Easier exams in private schools counted in the same way as harder state school exams

[greentheme23]

I'm shocked by this

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/aug/24/private-schools-igcse-exams-easier-gcse-university-admissions?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

Yet another example of money triumphing over talent and hard work!

[Xenia]

Just my luck that my children's private schools pick harder exams rather than the other way round so as to test and stretch the childrenmore. It was the same in my private school too years ago - the school picked the hardest O level board as it was more challenging.

[titchy]

Oh FFS it's just the Guardian flashing the chips on its shoulders again. Universities don't use GCSEs or iGCSEs to determine admissions - they only look at Level 3 qualifications. What a stupid article.

[Propertyfaux]

It could also lead to disadvantage, DS friend has struggled with her A levels after leaving private education. The results look good on paper but at some point they need to do the same exams as their peers.

[ArthurtheCatsHumanSlave]

This is hilarious. You have actually fallen for it.

Where was all the angst when for the last, what, 10 years, state school GCSE's, with all the coursework element, were easier than the harder iGCSE's which had none. There was a reason private schools choose iGCSE's, and that was because they were more rigorous.

[greentheme23]

I think some people forget that kids need English and Maths at C equivalent GCSE to get into Uni so no they are not discounted at that stage

[ZandathePanda]

iGCSEs have the advantage of not being comparable so it is difficult to compare private with state. Which is handy for private schools when bright stare school pupils do as well. Unfortunately for them this falls down at A Level.

[ZandathePanda]

State not stare

[titchy]

And how many children at private school only manage to scrape a C grade in M and E iGSCE, yet go on to achieve good grade A levels?

[Pinktulipsarethebest]

IGCSEs aren't easier.

[milliefiori]

Hmm. My DC are at private school and I tutor mainly state school kids. They all did AQA and Excel exams. Maybe these boards set easier papers for the private school pupils?

[noblegiraffe]

Kids going to uni this year have only sat reformed GCSEs in English and maths. Even if the exams are ‘harder’ and ‘more rigorous’, the pass rates were pegged so that exactly the same proportion got grade 4+ as got C+ the previous year, and 7+ as got A+.

One could therefore argue that it’s exactly as hard to get a certain grade on the ‘gold standard’ GCSE as it was on the old GCSE which was seen as comparable to IGCSEs as back then IGCSEs counted in the league tables.

I think the real complaint is about some unis requiring a 6 in GCSE or a B in IGCSE which is actually a problem as a high 5 is equivalent to a B but wouldn’t count. However the article doesn’t mention this and it’s only a short-term problem as IGCSEs now have switched to number grades too.

[Drabarni]

Friend of family a teacher of GCSE English took my dc for some lessons over holidays. She said the igcse that dd is doing is far more detailed than her AQA English
HTH

[Aragog]

Every single year!!! Same comments. No real basis

IGCSEs aren't easier. They're similar but different with a different syllabus. Just like some GCSE boards have different syllabus.

Dd has done both - new style 9-1 GCSE and IGCSE for both.

The Government have their own reasons for not liking them, by it's not to do with difficulty.

DD's maths tutor (confidence issues in last few months) is a state secondary teacher teaching GCSE and she was doing IGCSE. He - and other state school teachers who have looked at both - said they're just different. He found topics in DDs papers which were more complex on hers and vice Versa. Dd did mocks and practise papers using both systems - as not that much available due to the exams being new - and got similar grades in both.

[Aragog]

IGCSE English and maths were numbers last year; think the rest are numbers this year. They were one year behind the GCSEs in transferring over iirr.

[Namenic]

A bit controversial here but why have different qualifications and exam boards? Surely in terms of qualification equality/fairness it makes most sense to have the same exam?

I did AQA and OCR in v similar subjects 15yrs ago. OCR was harder as papers had 3 mini essay questions of 9 or 18 marks. AQA was easier with multiple short 2-8 questions.

It is way worse at a level as now you also have IB and Pre-U thrown in there too. BTECs I think are in slightly different subjects, so I get that.

[stucknoue]

Universities base their offers on a levels not GCSEs, only Oxford and Cambridge, perhaps imperial are even vaguely interested in GCSEs, they just look at predicted a levels

[Cleopatrai]

IGCSES aren’t easier.

[ElizabethBennetismybestfriend]

I am involved in both IGCSE and GCSE and in my subject IGCSE is much easier. There are also Foundation and Higher papers for IGCSE which are not allowed at GCSE.

[boys3]

I'm shocked by this

If you are referring to the complete absence of even the most basic journalistic standards then I'd have to agree.

That said the Sunday Times has had a good go in matching it with their front page "Oxbridge penalises private pupils"

Brexitised Britain in action I'm afraid.

Brexitise - verb, derivation unknown, to spout ill informed nonsense The tautology is off course a deliberate used of irony

[fromwesttoeast]

Cambridge board IGCSE English used to be easier - which is why some state schools used it for low ability sets (before reforms put a stop to this).
Cambridge have just updated the spec and it’s much more comparable to tne GCSE now.

[RedHelenB]

Actually for things like dentistry gcses do count. My dd needed at least 5 A* to apply to Cardiff for example so yes it would favour private schools in that case.

[noblegiraffe]

If it was asking for A*s then it would have accepted 8-9 in numbered GCSEs which actually favours state pupils as an 8 also covers a high A grade.

[RevealingIfYouMightBeStalked]

Oh, my bleeding heart

In around 2015, as an experiment, my DS1's school, a top performing comp, did an experiment, as they were toying with IGCSEs. I acknowledge they only did Maths as English would have meant 2 different lots of books.

So with parental permission, DC were entered for both IGCSE and AQA GCSE. The school, being a comp, had to make sure the cohort reflected the school cohort, less able to stellar.

The results were, frankly, shocking, particularly at the pass/fail boundary, and at the A/A* boundary.

The DC statistically did considerably better at IGCSE.

The reason the school didn't than adopt it was because League Tables weren't counting IGCSEs any more. As much as anything because they are not 'nationally moderated'.

Times change. Things move on.

The all-new GCSEs are harder than IGCSEs. So I imagine most private schools will stick with the latter.

[RevealingIfYouMightBeStalked]

AT the end of the day, we state school oiks have to grit our teeth and accept that life just ain't fair.

The majority of privately educated DC will always be advantaged over our own, either via small class sizeds, no non-financed SEN, the ability to kick out miscreants, bursaries that go to parents who can already pay the fees, the ability to cream of the highest achieving state kids to a) boost league table positions, and b) be 'charitable', the selection of exam boards that garner the highest grades, the 'extra time' in exams, the re-marks at £50 per paper: then there's daddy's connections, the internship.

You will always see howls of outrage on MN, blank denials, etc at the suggestion that Sebastian, Bruno and Poppy got to RG due to their innate talent, not the £150-£200k of fees that bought that advantage.

They will particularly not want to be told their kids sit easier exams.