I thought exam results were confidential until tomorrow...

Wait till tmw to reply then!

AQA have changed the grade boundaries for the controlled assessment between the winter series and this.

Of course they've done it on the sly and not told anyone about it and are currently drowning in flak from schools - they've promised a press release by the end of today but are currently saying it's down to OFQUAL and all examboards have had to do similarly.

What they have failed to appreciate is that, within the cohort of students who sat the exam this summer, there are some who submitted their controlled assessment for moderation at Christmas (and hence have been judged against lower boundaries) and some who submitted work for assessment in the summer (with the higher boundaries).

This of course means that the same work will get different grades this summer dependent upon when a school chose to send the work in for moderation. That doesn't seem fair to me.

 we've had the same with Edexcel- forecast grades for A*-C were 60% on grade boundaries from Jan grades- we've dropped to less than 40%. A/A* seem to have gained but C grades all been dropped to D on the final controlled assessment unit. 

Anyone heard anything about the WJEC grades? I cannot see them until tomorrow!

How on earth do we justify/ explain this to our headteachers? We've dropped massively- not good when a new HOD and trying to get out of special measures. Poor kids.

It seems to be a nationwide trend, according to the posts today.  a politically motivated move...you can't be held responsible for that.

Definitely politically motivated due to govian call to exam boards to toughen the marking. Their shortcut (which fails to address the actual agenda): raise boundaries by 10 or more marks on January. So you're golden if you did early entry- which government hates- in January. But shafted if you did the summer series like they prefer. AQA claim the ums marks will show parity January to June. But just look at the percentages at each grade tomorrow compared with early entry schools. Definite significant difference. Don't worry about heads reactions- all that's been talked about today! Disgusting attitude from boards- our forecast overall results have dropped by more than 10%. And that's the average across our LA... Forecast Best results ever just turned into worst. 70% of schools in our LA hit hard by this. Need to create a massive fuss or nothing will happen. Oh- and first impressions are that it affects welsh board too...

 I'm a new HOD too,not looking forward to facing staff or kids tomorrow.

 

[edited by: matilda1974 at 18:39 (GMT 0) on 22-8-2012]

Hi there - can you suggest any links for reaction to the results today? are they on this forum? thank you

Reaction will be tomorrow- I'm just too incensed to keep quiet till then.

 wouldn't wish this on anyone but at least if we're all in the same boat we have some hope of being able to fight this.

Hope So.

[edited by: ruthyc99 at 20:30 (GMT 0) on 22-8-2012]

 Not looking forward to seeing results tomorrow. Is it just English? There's nothing on the main Opinion forum.Wonder if this story was tactically deployed today or 'just a coincidence':

Centalised pay for teachers is hitting pupils' grades, study says

Research finds average GCSE pupil's exam performance drops a grade when local private sector pay rises 10% over five years

 Whole article here

Seems like performance may drop a grade when there's a 3 year pay freeze too.

[edited by: Spassky at 19:50 (GMT 0) on 22-8-2012]

 There was a similar issue with MFL last year (AQA) with boundaries for controlled assessment swinging wildly from winter to summer. There is a thread on the MFL TES pages that has been on the 'front page' of their threads for a full 12 months.

 AQA amd OFQUAL didn't seem to care about the impact on the students. We are big enough and ugly enough to know that governments and awarding bodies will shaft us from time to time but the students are the innocents in this and it's their futures that are being messed around with.

 A local school had the Principal Examiner for MFL in at considerable expense and he basically washed his hands of it, apparantly, with a 'we screwed up but have learnt lessons' - that's no use to the poor students walking around with grades determined not on their ability but when the school happened to put work in for moderation.

'Lessons learnt' - perhaps the subject teams could do with some cross curricular communication.

AQA seem to be getting lots of heat about this today - just imagine what will happen tomorrow! 

Our results have been decimated. We're 10% lower than last year. Like others we've been hit by the double whammy of the exam and controlled assessments having raised grade boundaries. We're a school facing an overdue OFSTED inspection and now below the 40% 5 A*-C grades because of the collapse of the English results we're in danger of special measures. I've not been able to find the raw score/UMS conversions so it's difficult to tell if our controlled assessment marks were altered by the moderator. It does seem that our expected C's became D's and, because we're a school where most of our students are clustered around that C/D borderline, we've been hit hard. Members of my department are in a state of shock as they say they've never worked harder and this is the result. I'm certainly looking at whether the other exam boards have been as harsh as the AQA and will certainly consider leaving them. I'm very cross indeed!

[edited by: gjholl at 19:55 (GMT 0) on 22-8-2012]

 How do you all know? I thought everything was embargoed till tomorrow? (A day I am now dreading.)

I feel sick now! Won't get my school results until tomorrow. We are with OCR- has anyone any information on trends with them? Doubly concerned as my son collects his results tomorrow as well.

 http://web.aqa.org.uk/UMS/index.php

the link should take you to the AQA conversion table on the website. We're in a similar situation - vast majority of the cohort were C/D and would have got a C on a different exam series. I am so gutted, not looking forward to the consequences of this.