6th form exam resit fees advice needed please...

daisiegg

shellsuit wrote: »

I'm of the day when you worked all year and did one exam at the end, with a mock in between, so all this module and coursework (oh thats not good, rewrite it and get a better mark x 6 throughout the year) malarky is all new to me

Well, the current government agrees with you and is working to get rid of all this 'module malarkey'. They have already got rid of 'coursework' in some GCSE subjects (including English) and GCSEs are now being made linear (all exams at the end) instead of modular.

Bennifred

shellsuit wrote: »

The letter we got with the invoice was from the exams officer, and said that if we had any queries to get in touch with X, Y or Z members of staff.

X and Y couldn't help us, and Z is the Director. Oh and it took over a week for the Director to get back to us, after leaving her 4 messages after we were promised 'she will get back to you today'.

I didn't realise we could get in touch with the exam officer ourselves.

Just ring the school and ask to be put through!

shellsuit

daisiegg wrote: »

Well, the current government agrees with you and is working to get rid of all this 'module malarkey'. They have already got rid of 'coursework' in some GCSE subjects (including English) and GCSEs are now being made linear (all exams at the end) instead of modular.

I don't even understand the kids reports these days, they're all gobbledygook to me, so long as I see they are on target and the written words (as opposed to 3,726 codes which mean something or other) says they're doing Ok, that'll do me!

Bennifred wrote: »

Just ring the school and ask to be put through!

Ahh thank you

mrcow

daisiegg wrote: »

This is interesting...I teach English and our AS students only sit the exams in summer but it seems lots of other subjects in my school routinely enter Y12s for January modules, particularly in science and other more factual subjects. I think the idea is they do the exam when the material is still fresh in their minds and then move on to the next lot of material and can effectively forget what they learnt for the previous module, unless they have to retake it! Or that is my perception, anyway....I may be doing these subjects and teachers a great disservice in which case I of course apologise!

Well it's science that I teach, very heavy on content, but also application of content, and we certainly don't do it that way where I teach. I don't think the pupils have enough maturity fresh out of GCSEs to often handle the level of answer required to get a secure A/B 3grade by the January. Some will, but only the high fliers. Many others take a little longer to get into their stride pattern. To put them in early would be doing them a disservice in the long run.

Obviously we do January mocks. Often the jump from Jan to June is at least a couple of grades for for the middle-achievers. Purely because they have more experience and confidence. We do revision for the Autumn topics too, although by June, they are much more comfortable with this older content.

JemmaM91

Hi
Not really much help, but was you aware of the costs should he fail before he took the first exam? If not then I think you have a case to appeal. As it was the teachers/sixth forms fault for putting a class that was not ready into an exam. If he had a choice to sit the exam then there's probably nothing that can be done.

When I was at Sixth form about 4 years ago now I think, my class was put in for an exam in January then the same again in the June. Even those that had passed. They then used the higher of the two grades. Although I didn't have to pay for that resit as it was the Sixth forms decision to do it that way.

Hope that helps.

-Sorry it doesn't make too much sense, my son had me up super early this morning and my brains fallen asleep!

[Deleted User]

I'm an exams officer and i can clarify some of these issues for you. Firstly, exams cost the same whenever you do them. The exam board issue fees information once per academic year and they are fixed for all exams taken that year. Exam boards differ slightly but you are generally looking at about £100 per A level so about £25 per module which I assume is about what you have been charged.
Several of the previous posters are correct regarding modules. When exams became modular students were taught a module at a time and then took the exam for that part of the course at the end of the module so they sit Modules 1 & 3 in Jan and Modules 2 & 4 in June - that way the work is fresh in their minds and they can effectively 'forget' it once the exam is taken and move on to the next module. Although there has always been the opportunity to retake modules the following series (ie June or January) to try and get a higher mark. The exam board will use the highest mark you get for each module when they calculate the final grade for the A level so sometimes students/teachers encourage students to 'try again' to try and raise their grade.
In fact this is the last year A levels will be run like this. From next year there will be no January exams. Students will have to study for both modules in a year and take the exams in June. If they fail or want to re-take for any reason, they will have to wait until the following June.
It is unusual that all your son's group are re-taking the exam. The school's thinking would be that the students have finished the module and can effectively 'get it out of the way' so they can concentrate on the next bit for the summer. Someone obviously made a bad judgement somewhere along the way if they all did badly. Your son doesn't have to re-take - you only have to sit all the required modules in order to gain certification - you don't have to have done well in all of them. It's your choice - if you don't want him entered. The school is correct about the fees - there is a deadline for entries in March. After that the costs double and then a month later they triple. If withdrawals are not made by a certain date, the school will be charged anyway.
Hope that helps!

securityguy

daisiegg wrote: »

This is interesting...I teach English and our AS students only sit the exams in summer but it seems lots of other subjects in my school routinely enter Y12s for January modules,

Entered, past tense. The January modules have been abolished as from now. So, mercifully, current Y11s will be spared the carcrash of starting ASes in September but being encouraged to take a high-stakes exam in a little over three months' time (for example, Maths C1).

claire16c

daisiegg wrote: »

This is interesting...I teach English and our AS students only sit the exams in summer but it seems lots of other subjects in my school routinely enter Y12s for January modules, particularly in science and other more factual subjects. I think the idea is they do the exam when the material is still fresh in their minds and then move on to the next lot of material and can effectively forget what they learnt for the previous module, unless they have to retake it! Or that is my perception, anyway....I may be doing these subjects and teachers a great disservice in which case I of course apologise!

Thats what we did for Psychology AS and A level. Each module was pretty much unrelated to the next, and you had to remember something like 20 or 30 case studies for different topics in the exam - I think you had to pick two, so trying to remember all of that was a nightmare, around 60 for 1 exam so it was best to get a section completed in January rather than trying to remember 3 times that in June. Then move onto the next module which you would take in June.

IF you got a bad mark you could retake the exam in June. But putting students in again who did well, is absolute madness unless they want an A and they got a B or something. So if you son got a D, then he probably should be retaking it as surely he would want to get a better grade.

But if the teacher did not teach all of that module before the exam, then yes that is wrong. So you could complain about the payment. I guess you could show dates of when he was taught x topics and what was in the exam?