AIBU to think Bs at GCSE are ok?

[catwalker]

Some issues with DS and GCSEs/6th form. He didn't get the grades he was predicted (As and As) but then I didn't expect him to as he doesn't put much effort into anything apart from his x box. He got mainly Bs, a couple of As, a couple of Cs and a couple of Ds. I was quite happy until I started reading the secondary education forum where people are tearing their hair out because their dc's didn't get straight As and may have blown their oxbridge chances. I get the impression that anything less than an A just isn't worth the paper it's written on. He could have done loads better but Bs are OK aren't they?

You have to do modules so 2 AS modules in year 12 and 2 A2 modules in year 13.

FWIW my DD didn't do as well as predicted in maths GCSE, she was predicted an A and got a couple of marks off so a grade B. She went on to do Maths at AS level and got a grade E. One module was a C and the other 2 were U's! Mind you her school is abysmal.

To OP yes congrats. and pat on the back B's are good nothing wrong with them, after all you DS belongs to small 20% of students who achieved B, it is not to be sneered at.
Another important factor to consider, these days bar has been raised so high with all the A and A* that it's easy to dumb down B's, and make them almost invalid, it certainly should not be the case, B is a respectable grade which require work, it wasn't just handed to student on a plate.
DH who holds a Master in Statics and Statistics, and BA in Architecture looked at DS's practice papers from 2009 and 2010 in Maths and Statistics, and commented in short "I have scratched my head on couple of questions", point being they worked their fingers to the bone for those, they should be applauded

He might have to strike Cambridge, Durham and LSE from his uni wishlist, but otherwise he shouldn't have much of a problem. Providing he gets As at AS, he'll prove himself to other top unis. If he was predicted As and A*s, he's not stupid, he can do better with work.
If he's on TSR, he'll find out more about that kind of thing. Bs are still average but in terms of recognition, B isn't the new C (in view of GCSEs getting easier) and it shouldn't really stand in his way.

Apparently Cambridge are "GCSE Nazis", Oxford can replace top grades with a "spark" or originality.

By top grades, I mean percentage-wise. They won't accept BBB, but they'll accept 80% instead of 95%, that sort of thing.

Catwalker Have been following this thread with interest.Well done to you . You have taken a lot of flak on this thread and need a pat on the back.
I know a lot of people with "C" grades who would like to be in your son's position
Your son seems to me to have some room for development left in him. By that I mean he didn't exactly burn himself out, did he?. Therefore he still has potential for improvement at A Level.
BUT ... I don't think it's going to be a walk in the park. He needs to read a bit of this thread (if he's got the staying power) and suss out what he needs to do.
How focussed is he? Can he "work the work"? By that I mean can he put in long hours, take a few knocks and still grit his teeth and keep going?
Some people don't start to shine until they get up the tree a little further. Some contemporaries of mine had poor grades at 16 and 18 but got really good degrees and went on to do further study etc.

Secondcoming hey man at least they were being honest.

You need sixth form to be realistic but encouraging. One teacher of DD's has tried to get her to leave and go to college. This was their high flyer at GCSE's and expected to do really well, still just blame the kids instead of a failing school .

Jeeeeeez I am shitting myself now with my sons and no daughters - eldest is 6 and I have been trying all day to prise him off his DS and make him learn his 3x table with no success.

So, are GCSE's really easy then? This is what I have to summise as it is the only thing that makes this thread make any sense. I was the last year to do O levels, which I feel were at least fairly challenging for a 16 year old. I got 5 A's and 4 B's and they thought I was the bees knees! I could study whatever I liked for 6th form and got easy (2Ds and E etc etc) offers or unconditional offers from all 5 unis I applied to (all Russell Group) and did a Masters at LSE on a scholarship. It seems so much harder these days - is this because the exams are way easier? In which case, why do we use them? Is A* at GCSE supposed to be equivalent to A at O Level - in which case is a B a C? - which, even in my day, would have been a bit disappointing (though plenty of my contemporaries got Es and Us and are still "running things" at some of our top financial institutions because of who their fathers "were" or who they played Rugby with, so no real impediment!)

In my day it was only freaks of nature who got 9A's, now loads of people seem to get all A or A*'s - if this was hapenning year on year in any system you were involved in at work you would make it harder, surely!

DISCLAIMER: I have never seen a GCSE paper

No -they are not really easy-they are different from the old O'levels.
Bs will let him in the 6th form-I think that people are getting very depressive. All it really means is that he has ruled out some universities and some courses.

but with O levels B's did not rule me out of Medicine or Law - still seems harsher to me. These people are 15 when they sit the exams no?

Befuzzled

When we took O levels only 20% of the population took O levels (and of course some failed) ... the rest taking CSEs

In English Language and Maths this year 21% of students achieved A or A*

No one used to get all A's with O'level (or not many).
The madness now is trying to have an exam for all. Far to many A* to make a judgement and far too many with no qualifications at all. Bring back a 2 tier exam system.

Sorry 'too'

Bring back a 2 tier exam system

GCSEs have Foundation and Higher ... a 2 tier system

Befuzzled, I think the point is that there is only room for a small proportion of students to do engineering at Cambridge or Medicine at Birmingham and so on. As such, they choose from the students with very high GCSE and A level results. Somebody on this thread said that only about 2% of students will get this string of 6,7,8 or 10 A GCSEs. Less than 8% of GCSEs are A so obviously hardly anybody will get 6 or more of them. Everybody else will then do a range of other things after A level, as they always have done. A few people will still go to Cambridge with B Grade in everything at GCSE because they had a blip or whatever during the exams but also happen to also be in the Physics Olympiad or some such thing, and the university can make a decision for a conditional offer based on that.

So nothing has really changed. It is still really hard to get on certain courses.

As for times tables, I think Carol Vorderman maths factor is really good for that. You can just buy the time table package for 15 pounds; you don't have to buy the rest. DD learnt times tables easily this way, despite being none too keen on Maths.

I think it is also worth remembering that even if your child does want to get into some highly competitive career - they don't have to be outstanding at everything. A student from DS's school went to Cambridge with 2 C grades in English at GCSE; he got the A* in other academic subjects and went on to do veterinary medicine. All this doing 13 GCSEs does have some benefits; you can afford to be average at some of them.

befuzzled don't worry in my experience most boys do the bear minimum until year9.Ds just kept up but still managed good GCSEs and is hopefully headed for a RG university .I wish I hadn't worried when he was little,well to be honest I didn't worry that much but I worried that I should be worrying

GCSEs are not easier as such but they are different and as my ds's headmaster said ,to the genuinely bright they are very boring as they are very formulaic with very little scope for flair.I also do think that the achievers are very focused ,much more so than I was at that age .They know it matters and they work accordingly,I was pretty chilled 9 O levels and 3A levels would get me into a good university

bef, yes they merged O levels which the cleverest did with CSE which most people did and the standard wa skind of in the middle, hence why they had to introduce an A at GCSE> I think my 5 As, 3 Bs one C at O level was pretty good in its day. i suspect these days it woudl be 5 As, 3 As and one B. However 50% of British pupils even so do not get 5 A - C grades in 5 decent GCSEs so we still have 50% who really don't get much at all and certainly do not find it easy.

yes, as said above the less academic non selective schools offer something called lower tier GCSEs where I think you can't get an A in them and they are easier but I'm not sure how they do work.

I believe you can't get higher than a C on the lower tier maths paper.

Most of the students around me go to a bog standard school and are getting 7-10 A* this year last year and the year before that.

And yes ''shoch horror'' at a state school....who would of thought it?

That's shock.

"In my day it was only freaks of nature who got 9A's"

I took A levels in 1989 and the only person I knew who got three B grades got them because she missed the examinations due to glandular fever. That was considered to be amazing.

Then again I didn't mix with the mathematics and science people who tended to get the odd A.

You cannot get an A in the lower tier GCSE the top grade is worth a C. So very similar to CSE.

Also going back to before my time it was debateable whether it was 'the clever ones' who took O level as 25% were creamed off to grammar school and the rest stuck in secondary moderns who traditionally did 'technical exams', bricklaying, typing etc. CSE was brought in as a secondary modern exam and then later they were taught to O level standards as perhaps writing off 75% of pupils at 11 years old based on 11+ might not have been the cleverest idea.

All the headlines would make us believe that A* are handed out like sweets which isn't true.

I know half a dozen pupils in my dd's close group of friends who got the results last week and have already 'forgotten' the b (s)

Not sure what you mean by this ... but if you are meaning "will not be mentioning" the best 8 GCSEs will be used to create their average point score and that is available to Colleges and Universities

(Short courses being worth half the points)

TB, if most pupils you know at a bog standard school are getting lots of A* then it is not a bog standard school.