not supposed to do but ya know) trust an A* earned in 2019 and prior over an A* earned 2020 and onwards), makes unis (not that i have an ounce of sympathy for then right now but that's another topic) become oversubscribed, teachers can't predict grades accurately, makes it hard to distinguish between a pupil who got a good grade because they deserved it (i.e working at it) vs a pupil who simply got that grade because they are a class pet and/or cheated in tests, more stressful for teachers etc, i'm sure some TSR educational experts can come up with more/better reasons as to what the problem with CAGs are and why exams could be seen as the lesser of the 2 evils.

Original post by R_A07

teCHERS arent dumb enough to give A/A* to people who dont deserve it

last year's results seem to have shown the exact opposite hmm...

Original post by R_A07

i think its not fair that we don't get the same advantage as the year before us our learning was severely hindered during lockdown when we were being taught AS content like how tf are we gonna be able to do a-level content wen most of its based on AS ie take into account bio/chem alevel u cant do the 2nd year without knowing wat biological molecules etc is ..

giving us a topic list later in feb ain't gonna help us cause they'll take out like AS topics but were still gonna have to revise it fr us to answer the a level questions ie titrations in chem

im pissseddddddddddd and praying they do TAGS one last time ffs
im writig to the gov ngl :mad:

Spoiler

I agree, most of my GCSE content wasn't taught and our current AS knowledge is based on it so it's really frustrating that we have to make sense of it without knowing the details of the GCSE content. or in your case and many others, the AS knowledge that you need for A-Level.

Original post by JA03

I agree, most of my GCSE content wasn't taught and our current AS knowledge is based on it so it's really frustrating that we have to make sense of it without knowing the details of the GCSE content. or in your case and many others, the AS knowledge that you need for A-Level.

Did you do your GCSEs in 2020? If you did them in 2020 then you should have learned most of the content anyway, if you did them in 2021 then that's a different story of course and you could have missed on a large chunk of the content.

Reply 17

username5706823

20

Original post by Talkative Toad

Did you do your GCSEs in 2020? If you did them in 2020 then you should have learned most of the content anyway, if you did them in 2021 then that's a different story of course and you could have missed on a large chunk of the content.

Yeah we covered everything before locked down.

Original post by summerbirdreads

Yeah we covered everything before locked down.

So I don't really get that point on people not knowing the GCSE/A-level content well enough if you were in Y11/Y13 in 2020 and prior.

Reply 19

username5706823

20

Original post by Talkative Toad

So I don't really get that point on people not knowing the GCSE/A-level content well enough if you were in Y11/Y13 in 2020 and prior.

Me too. I was in year 11 in 2020 and I knew all the content inside out.... like we started revising from December, many people did and it's just GCSE, not hard, there are people self-studying GCSEs.

Ofqual recommends students take mock exams every term for 2022 contingency plans

Do you think it's a good idea to have extra mock exams as a contingency plan?

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