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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think thank fuck we don't live in England with this stupid results system going on?

193 replies

ssd · 24/08/2017 22:11

by christ Michael Gove has really fucked up with this, it seems to be a change for the worst and is very confusing

why was this introduced, it doesn't seem to be clear to anyone, this is an awful system for the kids to get their heads around, this gov should be ashamed of themselves.

OP posts:
Kursk · 24/08/2017 23:26

Letters or numbers it doesn't really matter as all those qualifications do is get you onto the next step then they are not really needed.

Once you are in the workplace all that matters then is experience and professional qualifications

Draylon · 24/08/2017 23:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CauliflowerSqueeze · 24/08/2017 23:34

It's messy and rushed and annoying that it's not out of 10.
I agree it's good to have a top A* but they could have done something like this, created more clarity for the pass, extended the top and made the equivalency below the top 2 grades the same as before to allow for easier comparisons and clearer understanding.

10 = top 20 in cohort
9 = high A*
8 = A*
7 = A
6 = B
5 = C = "pass"
4 = D
3 = E
2 = F
1 = G
U = U

Draylon · 24/08/2017 23:36

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BakewellSliceAgain · 24/08/2017 23:37

Ssd yanbu just as long as you aren't under the Curriculum for Excellence..

CauliflowerSqueeze · 24/08/2017 23:39

The other worry is that this year they have lowered the boundaries to keep them in line with those in previous years, so there is less of a shock. But next year I think they will ratchet them up so again the results will not be easy to compare and analyse.

PoppyPopcorn · 24/08/2017 23:44

Agree also that for most kids GCSEs are just a step along the way. Hardly anyone is leaving school at 16 now with GCSEs and never doing anything else - most are progressing to an apprenticeship, or A-levels, or some other sort of training. When you start your career and certainly as you move through jobs nobody CARES if you got an A, or a B or whatever else in your GCSE English when you were 16.

Really, how many adults over the age of 25ish list their GCSE grades on a CV? And by the time you get to mid 40s like me, you'd be hard pushed to remember what exams you sat, never mind the grades.

BunnyBunnyMooseMoose · 24/08/2017 23:46

Can I ask something? I'm foreign so don't know much about UK grading.
So if D (or now a 4) is a pass, what is the difference between E and F and U? And does it matter if you get 3 or 2 or 1?

Pleasefindmyreallife · 24/08/2017 23:47

willow I'd say a pass rate of 15% is probably spot on. It's what most people use everyday - add, subtract, work out a percentage, a fraction or a ratio.
A GCSE exam is there to test maths that most people don't use.

cardibach · 24/08/2017 23:55

Poopy you are wrong about this: But your thread title says "thank fuck we don't live in England" as if other parts of the UK are immune to fuckwittery. Welsh kids are doing the same new GCSE - Welsh state school pupils are still in an A*-G grading system. It's a bit of a fuckeit new exam, but it's not the dogs breakfast of the English system - which, I agree, is not actually that hard to understand, but which has been implemented really, really badly.

cardibach · 24/08/2017 23:55

Sorry, sorry Poppy. My iPad hates me. Not a PA dig, honest.

Boulshired · 25/08/2017 00:08

The system may be getting overhauled but non of the nations have much to be proud of. Scotland seemed to have had a good system but is going backwards very quickly. Wales did not do well compared to England and NI in the international testing. Moral and well being seems to be getting worse. Schools underfunded, understaffed and overworked. A few numbers instead of letters seems the least of the UKs problems.

Pleasefindmyreallife · 25/08/2017 00:10

We are in a different time as well though.
Being exceptionally clever or even bright doesn't guarantee anything. In fact with the increasing diagnosis of developmental disorders the autistic, Aspergers, etc ( Bill Gates anyone) means clever kids are more likely to be considered as having medical condition than anything else.

Information and knowledge can be shared and learnt by anyone with an inclination. Kids that can do something with the information will be the ones in demand.

Hotheadwheresthecoldbath · 25/08/2017 00:11

The saddest thing about studying Shakespeare is that it turns young people off him.
Scripts are read,analysed,and the joy of the thing killed.These are plays,OK,they may get to see some of it on the TV but most children never get to see it in a theatre as it was intended.
I loved Shakespeare plays,was lucky enough to see most of those I studied but still don't enjoy them as much as those I did not study at school.
I just have my fingers crossed as my dd enters year 10.She and all her friends are anxious as they have been told this year's results are being moderated to be not too far out from the year before and that they will have tougher exams in all subjects.
Why are kids also doing 10 subjects,didn't 8 used to be the norm?(10 for top sets only and unnecessarily).
Also what about all the kids who do not get a 4/5 pass,do we start to cal1,2,3/4 a fail?These exams now are narrow and aimed towards the top kids ,for A levels and university,who would do well anyway and nothing much to do with educating children to life

BackieJerkhart · 25/08/2017 00:17

They ran out of letters

Surely A* covers up to 100%? Don't tell me kids were starting to get 108% on exams?

ineedaholidaynow · 25/08/2017 00:21

My DS is only 12 so hopefully everything will have settled down by the time he sits GCSEs (unless they change the system again). However, he was in the cohort who did the first SATS after the national curriculum was changed so know what it is like when something is changed with not enough time to be taught properly.

However, I too feel that 15% does seem woefully low for a pass mark (what did it used to be?). Think the pass rate for maths was 70%, so 30% of students got less than 15%.

Also I am old so sat O-levels. My understanding is that the new style GCSEs are similar to O-levels in respect of the fact that the grade is all based on exams and a certain % of children will get each grade. I have memories of the HT at my 6th Form college telling us on our first day there that 10% of us would fail A-levels, and if we didn't want to be in that 10% we had better work hard! But I don't remember teachers complaining that they didn't know what the pass mark etc would be. This concept seems to have caused much concern with teachers this year. Is it just because it is all new and rushed, or did teachers have similar concerns in the days of O-levels but because there was no social media parents didn't hear about it?

Willow2017 · 25/08/2017 00:26

Surely the student will have learned all about the questions in a maths paper before you sit it? If they can only remember the minimal basics whats the point of the other stuff in the exam? You cannot say you have passed an exam but got 85% of the questions wrong!

Why not an arithmetic exam like there used to be for people who were not planning to go on to do higher maths in some way? I would have been rubbish at maths exams but got a high mark in arithmetic, which was just as long as the maths exams.

If you are planning on a career that requires maths as a foundation I dont think knowing only 15% of the questions in a 'maths' exam is showing you know your stuff.

Pleasefindmyreallife · 25/08/2017 00:28

15% means you can do enough to understand something about maths. Not that it's a worthwhile pass to anything like a 5 or high C

NeedsAsockamnesty · 25/08/2017 01:05

My son got a 3 in his English.

I don't really care much if anybody thinks that was worth while or not.

The kid is severely learning disabled and autistic,cannot write but was told if he used a scribe he would lose even more marks that he couldn't have any extra time because that would also mean more marks lost, so he sat it under the exact same conditions as a child without the same disabilities as him.

I may not understand exactly what the bloody mark means but I'm incredibly proud of him.

mathanxiety · 25/08/2017 01:30

The issue is the marking rubric. Teachers and students are poking in the dark here. The first years of a new scheme require a huge amount of analysis of marks by teachers in order to understand what to focus on in class the next year in terms of skills and material to cover. The first few years of students are guinea pigs therefore.

BusyBeez99 · 25/08/2017 05:33

I'm just amazed at how clever the children are these days. I mean getting 10 A's/9 ..... when I took gcses (second year to do it) only a handful got A's.

We must be churning out geniuses. Although from experience as an employer this isn't the case.....!

About time they shook it and concentrated more on spelling and actually taking exams not just coursework.

Witchend · 25/08/2017 05:37

My ds was 2nd year of GCSE and it was a mess. People were saying similar type things back in 88/89.

elfinpre · 25/08/2017 05:43

What is the actual point of GCSEs now that kids have to stay on until 18? Sure, have assessments but why all-singing, all-dancing national exams?

rwalker · 25/08/2017 06:04

you get a conversion chart that tells u what the numbers grades meaning the old a,b,c, system . For example a 4 means a c

meditrina · 25/08/2017 06:07

Pupils don't have to stay at school after 16. The school leaving age has not been raised, the change is to the participation age.

So exams at the end of compulsory school are still the final point for many, who then may go off and pursue their education elsewhere. It shows whether or not they achieved an adequate level of maths and English, plus picked up a bit of other subjects (5 passes)

With the demise of the AS level, it also provides evidence of exam performance for those who are academically inclined and wish to apply to univeristy.