GCSEs

But changing 1-9, to 9-1 confuses everything when your A* equivalent becomes a fail.

FranP 😁 I would feel like a failure now with my 1s and 2s from the 1960s!!

ginny

How will employers decipher this in 10 or 20 year’s time.

I doubt they will give them a second glance by then.

BOTS are now reading the results.
This is why my daughter ( recruitment company) advises applicants to ask a BOT to write the covering letter because a BOT will be reading the covering letter.
It saves masses of time when you think of the hundreds of applications that have to be read.

FranP

Mine were A to C passes with A-E and U (for not worth marking). Pupils entering vocations would have a D accepted for some vocational careers, especially in Maths where it designated a basic numeracy.

A few years in and A-E was a pass which somewhat upgraded my B&C, but at least they were the same way up.

But changing 1-9, to 9-1 confuses everything when your A* equivalent becomes a fail.

Confuses everything for whom?
Everyone involved in the current system will understand what the grades mean. How the grades were organised decades ago is about as relevant as a penny ha'penny bus fare. 😂

Mine were A to C passes with A-E and U (for not worth marking). Pupils entering vocations would have a D accepted for some vocational careers, especially in Maths where it designated a basic numeracy.

A few years in and A-E was a pass which somewhat upgraded my B&C, but at least they were the same way up.

But changing 1-9, to 9-1 confuses everything when your A* equivalent becomes a fail.

silverlining48

There was a point system when my children were doing A levels. Grammar school.
Pupils needed a certain amount of points from all exams taken to get into university. They were still marked ABC etc.
I got cross because the boys school all did general studies at A level, on top of the rest, so obviously ended up with more points added. The girls school didn’t have that extra opportunity.

At DDs’ senior school, they all did General Studies in addition to 3 x A levels, but some universities - the choosier ones - would discount any GS points.

I saw one of the GS papers one of my dds sat, and TBH I was startled at how difficult it was - certainly not a doss by any stretch of the imagination.

At dds’ school, IIRC they were required to complete a maths element of GS if they weren’t doing maths beyond GCSE, and ditto a foreign language.

Congratulations, by the way, to all who succeeded against the odds, like watermeadow's GC!

I think the grades below 4 are meant to show whether the candidates failed by a whisker or failed badly. This might influence the decision to resit. Of course, these days the poor things have to repeat English Language or Maths until they eventually pass.
Why don't exam boards simply show the percentages (either alone or alongside the grades)?

Two of my grandchildren got no home schooling at all during Covid. Their isolation has left them extremely shy and one is autistic, one dyspraxic, who,as his mother said, has had no help at all despite being unable to write his own name. His results were all 6s and 7s ( that’s As and Bs)

Thank you Jaxjacky

Well done her Coppernob special ✅

When I did O levels they were A to F. No such thing as A*.

.

I don't know why there aren't just
A*, A, B and C passes -

A* - 95% to 100%
A - 80% to 95%
B - 65% to 80%
C - 50% to 65%

Below 50% - no mark.

That's how our classwork and homework was marked.
.

Musicgirl

Sallyforth

Amid all the praise being heaped on the A* and other fabulous results for some students, I like to remember that for some other students just getting a pass represents a huge effort on their part and some excellent teaching.

Congratulations to those students who performed above their expected grades by getting a pass.

Yes, there was a young man featured in a local paper yesterday, who had finally passed his GCSE maths at the fourth attempt. To me, this is one of the best and most inspiring results I have seen this year.

Well done him and to his teachers too.

Out of interest, I did a couple of extracts of GCSE Maths papers yesterday and some of it was like a new country to me.
Things have changed but the answers haven't!

My above message was in reply to posts wondering why some students go in to collect results. Sorry I didn't make it clear never posted here before.

I have seen two kids through gcses my daughter received her results yesterday. My son received both gcses and A levels via email as he was abroad and frankly didn't care about going in person. My daughter wanted to go in person and it was a marvellous experience for both of us. There were tears of happiness for her and hugs with friends. It also gave her an opportunity to see her teachers in person and thank them for their help. The examining officer was also on hand to help candidates that may want to have any papers remarked. Which is easier to do face to face.

Comparing the two experiences hers was so special and a day she will never forget. She did of course have her lipstick on for the photos that go on the schools instagram!

Hope that just gives you a little insight into the differences.

Agreed, escaped.

And never should anybody be measured by academic achievement alone.

Sallyforth

Amid all the praise being heaped on the A* and other fabulous results for some students, I like to remember that for some other students just getting a pass represents a huge effort on their part and some excellent teaching.

Congratulations to those students who performed above their expected grades by getting a pass.

Yes, there was a young man featured in a local paper yesterday, who had finally passed his GCSE maths at the fourth attempt. To me, this is one of the best and most inspiring results I have seen this year.

Chardy

O level exam boards did their own thing, hence some were letters, others numbers. (All CSE grades were 1-> 7. Grade 1 was O level equivalent, 1->5 a CSE pass)
GCSE was supposed to pull it all together, hence every exam board was A->G.
It changed 9->1 so that in few years they can easily stick another number on the end!
Remember these changes are rarely (never?) made for educational reasons, but political ones

GCSEs were originally introduced to combine the two tier O level and CSE systems, nothing to do with the different O level boards, which were all A-E by the eighties. The idea, we were told, was to have every sixteen year old taking same exams so that no one felt the "stigma" of taking CSEs. They were graded A-G and all grades were considered a pass. It was all a nonsense from the beginning because everyone only considered A-C to be passes. Until very recently, there were also different levels of the exams according to the ability of the candidate - as had always been the case under the old system. Then, of course, the standards of the exams became more like the old CSE rather than O level, which meant that the brightest candidates were not stretched enough and grades started to rise exponentially, leading to the introduction of the A* grade. The introduction of numbered grades in 2017 was the Emporer's New Clothes. With all this being said, I sincerely hope that anyone here whose children or grandchildren received their results yesterday have achieved the grades they needed.

Well, I dare say that in a,few years, when grade inflation has made a 9s and 8s worth less than now, there will be a change back to A B C ...

Amid all the praise being heaped on the A* and other fabulous results for some students, I like to remember that for some other students just getting a pass represents a huge effort on their part and some excellent teaching.

Congratulations to those students who performed above their expected grades by getting a pass.

I love the way people are criticizing the GCSE system for making two changes in 30 years and then discussing what was clearly a complex and erratic grading system for O levels.
Rose-coloured specs, perhaps?

In Scotland, results are either by post, text or email. When I sat O levels in 1964, they arrived by post, and were only ‘graded’ pass or fail. The following year, the higher results also came by
post, and were graded A (top), B, C and F which was fail.

Due to difficulties with her mental health, for which she is still awaiting an assessment, my granddaughter has hardly been at school for the past 3 years. Even so, she managed to pass her English Literature and Statistics GCSEs a year early. One very proud Granny here.

What's always baffled me is the A* grade. I was told that an A was a perfect score, so how can you get more than perfect. A , A- was not quite perfect, B+ was better than B but not as good as A- and the others followed on with + or - in a similar vein. I think the whole school system is badly flawed now.