Grade 9 in GCSEs: How common are they?

The % of 9s varies widely according to subject but are clustered in certain schools so won't seem rare in those schools but still are, nationally.

If you look at results on AQA website, only 2% of those who sat English language and 2.7% of those who sat maths were awarded a Grade 9. Sounds pretty rare to me!

No, it was around 80% for a 9 in igcse Maths this year, I think.

Overall, fewer pupils got a 9 as the old A star, so the new system is working ie its differentiating more.

However, a grade 10 could be introduced to differentiate between those who get 80% and 99% -100% (the real maths geniuses!)

I don't think that was the case, no, although I'm not quite sure what the score required was.

There's no particularly illuminating or detailed info coming from Ofqual, not sure why.

9s are clearly still quite common.

4% of Grades were 9s. Hardly common. Why do we need more differentiation that that?

Irmafay you can look up the grade boundaries online. That's a bit of a stupid thing for a, school to say tho - was that a maths teacher?

FWIW I do think grade 9 is a rare beast. Dd was in the first cohort of numbers and she was the only person in her school to get 2 (of a possible three) so she was very proud and happy.

It's a bit disappointing really, as the 9 was supposed to be for exceptional candidates, and a rare beast.

I suppose to avoid an utter meltdown amongst this past year's Year 11s, 9s are clearly still quite common. Perhaps this coming year the numbers achieving 9s will be shaved, so there is a gradual decline in numbers instead of a sudden shock.

At dd's school they were told that only 99 or 100% in Maths would be a Grade 9. I don't suppose this was true?

The schools with that sort of result are overwhelmingly grammars.

At our school 40% of GCSEs were 9s (no IGCSEs - it's a state school).

With regard to grades boundaries and a level 10 PattiStanger his it right in that they are only giving out grades to a percentage of pupils.

Just like the sainted "O" levels.

Further to seeline comment, I believe IGCSE's at Indie's aren't included in the stats at all, regardless of whether they were numbers or letters. Also some Indie's, ours included, don't release their results.

Sorry it should have said 'At our local selective schools'

That's right. At our level cal selective schools, the proportion of 8s and 9s are very high. In fact over 50% of entries were a 9! Other schools will have a lower proportion, so it really depends on where your friends go to school. Well done to them!

It is a small percentage, but it varies a lot by school. Where I work (largeish selective) in some subjects with between 70 and 90 sitting these subjects, over 40% for L9.

About 25 in the year received all L9/8/A - so equivalent to all A in old money. Most of those will have had some 8s in the mix though.

It won't be the norm for large numbers to have 9s fully across the board, but lots of selective schools will have lots of students with a good handful of 9s, mixed with perhaps 8s and the odd 7. Most good Comps will have a handful with all 9s/8s. It just depends if you know families or children with that profile really.

There’ll be as many grade 9 as the government decides with the grade boundaries. Which seems to increase slightly every year.

Ah, thanks for that. The reports on results day that I read very much made it sound like it was kids with 7 or more 9s. That actually makes more sense now.

There were far more 9's than I expected at dd's school who have a non selective intake and a cohort of just 30 but unusually this year's Year 11 contained some highly academic children some of whom had turned down places in independent and super selective grammars.

Dd got 2 9's in subjects where the teacher had told us since Year 9/10 that she was exceptional. One girl who got 6 9's had transferred from a selective private school in Year 9 and one boy got 5 9's who is very, very clever.

I think if your child goes to school in an area where most children come from highly educated families and can afford to pay for tutorsif needed the percentages will be higher than those with schools full of children from families where education is not valued or they are fighting against other difficult circumstances.

Also with regard to that all 9's, many indies are still doing iGCSEs, which are a year behind converting to the 9-1 grading. So my DS only did 2x English and Maths at 9-1, the other subjects were all A*-E grading. Next year will see the final swathe of subjects change (I think).

Our state comprehensive had 6 with at least 7x9’s but 30% of all results were 9-8 so the 9’s are pretty rare but the 8’s aren’t.

Yep, the 732 are those DC who got all 9's, but at least 7. At my DC's school they had 3 who got the clean sweep of all 9's, another 7 who got at least 9 x 9, and 25% of the year group got at least 1x9. State comp.

So to answer your question OP, 9's are really hard to get, but they are absolutely not the norm.

Wish I could edit posts! OP's friends DC epwould also not be counted in that 732

Thanks for taking my point so nicely op, my post wasn't supposed to be snidely 😃

Dumbledore, the 7 or more 9s means all 9s (but at least 7) - so DD's pal with 9999999888 wouldn't be in that list. A just to clarify as I think press coverage was misleading

Dumbledore is right - I don't think a clean sweep of 9s is all that common even in very selective schools. I had a quick scan round the local selective indies and most of them were quoting percentages of "A* equivalent which would include Grade 8.

Oxford High School mentions one girl who had a clean sweep of 9s but said "it is invidious to pick out individuals" - roughly translated as "there was only one" perhaps?

oxfordhigh.gdst.net/senior-school/ss-exam-results-2018/

I was also amused to see then referring to the achievements of our "HSBC scholar" at A-Level who had come to them from a state school - Cherwell - which is one of the most socially selective and oversubscribed schools in the country!

732 students nationally got 7 or more grade 9s. We had 2 students get 7 or more 9s at my academically non-selective catholic school. Some schools will have more and some will have fewer but kids with 7 or more 9s won’t be the norm even in super-selective schools. Your friends’ children all fall into that very small group of 732.