Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In August 2018, Ofqual announced that it had intervened to adjust the GCSE Science grade boundaries for students who had taken the "higher tier" paper in its new double award science exams and performed poorly, due to an excessive number of students in danger of receiving a grade of "U" or "unclassified". [3]
For GCSE Science the old single-award ‘science’ and ‘additional science’ options are no longer available, being replaced with a double award ‘combined science’ option (graded on the scale 9–9 to 1–1 and equivalent to 2 GCSEs). Alternatively pupils can take separate qualifications in chemistry, biology and physics.
In Northern Ireland, a new grade C* was introduced in 2019 to line up with the English grade 5. In both systems, work below the grade G or 1 standard is denoted as 'Unclassified' (U). For comparison purposes, a grade C is considered equivalent to a 4, and an A is equivalent to a 7, and an 8 is equivalent roughly to an A*.
The 9-1 grading system for GCSEs began in 2017 in England.
In 2020, Ofqual, the regulator of qualifications, exams and tests in England, produced a grades standardisation algorithm to combat grade inflation and moderate the teacher-predicted grades for A level and GCSE qualifications in that year, after examinations were cancelled as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On 20 August 2020 the GCSE results were released. [30] After the problems arising from the use of the grade algorithm for A-Levels, it was decided that GCSE grades awarded to each student would be the higher of the teacher predicted result or algorithm standardised result for each subject they took. [30]
Edexcel, another British exam board, also had similarly low grade boundaries. Subsequently, Ofqual said that they were confident the grade boundaries this year were "sound", so shifted their focus onto the previous year's grade boundaries for the new Mathematics A-Level for the 2,000 students who sat it after studying it for one year.
Ofqual said "We want to understand why the grade boundaries were so different between the two years.", and had called the significant shifts in boundaries "unusual". [30] [31] [32] None of the exam boards decided to re-open the 2018 award, after being asked to look at them again by the regulator.