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Original poster

GCSE double science grade '43' what does this mean?!

70 replies

thatcoldfeeling · 23/08/2018 10:31

Exactly that, can someone quickly help on this?

Double science - grade 1 '43' points (not grade) - 3.5. Does this mean less than a level 1 overall!? Shock

OP posts:
Ligresa · 22/08/2019 18:50

So whats 7 7?

CraftyGin · 22/08/2019 18:28

No. Science is a single qualification worth 2 GCSEs. Think of 4-3 as 3.5.

Ligresa · 22/08/2019 17:02

But its a pass in one?

CraftyGin · 22/08/2019 15:29

A 4-3 is the same as saying 2x 3.5, so just short of a pass x2.

For the purposes of working out how many 4-9s a student achieved, the 4 contributes to this.

StealthPolarBear · 22/08/2019 13:16

BuggerOffAndGoodDayToYou excellent :)

Ligresa · 22/08/2019 13:05

It's relevant to all those who got results today and didn't understand the grading!

SoupDragon · 22/08/2019 12:54

Oh calm down! It's still totally relevant!

Of course it's not bloody relevant. I'm sure the OP's DS has sorted this now.🙄

SouthWestmom · 22/08/2019 12:15

Ahhhhhh so for combined science ds got 76 and then points 6.5 - that makes sense now.

Ligresa · 22/08/2019 12:14

Oh calm down! It's still totally relevant!

ReTooth · 22/08/2019 12:13

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Ligresa · 22/08/2019 12:02

dd got 7 7

that means she got a 7 in Science and a 7 in Additional Science

It is two gcses worth of science.

Bowsy5 · 22/08/2019 11:54

Can anyone post the percentages for the various grades?

greathat · 22/08/2019 11:48

First, this is a zombie thread, second if you need grade 4s (old low C) to get onto the next stage of education, then one of the 4s would count toward the total needed

BuggerOffAndGoodDayToYou · 22/08/2019 11:44

My DS got 43 in combined science and his science teacher says that means he passed. Not overly fussed, he’s SEN and was expected 2s and 3s in everything.

ChicCroissant · 22/08/2019 11:38

Bloody hell, I thought the SATs results threads were bad with the faux what-does-this-mean but I think Corrine81 may have just topped them!

gingersausage · 22/08/2019 11:35

Wow @Corrine81 that was a not-so-humble-brag!

gingersausage · 22/08/2019 11:34

Surely their school will tell them?

Corrine81 · 22/08/2019 11:25

This is my DD’s today , double science, three papers two 6’s which I believe is 2x B’s . A 43 in double science is a fail I’m afraid, a 44 is needed for a Standard pass

GCSE double science grade '43' what does this mean?!
ineedaholidaynow · 22/08/2019 10:57

So wombat does that mean OP's DC did not pass then? My DS is just going into Y10 so we have this to come. What do you write on your CV/application form if you need to list your qualifications?

SirTobyBelch · 22/08/2019 10:54

@wombatsears - Thanks for posting the grade boundaries. So to get 6-6 (roughly an old BB) you need 41%? To get 7-7 (AA) you need just over 50%?

Since the first results came out for reformed GCSE maths it's been apparent that we now have qualifications that just tell us students can do really hard stuff badly. There's no way of determining from their school qualifications whether they can do straightforward stuff well.

An idiot called Nick Gibb (so stupid they made him schools minister) was saying on the radio this morning that it's fine that exams are tougher because the same proportions of pupils still get each grade. This is totally missing the point of qualifications. Reformed GCSEs - and A-levels - tell us that pupils with good grades know less than half of what they were taught, so employers, HE institutions, etc. can't assume that someone with a qualification in a particular subject actually knows anything about it or is capable of studying effectively.

Increasing numbers of employers are ignoring qualifications (www.hepi.ac.uk/2019/08/14/why-employers-dont-care-about-qualifications/): still only about 20% but growing. It's not difficult to understand why.

newtb · 22/08/2019 09:56

GCSE grades are weird. Back in the dark ages when I did 'O' levels, if you got over 70% you got a grade 1. 1-6 were pass grades, 7-9 and unclassified were fails.
So, now they've gone back to numbers again, why couldn't thaey have had them the same as before.

Now my grade 1 in maths, the only grade 1 I got looks crap......

wombatsears · 24/08/2018 11:21

Here are the boundaries for each grade which show what a student needs from a combined total of 6 exam papers for each grade...

GCSE double science grade '43' what does this mean?!
wombatsears · 24/08/2018 11:18

The student will sit 6 exams all together. They then add up the marks from all 6 exams and use this grading scale to determine the grade.

There are 2 numbers to show that the grade is worth 2 GCSEs. However, the double grade is not two distinct grades but rather one grade that is double weighted to account for 2 GCSEs.

So if the student got a 4-3 does not mean that they scored a grade 4 in one GCSE and a grade 3 in the other. It means that overall when both GCSEs are taken into account they scored between a grade 3 and 4.

For example, it isn't possible to get a grade 6-4 or even a 3-4 because the grading numbers must be consecutive with the higher number first.

marvelousways · 24/08/2018 09:46

ok, this helps
ofqual.blog.gov.uk/2018/03/23/grading-the-new-gcse-science-qualifications/
It is 2 grades, to reflect the fact that it is 2 GCSE's worth of material.

marvelousways · 24/08/2018 09:38

well, this has me totally confused now as the science teachers at dd school yesterday told me that "66" was two sixes ie, 2 gcses with both a grade 6. Does it make a difference which board it is maybe? my dds results were written "66" with no hyphen - is that different?