The question on every student who sat the exam is when are the GSC A/L results coming out and would they take into consideration the limbo time students spent at home. For pupils receiving exam results it is the biggest day in their school lives, with further education and university places on the line. Normal exams have been cancelled for the second year running due to the disruption students have experienced since the start of the pandemic. Instead schools have been put in charge of grades and assessments in a bid to avoid the results day chaos caused by last year’s controversial algorithm.
When are this year’s results being announced?
Results are being published earlier and closer together than normal – August 10 for A-level students and August 12 for GCSE results – to give pupils more time to appeal. With exams having not been sat by students, GCSEs, AS and A-levels have been assessed by teachers.
They have not been graded by an algorithm, avoiding the controversy and chaos that followed last year’s A-level results. Teachers’ judgements have only been based on what students have been taught, either in the classroom or via remote learning.
What have teachers used to decide grades?
A range of evidence including mock exams, homework, and work completed as part of pupils’ courses, such as essays or in-class tests, as well as coursework, even if it is not fully completed. Most schools have said they planned to give greater weighting to “exam-style papers” compared to other forms of assessments.
How accurate will grades actually be?
Teachers will already have told students which pieces of work they have based their assessment judgments on before the recommended grades were submitted in June. This means there should be fewer surprises come results days in August.
Jon Ford, principal of Open Academy Norwich quoted “Teachers know their students’ abilities and will use a range of assessments, some from the exam boards, others from their work schemes, appropriate to the experiences that their students have been through during the pandemic, to deliver the most accurate grades they can.”
What if pupils are unhappy with their grades?
