How is it possible to get A* or A grades - tiffin school

[stressedparent]

Hi harrow123/muvallac

Try and google exam boards and grade boundaries, to get an a* in some papers, you only have to score above 67%. it all depend on how hard is the test papers. Benchmarking and standardization is used but not as deep as the 11 plus. Physics aqa gcse 2009 needed 28 out of 45 raw score to get an a*.

[tiredmum]

Hi harrow123/muvallac

Try and google exam boards and grade boundaries, to get an a* in some papers, you only have to score above 67%. it all depend on how hard is the test papers. Benchmarking and standardization is used but not as deep as the 11 plus. Physics aqa gcse 2009 needed 28 out of 45 raw score to get an a*.

This seems very low - i remember checking this in some of my dd's results last year (which were not AQA). but it was at least 80% that got you an A and obviosly higher for an A*

[hermanmunster]

all gets very confusing - the raw score gets converted to UMS ...... (are you keeping up at the back there?) - which look entirely different from the original score ... they are know as government fudge marks in our house. For example DS in a chemistry GCSE module was told he had 100% or 100 UMS. He actually got 87% but this is "transformed / standardised / scaled " whatever to a 100..... hence it possible to get 28/45 and still get say "90%" or more in an exam.

light reading:

http://store.aqa.org.uk/over/stat_pdf/U ... EAFLET.PDF" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[la boume]

Students have been selected at the first place, it is easier for teachers to work with bright, focused, deducated children. But even at Tiffins they got several Ds and Es.

Interesting ...

Is there any table which gives us information as to grades obtained by each student. student name may be confidential.

Many school results that they publish on thier websites is based subjects, not seen anywhere grades recd by each student or top students

I have Tiffin girls prospectus which I obtained at the open evening in Oct 2010. There are lots of tables with the results for KS3, GCSE, and A/AS. No names, of course.

There is also "Destination of leavers" info, with the names of each student

[SunlampVexesEel]

My 2p worth...

But what is the mystery behind getting A*/A grades?

No mystery. Selective Entry. A virtuous circle of good student/good teacher/good environment.

are the children being stretched throught the school life so they perform well in exams.

Yes. Regular exams/assessment. Teaches technique and discipline.

are they being trained/guided very well

Yes. Regular assessment and advice.

are they getting lot of home work repeatedly till they achieve good understanding on subjects

Relevant home work.

are the children very very busy all the days doing homeworks

Significant but manageable leaving time for other things.

Do these children understand the concepts of maths/science etc subjects , or they are just trained to get only grades then children forgetting everything after exams.

Concepts seem to sink in but clearly the teaching is targeted towards the syllabus.

or is it easy to get A*/A grades in exams ?

I hope so. If not it makes my mix of grades look rather sad.

thoughts please

They are good schools with a selective intake with a parental mix that includes many parents who care passionately about education and the opportunities it can bring; the only downside is that it is very difficult to get in due to the enormous demand and lack of a catchment.

Regards
SVE

[magwich2]

Lots of good advice so far on this thread.
What sums it up for me is that Miss Magwich (who approaches all exams cynically and with the help of revision guides and the exam board examiners reports) did gcse spanish. She worked out exactly what she needed to do and not one word more. She got an A* and the girl in her class whose mother was spanish and who spoke the language at home got an A. Really bad system but I guess you have to play by the rules.

[Doblinski]

I have some experience of assessing Art GCSE in state schools- if a Head of Department (HoD) has predicted a child an A early year 10, then they try hard to keep to that score when marking course-work at end of year 11. They try not to bump scores up or down too much. This is because it skews departmental grade predictions and exam boards are unimpressed by this.

There will always be an A grade student who gets the odd C, but schools try to keep this anomaly level low. With a school like Tiffin, I imagine the pressure would be acute on those teachers to get the much predicted A*s. And any A* student showing signs of under-achieving would be leant on considerably, and their parents consulted. A lot of pressure on students AND staff. Having said that, all teachers feel this pressure whatever the school.

[harrow123]

All good

So why is not most of the every children get top grades

What could be missing, it could be hardwork/ motivation/ guidance

As still many children in aldo tiffin gets D and E grades

[mad?]

Perhaps they were over coached to get in there in the first place and are not quite up to it? Perhaps they had a bad day? Perhpas they/their parents chose the wrong options for them. Perhaps not everyone can excel at everything no matter what?

[pheasantchick]

P'haps they had 'Western' parents, and not Chinese parents!