Coursework won't count in the autumn exams!!!!!

Friend just told me this. I had no idea.

Apparently if you do the autumn 'resits' to try to improve your grade it will all just be based on exam papers - even for subjects like Drama, Music, DT etc where the non-exam assessment bit is usually 50-60% of your mark.

That's just not fair!! How can they give someone an A level without assessing the practical stuff?

So if I don't get the grades I need for my DT in summer I'm basically F**ked - I have dyslexia and my exam marks are never as good as my practical work.

Apparently you can complain to Ofqual about this in their consultation here (but it closes on Monday 8th June)
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-an-additional-gcse-as-and-a-level-exam-series-in-autumn-2020

This summer is just getting worse and worse :-(

Question: To what extent do you agree or disagree that, with the exception of
art and design, grades for GCSE, AS and A level awarded in the autumn
should be based only on students’ performance in their exams, with no nonexam assessment?
Do you have any comments on our proposed approach to basing grades for
the autumn on students’ exam performance only?
Question: To what extent do you agree or disagree that grades for GCSE, AS
and A level art and design awarded in the autumn should be based on a new
task completed under supervised conditions?
Question: To what extent do you agree or disagree that any new task for
GCSE, AS and A level art and design should be set and marked by the exam
board?
Do you have any comments on our proposed approach to the assessment of
GCSE, AS and A level art and design in the autumn 2020 series?

Have you read the consultation? See pages 9-15, where they outline several approaches and they ask:



So it's as of yet undecided, it depends on what input they receive.

Yeah, I know - which is why I linked to the consultation (and yes, I read those pages).
Problem is Ofqual don't really listen to the feedback (they didn't about students wanting the right to appeal grades) so unless loads of people respond to this now it will likely just be waved through.

This is HUGE for drama/ music/ design students where the practical stuff accounts for at least half the marks.

I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else - why aren't schools telling pupils to give their feedback?

I think that's a bit too sceptical a view - they did consider it and it was discussed quite extensively here. They are still being discussed in cases where standardisation meant unfair results. (ie. the cohort was much more able than previous ones) Otherwise my understanding is that appeals are mainly for clerical errors. (from here)

I'm not sure, but in the last consultation ~2000 students did take part. But it was mainly people working in schools and parents.

You'd hope they implement a fair process. Art was enough of a concern to warrant separate discussion on there, I'd assume other coursework-heavy subjects won't be forgotten.

"I'd assume other coursework-heavy subjects won't be forgotten."

I think that is the key thing. I can understand dropping the coursework bit if it only makes up 10-20% of the total, but for creative arts subjects it's half or more of the exam which just seems unfair. Also, how can award someone an A level in something like music without requiring them to sing or play a single note? Or in design without actually getting them to design anything?

Not really familiar with how A-levels in this subject are taught, but I'd have thought in the process of preparing for the coursework, the teacher would be given a good idea of what grade they're working at? So I'd have thought the grade given would take into account practical ability in some way.

Yes, in theory that's right and you'd hope that everyone would get the grade they deserve. But it seems that a lot of weight is being placed on the school's performance in the preceding years, and the centre will downgrade any school that looks like it's submitted inflated grades. However my DT teacher said for example that we are the best class he's had for years (mostly working at A/A* level whereas last year was more A/B and even some Cs) so there is a risk that the whole class will be downgraded. If that's the case then the school would have to appeal (not us) and as I said, there's no way (because of my dyslexia) that I would be able to get an A*/A on an exam paper alone).