A levels should be cancelled.

Students mental health is getting really bad and we are all under a lot of pressure including our teachers. there is too much to study and revise for as we missed 3 whole months of education. Students and Teachers are having nervous breakdowns and it is really stressful. Wales, Northern Ireland etc have all decided to cancel a level and gcse exams in the upcoming year. It should be done in London iswell as we are also stressed and we’ve missed out on a lot of education. There is a ridiculous amount of loss of work that we won’t get back.

The fairest option is to stick with what students have been preparing for since the start of their course - exams. There is, IMO, no reason that they cannot still happen.


Would you want to see a Doctor that knows nothing about the heart?

If only part of the syllabus is examined, then only part of a qualification can be awarded.

Teacher assessments is just never fair though. 1 exam IMO is better than teacher assessments which will be massively inflated ( looking at 2020 ). And there will be loads of bias. I'm still waiting for the result of my appeal from results day 2020..... And looking at computer science which saw a 435% increase in the number of A*s. Imagine what it would be like this year when teachers have no fear of getting downgraded and they know its basically a free for all.

The externally set exams might as well be exams. I think we all king of got click baited with that.

Teacher assessments is just never fair though. 1 exam IMO is better than teacher assessments which will be massively inflated ( looking at 2020 ). And there will be loads of bias. I'm still waiting for the result of my appeal from results day 2020..... And looking at computer science which saw a 435% increase in the number of A*s. Imagine what it would be like this year when teachers have no fear of getting downgraded and they know its basically a free for all.

The externally set exams might as well be exams. I think we all king of got click baited with that.

You’re acting as if a doctor will only rely on the skills and knowledge they have at A-level when in fact it is an intensive 5 year degree. If you do not cut it on the degree you do not become a doctor.

Also each year only part of the syllabus is examined what people are proposing is a way to weigh exams and teacher assessed grades - which have evidence - together to create a grade that is representative of the students abilities

Our school banned masks completely and I was socially distancing where it was possible - going off site at break and lunch - I did but it is still no substitute for physical teaching.

But you need L3 qualifications to go to university. In regards to the last point who says that all teachers are going to bother to predict the grades accurately and fairly who says that all teachers can be bothered to mark HW, mocks etc? Some 2020 cohort pupils on here have said that (and it probably has happened) that the pupils in their school were predicted based on what university they were going to go to and/or their teachers went against Ofqual guidelines when predicting the grades.

Damn your school is stupid then. They need to be reported imo.

This ^^^ I think that doing the same thing as last year is wrong but having maybe 1 standardised exam per subject and using CAGs (hybrid system) may be the way to go.

Also I think that is what the government are planning from what I have heard but that is just speculation.

You’re acting as if a doctor will only rely on the skills and knowledge they have at A-level when in fact it is an intensive 5 year degree.

Also each year only part of the syllabus is examined what people are proposing is a way to weigh exams and teacher assessed grades - which have evidence - together to create a grade that is representative of the students abilities

I see your point, but in my opinion since many people have been affected by disruption in varying ways a combination of exams and CAG would be fairer

as a class of covid-19 a-level student who had to deal with having my a-levels cancelled, i can assure you it is not what you want. your teachers WILL underestimate you and most likely give you lower grades than you could've gotten

Well, on the whole, they will overestimate some and underestimate a few. But those who were given grades they don't feel were good may never know what they would have gotten and are overshadowed by the students who were celebrating getting their inflated grades after the U-Turn.

Students mental health is getting really bad and we are all under a lot of pressure including our teachers. there is too much to study and revise for as we missed 3 whole months of education. Students and Teachers are having nervous breakdowns and it is really stressful. Wales, Northern Ireland etc have all decided to cancel a level and gcse exams in the upcoming year. It should be done in London iswell as we are also stressed and we’ve missed out on a lot of education. There is a ridiculous amount of loss of work that we won’t get back.

the fact of the matter is that with the cancellation of my exams, it meant that thousands of students were left losing their opporunites thanks to teachers under-predicting them. i accept that MY a-levels NEEDED to be cancelled, but i am here saying that next years exams should not be cancelled as it literally isn't necessary to cancel them, and for them to be cancelled would cause a lot of sad and unncessary concequences for many students.

You missed the point. If you haven't been tested on all the syllabus, then your shouldn't get a full qualification.


If they haven't covered the whole syllabus, they shouldn't get the whole qualification.


CAGs are known to be inaccurate, which is why there was an attempt to correct them. Unfortunately, it wasn't allowed to stand, despite being demonstrably closer to what we see with exams (albeit with some issues).

It really doesn't matter how people have been affected. Sympathy does not require us to award qualifications for which they haven't demonstrated the ability and knowledge. Sympathy isn't going to help them understand university courses ..

No - I'm a teacher and it's not that bad. I know a lot of other teachers and you are over stating the issue. Why did you miss three months of education; didn't you do the work you were set? We taught online [state school] and we are where we should be at the moment.

Will also lead to overinflated grades.

as a class of covid-19 a-level student who had to deal with having my a-levels cancelled, i can assure you it is not what you want. your teachers WILL underestimate you and most likely give you lower grades than you could've gotten- i am absolutely gutted because i appealed twice with a lot of good evidence (including literally getting diagnosed with a chronic illness during mocks) in order to bump my given grades up but to no avail. my appeals were point bank rejected and now i cant do medicine because even if i take my a-levels in summer 2021 (which im planning on doing) i would still be regarded as a 're-sit' student by a lot of top unis. cancelling a-levels, believe it or not, has actually had devastating concequences on A LOT of students. literally all of my friends have lost uni places and opportunites becuause of the cancellation. it sounds harsh but you need to get through this and study hard to allow you and all other students to prove themselves instead of being low-balled by your school by recieving low grades by teachers who want to guarantee the top A* minority students secure their A*s by giving everyone else lower than what they are capable of getting.

Our school banned masks completely and I was socially distancing where it was possible - going off site at break and lunch - I did but it is still no substitute for physical teaching.

One solution that would lower that is having teacher provide evidence for the grade they predict - based on mocks, topic tests, end of modules, work done in class - then, like pags, exam boards can do spot checks to make sure the teachers are being fair and realistic

well that's just part of the problem with cancelling exams, isn't it?