English GCSE grades 2015

[TheWordFactory]

I received an email from an English teacher last night about work, and in it she said 'the government have said that only 3% of pupils will be awarded an A* in 2015.'

Now, I don't think that's right, is it?

Wasn't the announcement that the new style exams sat in 2017 will be subject to this proviso?

2015 English results will be subject to the shenanigans of change and like 2014's results might feel some impact (though 2014's English Lit GCSE saw a rise in A*s). But 3% has never been mentioned in this context.

Or has it?

I don't want to advise this teacher that she's wrong if it's me .

[bigTillyMint]

I have no idea, but I am watching as DD sits hers in 2015.

[PiqueABoo]

The true story I know re. 3% concerns Ofqual talking about the percentage who will be awarded a grade 9 for the new English and Maths GCSE exams taken in 2017.

I haven't seen anything about this and the current GCSEs.

[PiqueABoo]

Link: www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-29162249

[TheWordFactory]

pique that was what I thought too.

A*s in 2015 should stay broadly in line with the 2014 results (maybe slightly lower due to the change in format).

[Bonsoir]

On a tangent here - but does anyone know where the philosophy of grading out of 9 arose from? IELTS grades out of 9 - and IELTS is a relatively recent examination, and a modern one, that is grabbing market share in a spectacular way. Does anyone else have any examples of public examinations graded out of 9 and who thought it up and why?

I like it, by the way - but am not quite sure why!

[TalkinPeace]

Sounds like kite flying by twits at the DfE again Word

Bonsoir
Believe the 1-9 when it happens.
A = top in exams
1st = top degrees
9 = anything from bottom to top

[catslife]

In the IB exams 7 is the highest grade.
National curriculum levels are/were numbers with 1 as the lowest and 7 (or 8) as the highest. When I started teaching some GCSE text books used these for GCSE with the highest NC levels going to 10! Have they abolished these to avoid confusion with the new numbered GCSEs I wonder?

However in the old CSEs (for those of us old enough to remember them) grade 1 was the highest and equivalent to C at O level!

[bigTillyMint]

Well they want to distinguish between the students who get an A. So 8 is a "low" a and 9 is a "high" A*

[OneMoreMum]

Surely it's so they can add a 10, 11 etc when grade inflation hits again, to avoid the use of * as at the moment..