explanation of GCSE grades 1-9

[BucksBornNBred]

Really G55? I thought if you got an A/B/C at O level it was the same throughout the country not just for your year/class/school. Are you saying my A grade O levels are not the same as my DH's?

[Guest55]

O level grades were norm-referenced ie awarded to certain percentage of a cohort.

[BucksBornNBred]

Wow.. so all qualifications are irrelevant. I am glad that kind of stuff is kept quiet as I would never have bothered if I had known my achievements were basically worthless and not comparable with my peers.

[Guest55]

The cohort was the whole country perhaps you misunderstood? So you can compare with anyone in the same year group.

In reality cohort tends to be similar - but not the same.

[BucksBornNBred]

I did misunderstand... but that still means that you can't compare year on year; so in the day if a 20 year old with 8 grade A 'O' levels applied for the same job as a 21 year old with 8 A grade 'O' levels, then the employer wouldn't have been able to make any comparison because the 20 year old may have been from a really "thick" year compared to the 21 year old's year who were uber intelligent?

[Amber]

As I understood it GCSEs had also always been also norm-referenced. But this document suggests that they are neither norm nor criterion referenced. It states that while most teachers wanted to see a criterion-referenced system, 'despite heroic efforts'* it has never been possible to implement. And neither has norm referencing. So apparently grading of the new GCSEs, like the current ones, will be 'based primarily on statistical predictions'. Excellent news I feel for us all. Anyone seeking further clarity on the matter should refer below. There are lots of pretty-coloured graphs and charts to look at and lots of numbers in boxes. Like this:



https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... ses-in.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If anyone manages to get to the end of this 75 page explanation of how the grades will be decided without resorting to mind-altering substances, and can put it into a couple of sentences of understandable English, I think the mods should give them some kind of public service award.

* not sure who the 'heroes' involved in this have been; I only hope they are suitably recognised in the New Years Honours list.

[999 mum]

Hi Amber

I have just had a look at the document that you linked to.

On page 7, the charts seem to show that approximately 50% will receive grades 7-9 in chemistry, whereas less than 20% will receive those grades for English and just over 20% for maths. (7-9 are equivalent to A and A*)

How are we supposed to interpret this data?

(I will stop worrying about this now - I should be getting ready for Christmas!)