Forum Topic

Matt is spot on - again! :-)

Ivonne Holliday ● 2065d12 Comments

Ed. That wasn't how I saw it but I suspect the original tweet was meant as a "joke"? So perhaps there's some ambiguity ... my original point: how satire and reality seem to be converging ...

Michael Ixer ● 2064d

Michael when I saw the tweet on twitter - I got the opposite impression that the article headline suggests.The fact that the article shows the tweet almost implies the headline is misleading.Is it just me or is the headline misleading?If it is me that's fine - I accept that, otherwise we have a very misleading article that we should call out whatever the colour of your politics!

Ed Robinson ● 2065d

Yes it's really awful for them this year.  Totally unprecedented and therefore  so difficult to sort out.  Clearing is always quite chaotic for the first week or so but it's generally organised chaos and most students get a place which suits them even if it isn't their first choice.  Gawd knows what will happen this year, allowances will have to be made.

Sue Hammond ● 2065d

Hi Sue. I'm not sure the problem is with universities being unable to fill places, it's more that students are failing to getting their predicted grades and being  rejected by their first choice of university. In some case they may be ok with their second choice, but if they don't have the grades required for that they'll have to go to clearing. Obviously that happens even when there are actual exams as some students don't make the grade but listening to the news teachers and heads seem to be saying it's far worse this year as it appears whole schools are being downgraded and missing their first choice places whereas normally it would be one or two who'd just messed of a paper of two in exams.  

Michael Ixer ● 2065d

Hi Michael.  Yes you are probably right about not deferring some  admissions but surely taking some late payments is better than not getting them at all?  P.S. I have just realised that my phone changed algorithm into logarithm 😲 but at least it's topical!

Sue Hammond ● 2065d

As I say, satire and reality are getting scarily close. I think MPs are well paid as well? Looking at his picture perhaps a little too much claret? If we went back to 16th century boundaries and Calais - or more accurately, the Duchy of Normandy - was part of the UK then all those people there would unfettered access to the other parts: England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, wouldn't they?https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/edward-leigh-on-calais-and-migrants-1-6790211

Michael Ixer ● 2065d

Sue. I don't think your proposal of deferring exams and start of the university year would be acceptable to many universities. They expect fees to start rolling in September/October time and they already have a shortfall of high fee paying foreign students. I think it unlikely the government would plug the shortfall; plus there'd be problems with overlapping this and next years intake in October 2021. What surprises me is the lack of communications and transparency in the original process. I can see there's a need for some moderation process to ensure consistency and fairness (as you say, teachers may mnark oin the high side) but shouldn't there have been a trial run of the algorithm and discussion over significant variances and individual outliers so these could be resolved before announcing results? What's the business rule: no surprises?I've been discussing this on Facebook with an ex colleague as his daughter and her cohort are affected by this. Her school's results have been marked down based on previous years' averages but in her year there are a number of high performing students who had transferred from a school that had a better performance record. Statistics work on averages, not individuals.

Michael Ixer ● 2065d

Yes, Michael, it is very close to the truth.  Watching the news this morning, it all felt a bit like playing roulette.  Matt is spot on when he mentions ...."or a recent horoscope".Thank you for the link you sent, it is so sad and ridiculous! One can now understand fully the protest of Scottish students saying words to the effect of "no to post code lottery". My heart sank when I heard a student from a comprehensive who had predicted Bs but received Us........

Ivonne Holliday ● 2065d

He gets well paid for this dross !This is a serious situation for many 100's of thousands of young people and should not be trivialised. I wouldn't be surprised if Williamson and the Govt changed track and followed Sturgeon's lead to use students' predicted grades instead of the grades that have been churned out by obscure computer logarithms.  However, I do think teachers over-predict grades for various reasons and this would mean that some students would get awarded results above their abilities in some subjects.  This would not be ideal but there doesn't seem to be a fair or pragmatic way for the appeals process to go forward in this current mess.Another alternative would be for students to actually sit the exams in October and the unis defer admissions until January?

Sue Hammond ● 2065d

Out of interest has anyone looked at the % of say A*-B in the private schools YoY? If its the same surely then they've just given accurate grades?

Gabrielle OMahony ● 2065d

Sadly, rather close to the truth. If it's true that private schools have got better results than academies, comprehensive schools and colleges one suspects either there's a fundamental error in their algorithm to adjust results or there's no substance to any social mobility that's been waffled about. Looks like no one in government ever passed their statistics exam?https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/education-53755750?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=5f3521b18d7f9606552d304b%26Private%20schools%20see%20highest%20rise%20in%20top%20A*%20and%20A%20grades%262020-08-13T11%3A35%3A28.408Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:asset:3b491942-5214-444b-b209-3f66e5ccb39a&pinned_post_asset_id=5f3521b18d7f9606552d304b&pinned_post_type=share

Michael Ixer ● 2065d

Sadly, rather close to the truth. If it's true that private schools have got better results than academies, comprehensive schools and colleges one suspects either there's a fundamental error in their algorithm to adjust results or there's no substance to any social mobility that's been waffled about. Looks like no one in government ever passed their statistics exam?https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/education-53755750?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=5f3521b18d7f9606552d304b%26Private%20schools%20see%20highest%20rise%20in%20top%20A*%20and%20A%20grades%262020-08-13T11%3A35%3A28.408Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:asset:3b491942-5214-444b-b209-3f66e5ccb39a&pinned_post_asset_id=5f3521b18d7f9606552d304b&pinned_post_type=share

Michael Ixer ● 2065d