Can GCSE students accurately predict their final grades?

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New article collection on Results Day from Routledge

Is it possible for students to accurately self-estimate their GCSE results before sitting their exams? In a new article from the Routledge journal Educational Studies, academics consider whether mock exams and teacher feedback actually give an accurate reflection of performance.

Gaynor Attwood, Paul Croll, Carol Fuller & Kathryn Last review the differences between predictions and results, and whether this reflects examination errors as well as pupil errors. The study examines the various factors affecting self-estimation, and whether the teacher or the child has under/overestimated their GCSE grades. According to earlier research, very few children have negative academic self-images, indicating that 11 to 12 year olds generally feel they ‘perform well’ at primary school, with only one in 20 estimating that they were doing badly. At secondary school and leading up to GCSEs, predictions become more accurate due to a variety of factors. For example, do teachers provide extensive feedback, or evidence to help a child accurately predict?

This research is part of a new article collection on Results Day from Routledge, with articles freely available on exams, assessment, plagiarism, cheating, results and appeals. As students across the country wait for their GCSE and A level results to be announced, we review the research behind schooling and general examinations. To view this new collection, please visit: http://explore.tandfonline.com/page/ed/resultsday2013

To read the full article free from Educational Studies, click here:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03055698.2013.776945

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For more information please contact:
Puneet Bola-Moore, Senior Marketing Executive, Routledge Education
email:
puneet.bola@tandf.co.uk

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