lozgti1

Controversial, but not thought exam results have meant anything for years anyway. Everyone gets 5 A* A levels anyway don't they? clever or not.lol

In my day ( kidding) Only the brightest of the bright got A levels. Swines gave me 2 of them and an O level pass .lol .But really, even the daftest kids seem to get free A levels and now they get them without sitting an exam ( I know it is unusual times). Sure many parents will defend their geniuses

Nuts

IdonthaveaScooby

Jeremy has it right

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...-a9668151.html


a full twenty minutes of news devoted to it this year

BMWhere?

Not sure what else they could really do? Exam grades have always been rebalanced any way. Sure there will be a handful of anomalies that have done worse (or better) than they would have done in the exams but I'll bet the overwhelming majority are pretty much on the mark. There are always some people that get lower that expected result for one reason or another like missing an exam due to illness, panicked during the exam pressure or stress 'cos Grandma died. There are always resits and this time they also have the chance to appeal!

Covid-19 has caused a lot of disruption for everyone. If a few kids have to resit (or more accurately sit) their exams, the suck it up Snowflake! I'll not hold back to criticise the government where it's due, but in this case there is no criticism to make, no other government could have done anything differently/fairer!

lozgti1

ace

lozgti1

True.

What do you do in times like this? However, you can't pretend how kids might have done...

lozgti1

Those kids twittering are a bit mardy.lol

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Being honest going back to then I was indoctrinated to believe the sole important thing in life was getting GCSE grades above a B...anything below would not be good enough to get you anywhere. So of course, to get below that is devastating. I was supposed to get A for sciences but due to grading band changes on the intermediate paper I was advised to take meant that getting above a B grade was almost impossible; I should have taken the higher level paper. Sh*t happens. I still got into King Ed’s college, but was still tempted to retake it to prove it (misguided pride etc ).

Then its A-levels; As above, different goalpost, same crap.

Then uni..same again, by now GCSEs and A-levels grade mean sod all.

Then real world, and then all of those grades and qualifications means pretty much nothing, although any degree does give you a direct access to a managerial position at Mc Donald’s. People joke about Mc Jobs; but if they pay the bills? Why be snobbish! The trick is relearning that the dream career sold to you by teachers is largely a fantasy. Not that those jobs don’t exist, but the qualifications up to A-Level have very little to with getting it.

But try telling that to young’uns. Seems they are increasing being deluding into thinking failure or underachieving is a life ending outcome. No wonder there are so many snowflakes.

Now if there was a GCSE in doing tax returns, maybe that would be a bit more relevant to the real world.

hodgy0_2

yes too right

my eldest just got a 1st from Edinburgh (History and Spanish) this year and 3 straight A's at A level, my next oldest got 3 straight A's at A Level and is doing economics at Manchester uni

my 3rd got 7 9's and 3 8's in her GCSE last year - doing A Levels next year (weirdly the same as the older 2 - maths, history and a language) and will be trying for Oxbridge

they all work fvcking hard

i expect my 14 year old twins to do as well too

I suspect they will all be very successful

but nice to see the Tory government ****ing over A level students from poorer areas and state schools

that levelling up agenda is going great guns!!!!!

RobsyUK

iTrader: (2)

Could they have deliberately under scored so that next years scores look better?

hodgy0_2

eerr no, not really, they just put the data through an algorithm that was weighted against state schools and disadvantaged children

i mean god forbid these c^nts give kids a break

https://www.theguardian.com/educatio...lgorithm-flaws

good discussion of the maths

https://www.theguardian.com/educatio...stem-is-unfair

BMWhere?

They didn't really weight the results against disadvantaged areas, they weighted against last performance from each school. The fact that schools/colleges in disadvantaged areas generally have worse results means that the weighting does go against disadvantaged areas, but that doesn't mean that is wrong. I somehow doubt that all the lower ranking colleges somehow managed to drastically improve their performance this year, the same year that nobody took an exam, despite year on year poor performance when people did take the exams. Of course no teacher/student/college is actually willing to admit that they are below average and crying discrimination against deprived areas is a great get out of jail free card!

As I said above, the results are probably on the whole pretty much spot on and for the odd few who genuinely got downgraded against where they should be, they have the chance to appeal!

The government got this one right for a change. What better way is there to give results without taking the exams? Using teacher gradings, mock results where available and scaling according to past performance of the college seems pretty fair to me!

hodgy0_2

"They didn't really weight the results against disadvantaged areas", then you say "means that the weighting does go against disadvantaged areas" - your words

lol, they "really" did as you admit above

"and for the odd few" (and it is not the "odd few" as the media are finding out)

lol - and amazing that the "odd few" all came from state schools, but not a surprise because as you say "means that the weighting does go against disadvantaged areas"

just look at how the algorithms were designed - read how its been done in the link i posted

and the data shows that state school children out perform private school children at university - when you get a true level playing field

the chips are stacked - collective punishment as the article explains and you admit ffs a bright student from a disadvantaged school will get marked down - by the algorithm

but whatever - the Tory mantra is "better that 10 state school children get downgraded than one gets a higher mark than they deserve"

IdonthaveaScooby

2 strikes and you're Out

unless youre a tory / Gavin Williamson

BMWhere?

So now the government has caved in due to sob stories in the media, everyone gets the grade the totally unbiased teacher gave them!

Some teachers will probably have given quite accurate grades appropriate to what would have been achievable, but many will have upgraded because they consciously don't want to hinder the future of a child they they have an emotional connection too! Is this fare?

Now the universities have a massive problem because they guaranteed places to people with certain minimum grades and now the number of people achieving those grades is far higher than would be normal! Is this fare?

Every year thousands of children do badly in their exams and don't get the grades they need to get into university! Normally, they have no recourse and have to resit or suck it up! Not exactly coincidentally, a majority of those kids will be from underprivileged areas because statistically, kids from those areas don't perform as well as kids with a privileged upbringing! Sure this is a huge problem, bit its not a new problem and its not a problem that has suddenly been solved this year! The governments algorithm to set grades based on passed performance and student ranking within a subject certainly wasn't perfect, but probably gave as near as damn-it an accurate result - and guess what, people from underprivileged background under-performed as usual! Suck it up!

lozgti1

Not fair

hodgy0_2

Lol, you mean hardworking kids ****ed over by the brexity clown of a government

An algorithm designed to punish disadvantaged kids - even the UK statistics agancy said it was crap

Incedently all the students i hear in the media are far more literate and make more sense than that **** Williamson

Btw anyone seen that c"nt Johnson

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Recommended reading:
I wonder if the author is related

markjmd

iTrader: (11)

Does it really help the future of a child though to assist in gaining them entry onto a university course or elsewhere, if that child won't in reality be capable of doing the work involved? I personally don't think so.

BMWhere?

ultimately no, it doesn't help! The problem is it is difficult to separate from the emotional connection a teacher has with their children, even more so in cases where the teacher is aware that a child comes from a troubled home. That is why final exams are always set from an independent exam board who have no personal connection to the children and you can rule out any cases of favoritism.

You can clearly see the effect now that grades are based on teacher assessment and the result is a huge increase in grades which is unrealistic compared to what would have been achieved in normal circumstances. The backdown from the government leading to over-inflated grades is arguably more unfair than the original system and results in huge knock-on problems!

hodgy0_2

I suspect the bigger danger to the UK is over educated arseholes like Johnson & Camoron than a few state school kids with "inflated grades"

Johnson says a deal he negotiated, he signed, he refused scrutiny on, he won an election with masturbating over, now "doesn't make sense"

hodgy0_2

lol, you do realise that Teacher assessed grades were used in conjunction with the algorithm - before the u turn

teachers assessed grade where used when assessing the grades of small class sizes (under 15) - which essentially skewed it in favour of private schools