Open letter from TSR on behalf of students

I endorse this letter and would like to add that as someone who will be doing GCSE's in a few years that the policy of giving people their predicted grades will just lead to grade inflation and is an unfair privilege for year 11's.

Predicted grades are not the same thing as the centre assessed grades.

What's the difference?

Lockdown or not, you have to properly earn your way into uni. You lot really can't cry, you didn't even sit exams. Your grades mean nothing really on that foot alone. You're getting off lucky here, still able to apply to uni and work without sitting exams hahahaha keep quiet.

Students this year had no choice when the exam boards had aborted their exams and instead used an algorithm to predict students' grades - there's a bit of a difference. This doesn't prove a student's full potential or actual grades they'd get in exams. Some may get better than they were getting in MOCK exams and some may get worse. Students this year have been completely cheated and I feel for every single student which is in the position where they can't get into University this year as they haven't been given the chance to show their abilities.

I think your post is bang out of order, no pun intended, as you're looking at it from a one sided perspective. A global pandemic is no one's fault except those who don't respect the rules to minimise the rate of infection.

Very well written including the part of the Centre Assessed Grades. When I asked the school why my son got a C rather than a B in the CAGs I was told that the teachers felt he would have got a B with some hard work in the last term but working to the strict Ofqual guidelines they gave him a C and there is no way to appeal this so I will have to take advice on legally contesting with Ofqual.

Well put and I support this letter. It is shocking what students have been put through in the last few weeks, as if waiting for results isn't stressful enough, they've been dealing with a whole lot more than any other year. You can't mess with peoples futures, do a u-turn and go 'whoops sorry' without providing the answers and support needed to rectify this situation.Many students may have missed out on their place due to caps on courses and the results they first received. This is not acceptable.

I wish I could give this post 1,000 rep points!

This year has been a nightmare for students. As an Oxford fan, I am very pleased that the vast majority (if not all) UK state school offer holders (who worked damned hard) were given a place. This was due, in part, to many, many alumni (including elder son) bombarding their colleges with protest emails very early on.

How do I appeal my CAG mark ?

In recent days the two terms have been used interchangeably in the press, but to be accurate "predicted grades" are what a student might be given on the UCAS reference or a school report. Centre Assessed Grades, CAGs, are the things schools and colleges had to send to the exam boards by 12 June. They are your school's professional judgement on the grade you should have achieved had you sat the exams and completed the NEAs.

Predicted grades are normally set at the start of the course as an idea of what a candidate could get in the exams at the end. CAGs were set at the end of the course and are what teachers think the candidate should have got in their exams at the end of the course had they have been able to sit the exams.

Would you say there are usually differences between CAG's and predicted grades?

Would you say there are usually differences between CAG's and predicted grades?

Yes. Though there's isn't much data around yet to verify that we've seen a lot of people on TSR whose CAGs are different to UCAS predicted grades and they've missed out on offers.

Yes, because teachers are asked to determine different things. Both involve a professional judgement, but predicted grades are used as a teaching tool, whereas this year's CAGs are summative assessments.

Predicted grades are normally set at the start of the course as an idea of what a candidate could get in the exams at the end. CAGs were set at the end of the course and are what teachers think the candidate should have got in their exams at the end of the course had they have been able to sit the exams.