Exam results 2020

[The Grey Man 3,112]

Well first of the guestimated exam results out for the UK.

Make of it what you will.

Scotlands highers out.

These youngsters will be paying out a fair bit in the future for decisons made this year.

I no doubt some of us old gits will to.

The bulk of the UK's results yet to come. Years of grade inflation seem to have hit the wall.

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/scottish-exam-results-deep-concerns-as-pass-rate-cut-hits-poorest-pupils-hardest-12042473

[ashestoashes 7,969]

heard one father on the radio delighted his daughter had the grades to get into a fashion management course

[blobloblob 1,689]

I'm in my fifties. I don't need to look for a job right now but if I did, why would would I be bothered about there being a whole cohort of less-educated people coming up behind me?

[MrLibertyRedux 3,363]

Considering the state of the school computer network of the daughter of a friend of mine, if I was her my results would be whatever I said they would be.

[Bricks & Mortar 1,328]

11 minutes ago, blobloblob said:

I'm in my fifties. I don't need to look for a job right now but if I did, why would would I be bothered about there being a whole cohort of less-educated people coming up behind me?

There's no evidence any of them are less educated.  Their teachers said they were worth a higher grade.  The education authority went round schools that didn't usually produce so many high grades, (typically your deprived areas), and simply marked those kids down, "because you live in scumsville."

 

"Sturgeon Resign" is trending on Scottish Titter this evening.

[5min OCD speculator 1,442]

'Education is a system of imposed ignorance' Chomsky........in reality, they're are still thick as shit 

[Frank Hovis 38,818]

5 hours ago, Bricks & Mortar said:

There's no evidence any of them are less educated.  Their teachers said they were worth a higher grade.  The education authority went round schools that didn't usually produce so many high grades, (typically your deprived areas), and simply marked those kids down, "because you live in scumsville."

 

"Sturgeon Resign" is trending on Scottish Titter this evening.

They have all missed out upon their final A Level exams, the months of revision leading up to that, and the huge pressure of those exams.

Even if the grades awarded were spot on they have now gone to uni without the dress rehearsal of A Level exams.

This will make their first set of uni exams far more stressful and more likely to be a disaster.

Education isn't simply knowing things; it is also the ability to recall and marshall those things in the few short hours of an examination.

I don't think "lucky sods" for not having had to sit their A Levels (or, taking it back a step, O Levels) rather I feel sorry for them because they are now under prepared for their next set of exams.

[The Generation Game 6,900]

6 hours ago, MrLibertyRedux said:

Considering the state of the school computer network of the daughter of a friend of mine, if I was her my results would be whatever I said they would be.

"I got a Joshua in IT!"

[unregistered_guest 6,531]

1 hour ago, The Generation Game said:

"I got a Joshua in IT!"

And the firewalls came tumbling down!

[wherebee 17,292]

If you want to push educational standards up, make it so once a month any benefit claimant has to attend the jobcentre and take a simple english and maths test.  things like 'what is 15 + 12'.

fail = no benefits.

I guarantee within a couple of years, being thick would NOT be seen as a good thing.

[Darude 1,176]

The people in charge of the UK's educational institutions should feel ashamed of themselves. Most of the rest of the country made adjustments and carried on, they just switched off the lights and walked away from their responsibilities (kept taking the paycheques though). Because the customers are only children/young adults nobody in power gives a damn.

[SpectrumFX 7,270]

Are the papers going to be plastered with socially distanced photographs of face mask clad teenage girls jumping for joy while brandishing these results. Or have they just sent them an email?

 

[Hopeful 20,947]

3 hours ago, Frank Hovis said:

They have all missed out upon their final A Level exams, the months of revision leading up to that, and the huge pressure of those exams.

Even if the grades awarded were spot on they have now gone to uni without the dress rehearsal of A Level exams.

This will make their first set of uni exams far more stressful and more likely to be a disaster.

Education isn't simply knowing things; it is also the ability to recall and marshall those things in the few short hours of an examination.

I don't think "lucky sods" for not having had to sit their A Levels (or, taking it back a step, O Levels) rather I feel sorry for them because they are now under prepared for their next set of exams.

Yep, I look back now and think how the fuck did I to manage write three 8-page essays on different questions in a 3 hour exam. I couldn't even write that fast now.

Edited August 5 by Hopeful

[MrPin 16,362]

1 minute ago, Hopeful said:

Yep, I look back now and think how the fuck did I to manage write three 8-page essays on different questions in a 3 hour exam. I couldn't even write that fast now.

You must have had a very fast pen. The envy of your schoolmates.

[Hopeful 20,947]

5 minutes ago, MrPin said:

You must have had a very fast pen. The envy of your schoolmates.

or very big handwriting

Actially, 8 is an exaggeration, 6 is more accurate, 3 pages, 6 sides

But I did write bloody fast. And at Uni, my lecture notes were always passed around - I should have rented them for cash if I was wiser. One fekker who borrowed them lost a whole course of mine though - I reckon it was sabotage

Edited August 5 by Hopeful

[Bedrag Justesen 20,868]

9 hours ago, Bricks & Mortar said:

There's no evidence any of them are less educated.  Their teachers said they were worth a higher grade.  The education authority went round schools that didn't usually produce so many high grades, (typically your deprived areas), and simply marked those kids down, "because you live in scumsville."

If school average is normally around 65%, it isn't surprising that 85% raises an eyebrow.

If teachers tried 69% that might have worked.

Media angle that shit schools in shit areas have been downgraded disproportionately may actually be true, but as Scottish First Minister rightly said, allowing 85% would spark equal incredulity.

 

[Harley 7,636]

If I was still recruiting, I defo wouldn't bother much with people's certs now, or indeed before tbf.

[Harley 7,636]

3 hours ago, SpectrumFX said:

Are the papers going to be plastered with socially distanced photographs of face mask clad teenage girls jumping for joy while brandishing these results. Or have they just sent them an email?

 

That's a hell of a bunch of jumps, real?

[SpectrumFX 7,270]

30 minutes ago, Harley said:

That's a hell of a bunch of jumps, real?

I presume so. It's the 5th result that comes up in a Google image search on "exam results jumping".

The source site is here:

https://pipedreamsfromtheshire.wordpress.com/tag/a-level-results/

If you do the search there's shit loads of these pictures. Pervy photographers have been taking them every year for years.

[Democorruptcy 6,540]

3 hours ago, wherebee said:

If you want to push educational standards up, make it so once a month any benefit claimant has to attend the jobcentre and take a simple english and maths test.  things like 'what is 15 + 12'.

fail = no benefits.

I guarantee within a couple of years, being thick would NOT be seen as a good thing.

In case anyone is still struggling with it, my calculator says the answer is 27.

[eight 13,705]

1 minute ago, SpectrumFX said:

I presume so. It's the 5th result that comes up in a Google image search on "exam results jumping".

The source site is here:

https://pipedreamsfromtheshire.wordpress.com/tag/a-level-results/

If you do the search there's shit loads of these pictures. Pervy photographers have been taking them every year for years.

I once embarrassed myself in a place of work by telling the proprietor that I thought we had had an unusually high number of fit girlies in for lunch. Turned out it was GCSE results day. I was about 30 at the time, oops.

[Bricks & Mortar 1,328]

1 hour ago, Bedrag Justesen said:

If school average is normally around 65%, it isn't surprising that 85% raises an eyebrow.

If teachers tried 69% that might have worked.

Media angle that shit schools in shit areas have been downgraded disproportionately may actually be true, but as Scottish First Minister rightly said, allowing 85% would spark equal incredulity.

 

It might.  But at least it's not desperately unfair to bright pupils who happen to live in deprived areas.  The fact remains, the teachers opinion, based on observation and performance in class tests, is the only measurement of the pupils ability that's been done. 
What the SQA are trying to pull is based on nothing apart from generalising that kids from these places don't tend to do so well. 

You can add to the mix, the kids school lives have been turned upside down since March, and only the teacher has seen which adapted well to the new way of working, and which didn't.  Entirely possible that kids at crap schools might have improved in just the critical pre-exam period, separated from peer pressure, bullying, and all the other crap that goes on, particularly in the more deprived schools.

[dgul 14,319]

1 hour ago, Harley said:

If I was still recruiting, I defo wouldn't bother much with people's certs now, or indeed before tbf.

Quite.  This is the year that results should be ignored.

for the next few years I'd just interview each candidate who were ~14-18 this year and say 'you had half a year without school -- what did you do?  What have you got to show for it?'

I'd be looking for any answer other than a dumbfounded 'what do you mean?' (ie, played xbox/looked at phone).  Good answers might be 'did an online degree', 'started a business', etc.

For public schools it'll be different -- I'd expect decent results and ignore extracurricular because they've remained 'educating' their pupils, and for public school a decent dose of extracurricular can be assumed.

[dgul 14,319]

26 minutes ago, Bricks & Mortar said:

It might.  But at least it's not desperately unfair to bright pupils who happen to live in deprived areas.  The fact remains, the teachers opinion, based on observation and performance in class tests, is the only measurement of the pupils ability that's been done. 
What the SQA are trying to pull is based on nothing apart from generalising that kids from these places don't tend to do so well. 

You can add to the mix, the kids school lives have been turned upside down since March, and only the teacher has seen which adapted well to the new way of working, and which didn't.  Entirely possible that kids at crap schools might have improved in just the critical pre-exam period, separated from peer pressure, bullying, and all the other crap that goes on, particularly in the more deprived schools.

What amazes me is that they've got years of data on the accuracy of predicted grades.  I'd assume that they'd be accurate for about 50% of the children, about 20% would be too high or low by more than a grade, and about 5% would be significantly off (by more than 2 grades, higher and lower).  

Again, they've been doing this for years.  The data exists.

I can only imagine that they're not publicising the data because they know that the data doesn't support their statements -- that teachers are good at predicting grades.

I suppose there'll be something about this published in a couple of years in some obscure journal (ie, not read by parents or pupils).

[Bedrag Justesen 20,868]

11 minutes ago, dgul said:

I can only imagine that they're not publicising the data because they know that the data doesn't support their statements -- that teachers are good at predicting grades.

It's blatantly dismissive of teachers.

Either they don't believe they know what they are doing, don't trust they are acting in good faith, or more likely, both.