Coronavirus: A-level results to come in years without exams

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A-level and career results reach hundreds of thousands of students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

But unlike other years, these results are rumored after exams were canceled by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The watchdog of the exam has already announced a 2% increase in A * and A-grades at A-level this year – close to record levels.

Controversy has surrounded how results are decided – with head teachers angry at the use of funny exam grades.

There was “deep frustration” at schools about the confusion caused by late changes to the results system, warned Geoff Barton, leader of the ASCL principals’ union.

Nearly 300,000 teens will find A-level results – some by email and others going to school, perhaps for the first time since they went into lockdown in March.

The moderation process will mean that about 40% of the results will be different, mostly lower, than predictive degrees submitted by teachers.

It will be checked whether it is approximate students who will have lost from such changes – a problem that caused protests and a U-turn in Scotland.

Students taking vocational exams have received estimated results in recent weeks – with 250,000 BTec results this year.

For students hoping for university places, it is expected to be a “buyer market”, with the Ucas admissions service saying that universities would be “super flexible”, even for those who lack degrees.

The results of the A-level are expected to show:

• About 8% gets A *
• 27% will get A * as A
• 78% will get A * to C
• Psychology is now the second most popular subject, after mathematics
• Girls will have boys better, except in A * s
• Northern Ireland will get more top classes than England and Wales
• About 40% of the grades will be different from the predictions of teachers
• There will be 25,000 university courses available in clearing, including 4,500 in the top Russell Group universities

There were arguments about how estimated grades were calculated in the absence of exams – with the two biggest factors being the ranking of students and previous results at their school.

In England, principals angrily complained about a “shame” on the last switch to a “triple lock” in which students could get what was the highest out of three assessments:

• have tax class
• an optional written paper in the fall
• if an appeal through their school if the estimated result is lower than the mock exam,

Heads warned mock exams were conducted in various ways by schools and it was wrong for them to try to decide exam results.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, England’s Secretary of Education Gavin Williamson has said he will refuse to follow Scotland’s lead in allowing students whose results were downgraded to get the grades awarded by their teachers. predict.

He warned that if the degrees of teachers were used in England, “we would have seen them shift”, which would “devalue” results for the 2020 class and would be unfair to those in previous and future years.

He added: “But worse than that, it would mean students losing twice this year, both in their education and in their future prospects.”

Mr. Williamson said the government had earmarked £ 30m to help schools cover the cost of taking exams this autumn for students choosing this option.

Congratulating students on “coming through this extraordinary year”, he said that the 2020 class would not “lose because of Covid-19” and that their futures “would be as full of promise as those in any other year”.

In Wales, students are promised that their A-level results will be revised upwards as lower than their AS level.

Exam boards have said the results will not show widening gaps as “unconscious bias”, as directed at students from ethnic minorities.

But linking students’ grades to the results of their schools in previous years will mean close attention if this works against inferior children.

This came to the fore when exam results were published in Scotland – forcing a switch to use teacher predictions.

And in England, there will be concerns that bright pupils could be marked in schools with lower performance.

England’s exam watchdog said that if teachers’ predictions had been used, it would have inflated results – so that about 38% of the entries would have been A / as A grades.

But using a system that requires ranking students by ability could create a “lottery” in grades for those in the middle range, says Professor Alan Smithers of Buckingham University, in an annual analysis of prior results.

He says that while those students at the upper and lower ends of the asset range will be clear, it is harder to “differentiate in the middle,” with the risk that decisions are “inaccurate and unfair”.

Mr. Williamson defended the robustness of the replacement grades – telling those who get their results “that they should feel proud of everything they have achieved in the most extraordinary and difficult circumstances”.

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