Exam data nerdery

We were battered on language again this year. At the pulling our hair out stage cos we genuinely don't know how to fix it.

And like pp, lit were 2 or even 4 grades higher. Interesting that's it's also AQA.We're with anther board.

No you don't need to reach the highest level in all of the questions on the paper to get the top grade that is very true. I just wonder when I read them if the people who write the level descriptors have ever met a 16 year old, let alone taught one.

Exactly Noble. And subjects like mine who get pushed by the HT to take any Tom Dick or Harry who scrapes just enough GCSEs to make it into sixth form unsurprisingly have a higher number of students achieving at the lower end. The HT just sees the £££ they will bring in, not the struggle those students will have trying to manage the A Level courses.

Again, something that governers and parents can't always seem to grasp.

Thank you @noblegiraffe that makes sense. In my head the exam was getting harder and harder as only high achievers sat it and they had to fail someone.

I also have to remind parents that there is also a difference for subjects that the whole cohort do, and those subjects that students choose to do. And other factors which might impact on the number of highest grades achieved. It is hardly surprising that subjects such as Polish or Russian get amazingly high grades in a school with one or two native speaker entries per year.

Not sure about the comment, kids need a 5 more than a 4?? Mumsnet offspring notwithstanding, many, many students will not be doing A Levels after GCSEs and it's more a 4 needed surely? 5 GCSEs at 4-9 including maths and English is what's needed for so many post GCSE routes. Some colleges even take less as long as you have the 4 in English and maths.

Great link though @noblegiraffe . Will be perusing with great interest!

I love that aqa one. I'm personally invested as my DC got a very high grade 9 for literature but only just scraped a 7 for language which we were surprised by. You can set it just for a grade 9 in one subject then see how many of those got each grade in a different subject.

I love these sorts of threads.

One thing i dont quite understand is further maths gcse. My son did it, but it seems only people who look to get 7-9 in maths sit it. So if they stick to the top 5% get a 9 patterns in other subjects does this mean the bottom 30% of further maths get below 4/5 even though they are the top 30% in normal maths?

Also same with A level - if only the top grades can do it compared to other A levels dont you end up with a grade distribution all based on really good at maths people so its a harder A level?

True... except "benefit of the doubt" really isn't a thing, and I can't remember a time in the last decade of marking exams when I could look at "borderline" students because that's not how it works when you're marking online.

When I read the level descriptors for the highest level marks on the longer essay questions I often wonder how any 16 year old is ever going to meet the requirement. Take a look at the philosophy highest level descriptors - I think some published philosophers would struggle!

This is all fantastically interesting and that's my Sunday afternoon of a bank holiday gone.
I have tried searching, but have you any idea if there is a resource that shows Welsh exam board(s) taught in England? DC school did two Eduqas exams, both went worse than expected for him and some of his friends, I'd be curious of the percentages for those too.

Grade boundaries GCSE reformed June 2018 (aqa.org.uk)

Almost - steps seem to have been 10, 11, 11 marks (grades 4-5, 5-6, 6-7). So pretty even.

Love the listen feature!

Argh apologies for typos, definitely not 9 worthy

Agree that OCR is used a lot by independent schools which Jay explain the difference. It frustrates me that fewer trade 9s are awarded for English. I often think the top bands of the MS are wooly and phrases like 'perceptive' are subjective and expecting a lot from 16 year olds in a limited time with unfamiliar texts or writing tasks.....

But not everybody on the thread would be 🙂- Noble's not said 'Teachers only' - or 'Data Managers Keep Out'!

I'm pretty familiar with how English marking works :)

No, we don't mark by grades. but most people who mark have a pretty good idea of the mark that will push a grade into the 5 territory. In fact I have been told by team leaders in the past to look again at any boderline students to make sure there are not one or two marks more that could be awarded.

I also think there may be a reluctance from English/ Humanities examiners to award top level marks for answers. In Maths once you have the answer then that's that - marks awarded. In English/ Humanities there is usually something else that could have been said by the candidate. No answer is fully perfect (or rararely!) I know this is wrong and that candidadates should eb rewarded for what they HACE said not penalised for what the HAVEN'T but it happens.

As each paper is marked by several different people that 'ah, benefit of the doubt' would have to keep happening on each section, and the marker would not have developed a 'relationship' with the candidate surely?

My first thought re OCR was - is that the board preferred by selective independents? Neverdrop's comment seems to reinforce that. That would explain the higher % in top grades.

The English distribution looked like that in 2018 and 2019, so it's not a cohort issue...