ABOUT THIS COURSE

This brand-new course focuses on developing a deeper understanding of assessment in AQA A-Level Chemistry and provides opportunities to explore strategies to enhance exam performance for students of all attainment levels. The course will enable teachers to develop their understanding and skills needed to assess student responses to the different question types on AQA A-Level Chemistry exam papers. The course will also emphasise those teaching and learning strategies which will best facilitate improvement in student performance with a focus on the role of assessment for learning.

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BENEFITS OF ATTENDING

• Develop a deeper understanding of the assessment demands in AQA A-Level Chemistry l Discover what examiners are looking for in all exam Papers
• Improve your ability to analyse and improve student responses for the short-answer, long-answer and multiple-choice questions
• Special focus on the requirements of questions that test students’ practical skills and their ability to analyse experimental data.
• How to help your students to become more self-sufficient.
• Take away strategies and approaches to maximise students’ marks in the exams

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PROGRAMME

Ensuring that you assess students’ work in a reliably and time-effective manner

10.00 – 10.50am

• Understanding the different requirements and demands of the 3 exam papers
• Understanding the finer details of mark-schemes to know how marks are gained and lost
• Understanding how to use the Principal Examiner’s to help future students – avoiding common errors and following the advice being offered by AQA
• The importance of the ‘student learning outcomes’ stated in the specification and the implications for teaching and learning
• Maximising the feedback provided for your centre via AQA’s Enhanced Results Analysis (ERA)

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Discussion; coffee break

10.50 – 11.10am

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Effective Assessment and Feedback to Students on Paper 1 Topics and Questions

11.10 – 12.00pm

• The most common student misconceptions of the paper 1 topics and how to challenge and eradicate these
• Using the AQA guidance provided in the Paper 1 reports to improve students’ performance
• Recommended teaching and learning strategies for the trickiest topics in Paper 1
• Resources and assessment methods that have been found to improve students’ understanding and performance in answering questions on the Paper 1 topics

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Effective Assessment and Feedback to Students on Paper 2 Topics and Questions

12.00 – 12.50pm

• The most common student misconceptions of the paper 2 topics and how to challenge and eradicate these
• Using the AQA guidance provided in the Paper 2 reports to improve students’ performance
• Recommended teaching and learning strategies for the trickiest topics in Paper 2
• Resources and assessment methods that have been found to improve students’ understanding and performance in answering questions on the Paper 2 topics

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Lunch and informal discussion

12.50 – 1.50pm

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Effective assessment and feedback to students on the Paper 3 requirements

1.50 – 2.40pm

• Why students find Section A of Paper 3 the most difficult part of the A-level Chemistry assessment: where most of the marks are lost
• The AQA guidance on Paper 3, Section A from the reports and how best to implement these
• Recommended teaching and learning strategies for improving students’ practical skills and how to improve their data analysis ability
• How to decide which OPTION is best for your students – the pros and cons of each and what the assessment data indicates

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Afternoon Break

2.40 – 2.45pm

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Improving students’ revision and exam technique

2.45 – 3.30pm

• The most reliable revision methods for students
• Getting the most from AQA past-papers and mark-schemes
• Detailed guidance on students’ examination technique and to persuade them to follow these