GCSE and A Levels are they age standardised?

[Taf90]

Hi everyone! Hope you all are doing well. This is my first post in the group. I wanted to find out if GCSE and A Levels exam scores are age standardised like the 11+ exams? Thanks in advance!xx

That's rather odd. You're so good at the subject you can take the exam a year or more earlier than everyone else, and then universities refuse to count it. Why on Earth not? Surely it proves that you are a high achiever in that subject which is presumably what the universities are looking for. Totally daft IMO.

What they’re looking for is the ability to get top grades while managing workload. It’s much easier to get a higher grade if it’s one of only a couple of GCSEs rather than having to balance your GCSE revision between 8-10 other subjects, even if you are younger.

The only reason schools do this is to rack up points on the league tables despite what they tell parents. The DfE have gone some way to trying to crack down on it but schools still know that saying every pupil gets x number of GCSEs is a good way to attract the right sort of parents.

Nobody needs more than 10 GCSEs. Some excellent schools only do 9.

Ridiculous to take GCSE in year 8 especially if they’re not going to get top grades. Our school limits them to a total of 9. Makes perfect sense, 9 good grades, reduced stress, less revision and ample for a levels and universities

No they aren't but if ready it is perfectly possible to get top grades early especially in Maths.

Madness to do English Lit A level early. Few 15/16 year olds would have the maturity or have developed required analytical skills to do well.

I know a home-educated student who did only six GCSEs, in two batches. Not surprisingly she got all A*s. She got into Cambridge with good but not outstanding A levels so they didn’t demand all exams be passed at one go.

She got into Cambridge with good but not outstanding A levels so they didn’t demand all exams be passed at one go.

She'd have done a separate admissions test though. Most universities will offer alternatives for students who have not been formally educated.

“She got into Cambridge with good but not outstanding A levels so they didn’t demand all exams be passed at one go.”

1. How long ago was this?
2. Presumably they knew she was HE so different criteria were applied.

1. What counts as good but not, outstanding A levels?

I know a home-educated student who did only six GCSEs, in two batches. Not surprisingly she got all A*s. She got into Cambridge with good but not outstanding A levels so they didn’t demand all exams be passed at one go.

Not the clinching argument you want it to be. Cambridge and Oxford are poles apart from normal university admissions, because they make offers after interviewing applicants face-to-face and they have candidates sit a separate subject-related entrance test, prior to interview. Part of the reason they do this is because they want to avoid "computer says no" to the occasional highly gifted 18-year-old student who, for whatever reason, didn't have the opportunity to take a full panel of GCSEs age 15-16. There are a fair few people out there who got accepted to one of the two despite having very few GCSEs, compared to other applicants. However, the key to getting accepted at either despite having less than optimal GCSEs is:

1. being brilliant
2. being passionate about your subject and coming across as highly teachable to subject tutors at interview
3. having a cast iron explanation for why you didn't take those GCSEs.

Some home-educated kids manage this and get Oxbridge offers. Some people who have very few GCSEs, or entirely tanked them because they were in hospital for most of year 11, caring for a dying parent during year 11, or having a serious nervous breakdown during year 11 also manage this and get Oxbridge offers, too.

It doesn't mean that everyone will be able to waltz in to Cambridge with six GCSEs taken across two sittings.

Yes- it would be more interesting if she’d got into Bristol.

Ds was visiting a uni very similar to Bristol and talked to a kid who's school was so awful he'd dropped out after AS (think no Maths A level teacher for the year, just a series of unqualified supply teachers) and self studied OU and MOOCS. They made him sit a separate test and interviewed him to assess his ability and made him an offer based on that.

I think most universities are open to that provided the reasons are solid and evidenced.

But not for the kid who actually went to school!

probably for the best you don’t send your kids to a school that does. The school have given us all the information prior to entry and we’re perfectly happy with the situation.Informed choice for the win

No clue whatsoever that in ds1 year ALONE that they would

A) make year 10 take a science a year early (cos science is piss easy isnet it)

B) separate for that year the girls and boys into same sex

They didnt do this with the triple set...if i had known ANY of this, ds1 would have been doing triple science

Isnet...

Look at that

TYPO!!! I can honestly spell isn’t

Gosh that’s embarrassing on a thread about education

Yes- it would be more interesting if she’d got into Bristol.

Hah! That reminds me. I think I applied to Bristol as a previously home-edded child who'd taken her GCSEs across two sittings. Pretty sure they rejected me.

Oh fuck

I forgot ‘classes’ after the sex bit

I’m going back to bed

The same sex thing is interesting. Ds’s school tried single sex maths classes for second half of year 10 and year 11 once and the girls did significantly better than they ever had before-boys results stayed the same. There was such a kerfuffle amongst the parents they never did it again!

Why would you put the pressure of doing GCSEs on a Y8 child?

I remember my sibling was in a "Guinea pig year" where they sat 2 GCSEs a year early then spent the next year doing something daft like 1/6 of the A level. It was a bit of a shitshows and they didn't do it for the next year.

I don't think my parents had any idea this was being planned when we started secondary school.

Mine all did exams early. For them, there was huge advantage. It meant they were given academic challenges and weren’t bored throughout their teenage years. They had to work a bit harder and stay focussed. They enjoyed it and were proud that they’d achieved an A level at fifteen, in year 11. It gave them confidence in their abilities as they entered sixth form and also helped them understand the benchmark for their other subjects.
It meant our eldest had two A levels with good grades by the end of lower sixth and that took huge pressure off her as she went into A levels in upper sixth. She held an offer of three As for medicine and had two already, so only really needed to get one more from the others she was sitting.
The school checked with the university to ensure taking them in different years would be counted as per the written offer, which didn’t mention a single sitting. She didn’t need to worry in the end but not having such high stakes, I think, was what allowed her to do well.

Ds’s school tried single sex maths classes for second half of year 10 and year 11 once and the girls did significantly better than they ever had before-boys results stayed the same. There was such a kerfuffle amongst the parents they never did it again!

What a totally illogical decision how did thet justify that when no one got worse results and possibly half the cohort did better?

I wouldn't trust the judgement of that school at all

“What a totally illogical decision how did thet justify that when no one got worse results and possibly half the cohort did better?“
They had no choice. Parents were threatening legal action. Seriously- it was a proper shit show.

Nobody needs more than 10 GCSEs. Some excellent schools only do 9.

This. The number of GCSEs you have becomes irrelevant very quickly. I interview young people straight out of uni for a training post before they go on to professional qualifications. I don't care how many A levels they've got and I really don't care about their GCSEs. As long as you have enough of the right subjects and grades to move on to whatever next stage you choose, that's all you need.

Which parents Bertrand, do you know?

The parents of girls would presumablely be happy and those of boys would be indifferent, it sounds like a positive change to me, unless some didn't want the girls to do well.

At ds's school they all take English language early in year 10 and English lit in year 11. Those that are good at maths take maths in year 10 (all get A and A ) and then AS maths in year 11 so still academically demanding in year 11 as one gcse fewer but replaced by an AS. DS has just finished his first year at Warwick and not having taken all this GCSEs in one sitting did not seem to be an issue regarding his university applications, although he did not apply anywhere that routinely interviews.
Am sure some on this thread will be horrified that he also took gcse German when he was 11 - (A) and then the A level with the remainder of his GCSEs. I don't think he found it that stressful. The A level certainly required a level of maturity that would have made it very tricky for him to take it any younger than 15 when he took his other exams (late summer birthday).