How Your Exam Grades Will Be Decided in 2020
With COVID-19 causing the closure of schools and cancellation of all exams, you're bound to have a few questions. Last week, Ofqual announced their official guidance for how grades will be decided this year, and I've boiled it down into the questions and answers below. The key thing to remember is that you will get your grades and everything will be done to ensure they are as accurate as possible.
How will my grades be decided?
Your grades for 2020 will be 'Centre Assessment Grades'. This means that your teachers will look at all of the work that you've done so far to come to an accurate conclusion of what your grade was likely to be. Your teachers will do everything they can to make sure that your grade is as accurate as it can be. If you've had a cover teacher or just a lot of teacher changes, then your grades will most likely be decided by your head of department.
What will they use to decide the grades?
Teachers will use a whole range of information to help them decide your grade. This could include your classwork, mock exams, AS results (if you've done them), coursework, performances (where applicable) and anything else at their disposal.
Won't my grades just be the same as my target or predicted grades?
While this might be the case for some students, your teachers won't be looking at your predicted grades to make their decision. This is because predicted and target grades are often used as a way of motivating students before the exams and may be a little higher or lower than what you were actually going to get.
Can I do more work to improve my grade?
No. Exam boards have not requested any additional work to help decide the grades, so your grades will be based on work you've already done. This means that any work that you've been sent by your school is purely designed to help you continue your studies and keep your brain active during this time away from school. If for whatever reason, you are unable to complete this work, you don't have to worry as it won't impact your grade.
What will happen when they've decided a grade for my subject?
Once the teachers have decided all of the grades for one subject, they will then have to rank each student based on how certain they are they would have gotten that grade. This ranking will help the exam boards standardise the results across all the centres. This will be more difficult for teachers who have larger classes. If you have multiple teachers for a subject (such as in maths), your teachers will have to agree on your grade and rank.
How is this even fair?
Understandably, some students might be concerned that the teacher's opinion of them will influence their grade. This will not happen. There is so much data involved in deciding a person's grade, and so many checkpoints that the grade has to go through, any unfair grading will be filtered out and corrected. Even after your school has agreed on everyone's grades, the grades have to go to the exam board for moderation and standardisation.
But how does standardisation work?
Exam boards will use data from previous exams and how well they expect particular schools to perform. This means that if your school has been overly generous or harsh on everyone's grades, the exam board can shift all the grades up or down to make them more accurate based on what they expected for that school. They cannot change individual grades, or move some people above or below others.
When will I know what my grade is?
Ofqual has said that they expect your grades to come out no later than they were originally due to come out. This means that your GCSE grades should come out by 20th August, and your Alevel grades should be announced by 13th August.
What if I'm not happy with my grade?
If you think your grade is inaccurate you can request an appeal, but this will only look at the process used to decide your grade, not at whether your work is worth a higher grade. Alternatively, you can resit your exam in the academic new year.
I'm in year 10 and I was due to take some exams this year. What will happen to me?
Ofqual has said that anyone in year 10 who was due to take their exams this year will not have their grades assessed and will have to take them next year. This may change, as Ofqual are still taking advice on this but as it stands, you will be taking your exams in year 11.
I'm a private exam taker and I don't have any teachers, how will my grades be decided?
As with anyone else, the head of the exam centre (usually a school or college) will have to sign off on your grades to say they're confident that those grades are accurate. This means that if you haven't worked directly with any teachers within that centre, they will be unable to assess your grade. Unfortunately, if you don't know any of the teachers and were just planning on turning up on the day to sit the exam, you won't be able to get a grade. This means that you'll have to take the exam during the Autumn exam period.
I'm an international student studying IGCSE's or International Alevels, how will my grades be decided?
Your grades will be decided in the exact same way as people studying within the UK.
I've still got questions, what should I do?
If you've still got questions specific to your situation, your best bet is to contact your school or teacher. However, please remember that your teachers will be very busy and stressed at the moment, so harassing them for your grades or pressuring them to be more generous with your grades will not help. Try to be understanding and remember that this is not how they wanted the school year to end either. Why not thank them for their hard work and all they've done to help you this year instead?