To think the gcse grace boundaries will be set higher this year

[Skyfullofstars67]

Due to the harder exams starting this year?

I hope they will be lower this year but who knows.

No. I suspect they'll be very similar- government can't let it be seen that their new system is failing. Nor the other way really.

It stinks. Political football.

I've been told they may even put them up the exams that haven't changed to the new style ones yet.

Parrots?

They aren't going to want huge amounts of low grades followed by bad media or to be told they made the wrong decision, the expectations will be lower as barely any course work (if any ) is going to count toward the end grade. When this was the case and coursework was part of the exam , the teachers made sure that it was up to scratch to count as a pass before students even sat GCSE , now they have now control whatsoever l

Yes the exams have changed for English and maths. Horrendous

The government won't want it to look as though standards are slipping and students can't cope with the new exams so I doubt there will be much difference.

I teach English and I think they will be a fair bit lower. I'm not an expert but I think the maths boundaries might plummet.

The maths and English ones will be horrendous. My DC1 is taking them.

There's still huge confusion over the equivalent grades too. DC's school says 7=A, but the 6th form they're aiming for says 8=A which is the requirement for entry to their chosen subjects.

Waves at Blueemeraldagain I teach English too!

Abolishing the tiers has hurt the lower end massively- new Language papers are far, far too hard for your old school G grade student. That has to be reflected.

If the mocks at dds school are anything to go by in English 20% might get a grade 9.

Though I suspect the staff have marked them very harshly. So God knows.

I do wonder what the expected 'number' will be?

Is it a 4? A 5? A 4.53? (correct to 2 DP)

4 is a pass, 5 a good pass.

Though I've heard they've now recently said that actually a 4 will be a good pass.

Not sure if the thing about how next year only a 5 and above will be a pass still stands.

Bloody shambles.

My dd is so worried. She thinks her year group is being used as guinea pigs
She said the work that that would have got her an A* last year will barley scrape the the equivalent of a B.
I've just done my best to to try and prevent her worrying about things that are out of her control and do the best she can. Nobody expects anything more from her.

I also agree that the abolishment of the tiers will be a travesty to the lower end. One of my Year 11 English classes is a group of just four students all coping with SEN which severely impedes their ability to access the papers. They are lovely kids, and my heart breaks for them when I look at their mock papers and have to give them ungraded again and again.

the majority of exam grades are supposed to be a percentage based on peer results across the country.

Which is what those that wanted to go back to "O" Levels wanted, and will see a drop in the upper level grades.

The few exams that are still based on GCSE A* - G grades have some seriously messed up UMS calculation schemes that are there to bring the grades down.

Tiggytape I've repeatedly told DC1 to ask the 6th form for clarification. DC1 doesn't want to 'get into trouble for being awkward' (their words). Forecast grade is 8 but got 7 in the final mock.
"Do you want me to ring them to check?"
"No!"
[Sigh]

tiggytape

That is interesting as we have been told that a 4 is a low C and D and a 5 is a C +.

She thinks her year group is being used as guinea pigs
She's right!

I think the boundaries might be slightly higher this year so they can say how schools and teachers are getting used to the new high standards. Then next year they will drop a bit so that they can then say how teaching has improved.

Or is that a bit cynical.

Grade boundaries tend to drop when new exams are implemented, although who knows what will happen? As it's a completely new system it will be hard to compare it directly.