Are you prepared for exam results to fall?

I am very glad that my DCs are not affected by these changes (two already at university and one in year 10) because I just don't have the confidence that the adjustments will be made by employers and universities until the system has been running for a while. The winners will be schools that stick to IGCSEs and parents with the resources to make sure their DCs are tutored privately. If you have an anomaly like the edexcel science mentioned in the TES link then you may already blown your chances of doing medicine at university with only Cs and Ds in your science GCSEs rather than A or A*. The whole thing smacks of a giant experiment.

Yes, yes, yes- but first of all custard and propatria- you have to let on as to whether you will have DC who will be directly affected by these changes- the ones who WILL get a 'C' instead of an 'A'. For the record my eldest is in Y8 so the new system should be 'in place' by the time they get there.

You need to be absolutely sure you won't feel aggrieved when your DC fail to get a university place because the universities won't suddenly, overnight reduce their grade requirements (nor dare I venture will 6th form colleges who'll only allow a DC to take an A level in a subject they got an 'A' in at GCSE).

Another group who I think we will see very unhappy about this one-exam-at-the-end, tougher GCSE regime are girls and the parents of girls. Modularity is a pretty obvious reason why girls results have overtaken boys.

Again, I will say 'This hasn't been thought through'.

Excellent news,lets hope that this is just the start,the "All shall have prizes" nonsense needed to be stopped.

FWIW I recall the change from GCEs to GCSEs. It really was widely felt that they were equivalents. I recall being actually sniggered at with my 3 As, 2 Bs and 3 Cs GCEs from a GS- what a failure I evidently was!- by people with their 13 As at GCSE (and after dozens of modular resits...). I was even questioned as to why I was permitted to do my professional Diploma with 'only' a 'C' in Maths as they'd needed the heady heights of a B at GCSE...

prh- well, I hope those DCs getting 'C's when in the previous year they would have got an 'A' will feel the love....

I would hope that there is enough awareness of the changes, certainly in academia, to mean that comparisons between years are fair.

The current situation reminds me of a line from Gilbert & Sullivan's The Gondoliers - "When everyone is somebody, then no-one's anybody".

Earlier quote:

"I don't mind and my DC may very well fall foul of this change.

The thing is they don't need to differentiate themselves from the studenst who have beena and gone, they need to differentiate themselves from their peers. Hopefully tougher GCSEs will help with this. All A*s obtained by taking and resitting modules piecemeal is no benchmark for excellence."

That's absolutely fine as long as you can guarantee your DC will always only ever be 'judged against their peer group' .

My professional career went 'degree' about 6 years ago.. New promotions always ask for the degree not the diploma so someone with a 7 year old degree (and that much experience) often doesn't get an interview because they've 'failed' the first hurdle up against 2 year qualified degree holders.

Yes, 'something' needs to be done but I'm not sure this is it, untested, untried, as usual for any Tory initiative.

surely examining bodies will standardise the new system against the old.

The argument isn't that there is an objection to academic rigour but the way change in education is introduced on a whim. The Edexcel situation (read the whole thread) has shown that hastily introduced and poorly resourced changes have been the cause of a great deal of anguish for a large number of students and teachers.

I'm all for English lessons where the whole book and related literature is studied. I would much rather have the whole history syllabus taught rather than enough to get students through the test. Teaching to the test is creating a generation that won't even be able to hold their own in a pub quiz. But we also need to support current students who through no fault of their own are suffering as a result of the politicisation of education.

The reality is for the next 2-3 years students will be obtaining vastly different results from their predecessors but will be entering the spheres of academia and employment up against previous years who may be far less able but have recorded much better grades. That is wrong.

Indeed, the system does need an overhaul.

It needs something carefully considered and planned for - that's the bit that worries me.

The reality is that somehting has to be done.

Teachers at A level state that even a GCSE at A* is not preparation enough. This is particularly tru of MFL where the jump is huge.

Staff at tertiary level consistently saying that students, even those with good qualifications, are ill equipped for the rigours of academic life.

Employers stating that qualfications are no proof of ability...it can't go on.

Shock horror, schools forced to work in style of market-place try using market-place tactics to do well - what the hell did anyone expect????

This is sensible. As an employer, an A grade at A level no longer indicates anything other than the candidate came in the top 25%. With this many getting A grades a B is tantamount to a fail. The increase in firsts awarded by universities has something of the same effect.

We need a more nuanced system where we can see the varying shades of "good". Bell curve marking would be better.

It's tough on the people in the first year or two; but everyone will know the score for those years and expectations will be adjusted accordingly.

I would also support a reduction in the amount of coursework involved and abolition of the "modular" approach. The former is unfair on children without much home support. The latter encourages teaching to the test rather than teaching a subject in depth and allowing a candidate to take a synoptic approach to the exam questions. GCSEs and A levels as they stand are deadly boring, very hard work and yet somehow leave people with only very shallow and narrow subject knowledge. They are also of only minimal use to universities and employers

I see it as part of the Govt's drive to 'take down' the teaching profession, along with academies. free schools, changes to OFSTED etc etc.

I'm not usually a political person at all but to me the agenda seems clear.

(Although I agree that soemthing needs to be done about the level of exam grade inflation - this is not the way to do it)

I think the grades have got silly and the need to get all A, A*s puts a huge pressure on DCs.

A readjustment to reward a balance of aptitude and effort rather than just effort is long over due.

The head teacher on breakfast said it very well. Too much teaching to the test rather than a broader curriculum.

GCSEs need to be a basis for moving on in life, Not just a box ticking exercise.
You may be able to learn an essay for a contained assessment. That doesn't teach you to write a decent essay at university or report at work without weeks of preparation.

My DDs will get caught up either side of 2015.

If the change is handled well it may play to DD1's absorb everything, but forget fine detail nature. Having the confidence to think on her feet is absolutely her style.

DD2 would do well in the present system.

Clearly if too many changes cause chaos, DD1, who sits her exams in 2014 is going to suffer.

Stopping grade inflation is good but the only fair way to do it is to rebrand the exams otherwise an A at Alevel in 2000 is seen as the same as one in 2010 and one in 2020 which could be as tough as one in, say, 1970.

Call them something different, and while you're at it change to a GPA system.

It will have an impact on my children but it has to be done for everyone's benefit. If we don't sort out exam standards, then in the future children will be taught by teachers who are supposedly competent in Maths, English and Science because they have C grades but in reality lack basic skills. Low standards will then just keep repeating in a cycle. That is what has happened with punctuation and grammar. My generation were not taught them and as a consequence many teachers cannot teach them adequately to current students. It has to stop somewhere.

It is even more worrying when you look at health professionals, government workers making decisions and so on. These people have a massive impact on our lives and there has to be some kind of meaningful standard of qualification. They really need to tighten up the standards of undergraduate qualifications as well.

It would have to be done very carefully and everyone would have to sign up to it.

It would be no good if in 2012 pupil A took an exam and got an A, then in 2013 pupil B took the same exam, got the same mark but only got a B.

I think noble that the reason why more isn;t being made of it is that people accept that grade inflation has to stop.

And to do that you have to stop somewhere. It will always be toughest on the first wave of students but that will be the same year afyer year.

As I say this will directly affect my DC who will sit their GCSEs in 2015, but what can you do? You have to have a way of making qualifications meaningful again. You current status quo where students can retake modules to oush up their grades etc etc means that no one trusts the current system.

The danger is notatigermother that your academically average child won't get a passing grade B or C he will get a D, E or less. Only the brightest students got passing grades at my son's school. Read what Gove is saying in the DM - we will have several years of young people leaving school with very few qualifications.

In order for this country to remain economically competitive globally the government needs a group of people in each generation who will work for a very low wage. Rather than invest in education they gamble that they can protect their own interests and keep wages depressed.

These are not well thought out policies, they are back of a fag packet ideas tossed out at some dinner party full of right wing knobs. They've done no research and don't see the generation that will suffer as individuals. Their children are securely esconced in well resourced independent schools.

Your second DS may not be an academic like his older brother so value him for his individual qualities and talents and work on boosting his confidence that way rather than embracing a radical overhaul of GCSEs that will harm the life chances of many thousands of young people.