Examination boards

Discussion and advice on GCSEs

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denis denis
Posts: 129
Joined: Wed Oct 10, 2007 9:39 pm

Examination boards

Post by denis denis »

In the old days when i was at a grammar school :wink: :lol: all our O levels were the London Board of Examination, which we were told was the best (and hardest I reckon, which could explain a thing or two :wink: ). When we went to look around secondarys schools recently, one teacher said "they all take the same GCSEs at the end of the day, anyway", but I wondered if this is true? Do grammar schools do a different board, or do they really all sit the same exams these days?

Denis denis
solimum
Posts: 1420
Joined: Wed May 09, 2007 3:09 pm
Location: Solihull, West Midlands

Exam boards

Post by solimum »

A current teacher may be able to correct me, but as I understand it at the moment there are three main boards who account for most of the GCSE entries at both grammar and comprehensive schools- Edexcel, AQA and OCR. I've found that schools tend to "mix and match" from the different boards, usually by (presumably) the preference of the head of department for particular subjects as although they broadly cover the same areas especially in Science & Maths there can be different topics available and different methods of assessment (mixtures of coursework, modular exams and terminal exams in different percentages). All are rated equivalent when it comes to final results - rumours abound I'm sure about one board or another being "harder" but schools that change boards to attempt to chase better results are probably doomed to disappointment

A number of schools (mainly independent) have switched to so-called International GCSEs which are thought (especially in Maths) to be more rigorous. I have no direct experience of this so cannot comment as to whether it's true.
Guest55
Posts: 16254
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Post by Guest55 »

Yes there are three boards - all have very useful websites - some with example papers -

www.aqa.org.uk

www.edexcel.org.uk

www.ocr.org.uk

Most schools do a mixture of boards for the reasons mentioned above -
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