Those with a DC in Year 9 they face tougher GCSEs and now A levels as well.

[SecretSquirrels]

I have a DS in year 11 who is just doing his GCSEs and has a place at 6th form to do A levels.
Most of DS1s GCSEs have some form of controlled assessment together with a terminal exam. Many schools do modular exams which will no longer be allowed from 2013.

It just occurs to me that his younger brother faces the new terminal exam GCSEs and judging by this week's news he may well have to do new style A levels as well.
I've nothing against exams being rigorous but who will know in a few years time that high grades were harder to get if you were born after 1998?

[SeaHouses]

I don't think it matters that the exams have got harder. I did GCSEs in the first few years after they came in, but my Grade B is seen as equivalent to a later grade B, even though those sitting GCSEs later did an easier exam or coursework equivalent. The same is now just happening in reverse.

What is unfair is that the current year nines (including my DS) are having two sets of exam changes to go though, and there are bound to be some problems in the changes that will take a few years to sort out. Changes should be staggered, but this Government seems determined to push through as much change as possible.

[Kensingtonia]

I am in the same position with DD1 in year 11 and DD2 in year 8. Ironically I think terminal exams may have suited DD1 more as she is very bright but lazy and didn't put much work into controlled assessments etc - she has a very good memory and writing style. DD2 has dyslexia and struggles with remembering a lot of information and getting it down quickly.

I imagine that most of the kids applying to Uni for 2017 or whenever the changes are in force, will be in the same position. Even though I personally benefitted from terminal exams under the old O' level system, as I could be extremely lazy throughout year 10 and 11; I think a test of memory and being able to write quickly is not the best way to measure achievement. I also recall that some kids just went to pieces in exams and were crippled by nerves.

[SecretSquirrels]

Mine are the wrong way round as well. DS1 would have done better at terminal exams. He actually enjoys exams whereas DS2 gets into a state over tests and would suit continuous assessmentr .

[RiversideMum]

My DCs are in the same position.

[ragged]

There was a long thread about this on MN already.

[tibetantiger]

Can you do a link, Ragged?

[BackforGood]

My dcs are the wrong way round for it too - ds is doing them now (when he's a 'last minute, learn it all' type of person, and dd will be doing them under the new (old) system, when she is conscientious and hard working, and would do better probably under the current system. Ce la vie. They can only be compared against their cohort - people (employers, FE) know that, in the same way they get to know about the "quality" of GCSEs or even 1st class degrees isn't quite what it once was, but that the dcs of each generation can only do what is asked of them at the time.

[ragged]

This be it (previous thread on future grade falls).

[marriedinwhite]

DS did his GCSE's thankfully his school chose rigorous exam boards and some were IGCSEs so his were sufficiently rigorous.

DD is not at such an academically selective school and I am jolly glad that the exams are being made more rigorous.

[SecretSquirrels]

Thanks ragged.
I think a simple thing would be to relabel the grades so it would be easy for employers to see they were different exams. When I did O Levels they were graded 1 to 6 I think. When GCSEs came in thye changed to A to F.

[Kensingtonia]

Yes, I agree that the exams should be rebranded. I do remember though that O' levels were A, B, C etc. I think it was CSEs which were 1, 2, etc and a Grade 1 was equivalent to an O' level pass. Interestingly in those days there was also a difference between the boards and my school choose the toughest which were AEB and London, I think the weakest was Oxford and Cambridge. The school seemed to view the gradings at O' level as almost random for example one year a lot of girls suddenly failed history. I got A's in History and Geography in which I did awful papers (I deserved a U in Geography) and a C in English Lit which was my best subject and I later got an A an A level.
I am not convinced that IGCSE is tougher than GCSE - my DD2s school have just changed maths to IGCSE because they think it is easier! Hopefully once the new system comes in, we will get away from the ridiculous system where some GCSE/IGCSE are worth more than others depending on type or exam board.

[gelatinous]

Before 1975 O-level pass grades were either A-E or 1-6 depending on board. After 1975 all boards used A-C as their pass grades (so new A = old A,B+,1 or 2; new B = old B-,C,D+,3 or 4; new C = old D-,E,5 or 6 roughly). CSEs were graded 1,2,3 with a grade 1 equivalent to an O-level pass (C). O-levels were replaced by GCSEs in 1988.

So having fairly massive changes in grading structures is nothing new and children affected will probably end up qualifying their results by adding 'after they got harder' if asked what they got, in the same way as I hear children qualifying their A-level/GCSE results with 'before A*s were introduced' these days.

Remember results getting easier disadvantages children sitting exams earlier in just the same way as exams getting harder disadvantages children sitting exams later.

[SecretSquirrels]

I am so old that my O levels were graded 1 -6 (1974) [busmile].

[petshopboyfan]

hi everyone, my daughter got following marks in sats,
maths 5c,english 4a,science 5c,
what grades would she be on course to get in GCSE's, i know a lot can change from now until then, but would really like her to be going for grade A's

[bigTillyMint]

So.... DC in Y8 or below will have terminal exams only? No controlled assessments?

I did my O'levels in 1976, completely unaware of any recent changes to the system

[bigTillyMint]

Oops, just seen that this is an ancient thread!

[CouthyMow]

It's the current Y9, Tilly, and it will badly affect my DD with LD's, who was on course (after working her damn socks off) to get 'C/D' grades, but will now gain a raft of 'E/F' grades. If she's lucky. She is losing hope and focus, as she knows that anything below a 'C' is seen as a fail, and to her, she feels that all the bloody hard work she has put in has been for nothing.

Especially as she is in the first cohort to have to undergo linear exams. They haven't been TAUGHT for linear exams, the teaching style used from Y7-Y9 was aimed at passing modular exams, so this year group are at a massive disadvantage to those that follow.

The current Y8's will have one year of being taught in a style aimed at passing linear exams, the current Y7 two years, the current Y6 that goes up in September will get 3 full years of it before they start their GCSE's. DD has already sat one modular GCSE, RE, in Y9, and now she will be expected to go straight into linear exam courses with no prior experience in the different style of teaching.

It is particularly unfair on people like my DD, who has LD's, dyslexia, discalculia, and dyspraxia. She has worked so hard to pull her grades up to a 'C/D', and now she will drop at least two grades just because some twat of a politician has decided that this is his pet 'project'.

How disheartening must it be to see all the hard work you have put in be wiped away overnight?

[CouthyMow]

Petshopboyfan - my DD's levels are 4C's and 4b's across the board at the end of Y9/KS3. This equated to 'C/D' grades under the modular system, and according to DD's teachers, will be equivalent to 'E/F' grades under the linear system.

So it depends what year your DC is getting those level 4/5's in as to what grade they will be aiming for.

[CouthyMow]

After KS2 SATS I would assume top/ middle set at Secondary, and higher papers, with a chance of 'A's, but more realistically 'B/C' grades under the linear exams.

[NoComet]

Honestly, I don't see how you can predict the new exams having that bad an effect on your DDs grades. How can the school know.

Stupidly disheartening if that's what they have told her.

Personally I much prefer terminal exams and DD1 thinks she will too.

Modular exams just mean huge amounts of stress for two years.

I hate the idea that you have to remember you have an exam on some random day and you have to be certain to revise the right bit of work to answer some particular style of question.

I'd be liable to get in a muddle and dyslexic sometimes disorganised DD1 is certain to get in a muddle and forgot or learn the wrong thing.

No proper terminal exams with a choice of questions, coursing one period of panic seem a way better idea to me.

Also I don't think modular exams where might do a topic in Y10 and forget about It are a good preperation for A'level.

[LeeCoakley]

dd3 is going to be the guinea-pig year as well. I don't mind the change as long as the teaching is modified accordingly. What would be a disaster is if the exams revert to modular after a trial period and our children are stuck with low grades. Employers in the future won't remember that for a few years things were different.

[CouthyMow]

The school have predicted a 1-grade drop for top set, a 1/2 grade drop for middle set, and a 2-grade drop for bottom set. They say that the effect will not be do great in lower years, as they will have more of an idea.

For my DD in particular, though, I think that a 2-grade drop is a generous estimate - controlled assessments and consistent hard work suit her, a final exam, with memory issues caused by her dyspraxia and her epilepsy, she is going to bomb. I am personally highly doubtful that she will achieve a grade at all, as she is so unsuited to linear courses.

[CouthyMow]

Starballbunny - what about those that WEREN'T aiming for A-levels though?

Tbh, had I know about the change to linear exams in February, when we had to choose DD's options, we probably wouldn't have taken the route of traditional GCSE's, we would have chosen the more vocational route.

I think it is unfair that we had to choose options in February, then the Government announce this change for the current Y9 in April, when it was too late for us to change route. They should have brought it in for the year below, who HADN'T yet chosen their GCSE options.

[bruffin]

My dd is yr 9 and chose her option this year and we were fully aware by then that they would be sitting linear exams and told to make sure that their choices reflected this

[bigTillyMint]

Couthy for your DD and all the others who are in Y9 and will be the guinea pigs.

DD is in Y8, going into Y9 in September, but they are doing 3-year KS4 at her school now so she will be starting her GCSE's, so I guess she will be a guinea-pig of sorts too