Why are A level results not absolute?

[TwigTheWonderKid]

Presumably A levels have strict marking schemes so can someone please explain to me why can't students be given the marks they got rather than grades which presumably are affected by what everyone else got?

If they were given a raw mark surely it would be more transparent to universities and employers and stop the annual argument about fairness in how many A and A* have been awarded?

is also affected by the statistical expectations the examiners have of a particular cohort based on prior national testing
Not quite true. Examiners apply the mark scheme. The cohort level data is at the grade setting level.

An A Level is approximate but The Levels are specific. There are 42 available. Gotta catch em all. I don't make the rules.

I don't agree with the bell curve thing they do. When I was at school you got fixed grades for fixed percentages. There was actually very little variation year on year and if there was, they could do a slight adjustment to the grades to suit. It made it a complete mess when they did the CAGs in 2020 as well as they decided that because a centre had an E in music in 2019, at least one person in that centre had to get an E as well, even though they should all get at least a C. At least they changed it after the outcry.

I also don't think grades should reflect prior attainment. You should get a grade based on what you did. However I think we had a chance to move away from exams after covid and going straight back to them was a nonsense as well. Open book exams at the very least. Exams are just a memory test.

I worked somewhere where they did the bell curves thing with appraisals as well. Say you get grades 1-4 with 1 being outstanding and 4 being "needs improvement". Even if your whole team is outstanding you can only grade a certain percentage a 1 or 2 and you have to find someone to give a 4. Utter craziness.

Exams are just a memory test.

Oh dear 🙈

There's an element of memory of course but high scorers are those who can write accurately, legibly and at very high speed (in Humanities at least). My students' reading and ability to look things up is generally so poor compared to mine at their age, I shudder to think what would happen in an open book exam unless there was no time limit, either.

To mangle that quote Churchill probably didn't say, exams are the worst system...apart from all the other ones.