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Original poster

Does anyone know about Gcse scoring please

36 replies

sockrage · 18/05/2016 18:28

If a child scored 47 out of 200 on an intermediate (old) test in school what grade would that be?

OP posts:
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TheFallenMadonna · 24/05/2016 23:22

IGCSE is not tiered in quite the same way as GCSEs. The grade boundaries are low and very narrow.

Balletgirlmum · 24/05/2016 23:20

That's more or less right for higher tier. An A* would require between 82-84 ish percent depending on the year.

Motherof15yrold · 24/05/2016 23:15

All this is very confusing for me. My daughter insists that the igcse exam in maths she took in january that she got 62% on would give her an A grade igcse result. That makes no sene to me, you can NOT know 38% of the material and still get an A. She's in yr 10 right now.

Balletgirlmum · 20/05/2016 19:58

Yes the new 1-9 science GCSE will have a foundation & higher tier.

TheFallenMadonna · 20/05/2016 19:56

Current GCSEs, foundation is C to G, higher is A* -E. Most subjects are tiered now. Not sure if any aren't'.

New GCSEs, Maths and Science are tiered, the only ones I think. Higher 9-4, foundation 5-1. All others one set of papers to cover the full range of grades. Thus lower percentages for the lower grades than you would need on a foundation tier paper. Either that or crazy amounts of redundancy and very close grade boundaries, as with IGCSE currently.

Balletgirlmum · 20/05/2016 19:52

Science is tiered at the moment. I think it is in 1-9 too.

Muskey · 20/05/2016 19:04

Sorry to sound a bit thick. What does tiered mean? Does it mean that there is an easier paper which might be capped at a grade 5 ( old style c ish)?

BertrandRussell · 20/05/2016 18:59

I thought it was only Maths that was tiered in the last few years. Is Science tiered in the new 1-9ers?

catslife · 20/05/2016 18:53

Maths and Science were the only 2 GCSE subjects that had 3 tiers: Foundation, Intermediate and Higher.
It was phased out for Science in the late 1990s.

TheFallenMadonna · 20/05/2016 17:22

I know that. Maths and Science are tiered. That's a lot of subjects that aren't.

BertrandRussell · 20/05/2016 12:50

The new 1-9 GCSE Maths does have two tiers.

TheFallenMadonna · 19/05/2016 16:28

I would have though that in the untiered 9-1 GCSEs, there will be a need to change expectations around percentages.

Original poster
sockrage · 19/05/2016 14:19

Thanks Teen that is what I want to do.

OP posts:
noblegiraffe · 18/05/2016 23:49

25% could nearly get you a C on a higher GCSE paper. Maths teachers are used to managing expectations of that sort of score on an exam. Students need to get used to it too.

BertrandRussell · 18/05/2016 23:35

"In Maths, there is no problem with sitting a GCSE paper in KS3"

There is if you know the child concerned is going to get 25%. Because getting 25% is hugely demotivating,. And if you don't know the child is going to get 25% what are you doing being a teacher?

TheFallenMadonna · 18/05/2016 20:28

In Maths, there is no problem with sitting a GCSE paper in KS3. I gave my DS a foundation paper when he was in year 6, just for interest (mine, not his...) to see how levels and grades matched up and he scored in line with his KS2 SATs. I wouldn't't do it in Science, because of the content difference.

TeenAndTween · 18/05/2016 20:27

OP. If you want to help her this is what I would do in your circumstances if you feel competent (don't know whether noble will agree):

Ask to see the paper (DD's school always let her have hers)
Look through the paper and look for trends in errors

  • silly mistakes
  • basic skills (e.g. addition, division)
  • reading graphs
  • negative numbers
  • deciphering wordy questions
  • clueless about topic
etc.

Then help on the most 'simple' areas.

BertrandRussell · 18/05/2016 20:23

"Schools are trying to do their best"

Usually. Not in this case.

noblegiraffe · 18/05/2016 20:01

Later year groups will be used to sitting papers they can't access a lot of after Ks1 and KS2 SATS.

Blame the government for this shambles. Schools are trying to do their best.

Balletgirlmum · 18/05/2016 19:57

Dds school still uses levels incidentally. It's a real no mans land time.

BertrandRussell · 18/05/2016 19:53

Giving a child a GCSE paper that she will only get 25% in in year 8 is ridiculous.

Original poster
sockrage · 18/05/2016 19:51

A 4c in maths Noble.

OP posts:
noblegiraffe · 18/05/2016 19:48

What is the school thinking of?

The government scrapped levels and introduced a new GCSE. Schools now have nothing to go on in terms of assessment and have been told to do their own thing.
The new GCSE foundation paper is at about the same level as the old intermediate paper so to gauge how kids are likely to do on the new GCSE I'm not surprised that they're getting kids to sit intermediate papers. No point in getting them to sit SATs papers as levels are gone.

BertrandRussell · 18/05/2016 19:44

What a completely rubbish thing to do. What is the school thinking of?

Why do you think she's behind in Maths?

noblegiraffe · 18/05/2016 19:42

What did she get at KS2?