To think that 70% should not be an A

[Arealmanithink]

Background: I'm American. Grading is different in the US. In the US, the scoring goes , 89-100% = A, 79-89% = B, 69-79% =C anything below 65% is failing. I don't think the school work is that different but I do think that the standards are lower in the UK. I'm amazed.

In the US a lot of tests that matter are multiple choice. That means they are easier. I am helping my cousin prep for her SATs and tried a few example exams - I got over 90% in all of them.

@HoldMyLobster I'm not surprised. My original point wasn't about entry requirements for US educated students entering US university, it was that UK and European qualifications are a higher level and highly regarded in the US so the original post of 70% shouldn't be an A is all relative to the difficulty of the system generally.

[quote TheTeenageYears]@HoldMyLobster I'm not surprised. My original point wasn't about entry requirements for US educated students entering US university, it was that UK and European qualifications are a higher level and highly regarded in the US so the original post of 70% shouldn't be an A is all relative to the difficulty of the system generally.[/quote]
Have you actually applied for a 'good' US university with just AS levels?

They certainly wouldn't get you into DD's university, and none of the UK students skip first year because of their A levels. They might get some college credit at best.

When I was at Uni the American exchange students were all prepped to expect far lower marks than they would have been used to getting at home. It was explained to them that in America the marking started at 100% and you got marks taken off for things that were wrong, while in the Scotland/UK you started with 0% and got marks added for what was right.

It comes down to a different grading system and the American students I knew definitely didn’t find it easier in the UK than their home Uni.

@HoldMyLobster not personally no, the US system isn't of interest to either DC however we have moved around the globe with DC in both British & International (that basically means US based in a lot of cases even if they do IB). The head of MS at one international school told me about skipping at least the first year in the US for IB diploma students (she had 4 DC, was American and had both personal and school knowledge of the system), one of the British Schools DC attended continued AS levels once scrapped in the UK for the sole purpose of getting students into US uni's. I'm in no way saying it will be all uni's, but UK qualifications are generally regarded quite highly outside of the UK in other educational systems. I don't love either system, they both have their good and bad points.

It’s easier to get a high grade in life sciences degrees.
I got 76.5% for my degree and I wouldn’t call myself exceptional.

Bugger - just wrote a really long reply to @HoldMyLobster but I forgot that the app has a habit of eating long replies and they disappear into the ether

Short answer is: have a look at Aberdeen Uni, one of the Scottish "Ancients", which because it does more subjects in 1st year than the other Ancients, would allow your dd to do all the subjects she's interested in.

What an oddly xenophobic post by the OP - why would anyone equate a different marking system with easier educational standards at all?

I speak as a postgraduate from both Dutch and Swedish universities where the American students attending really struggled with postgraduate level study and were probably more equivalent to second or final year undergraduate level here.

There also seems to be some weird concept in the US that undergraduates can gain credits from totally unrelated subjects and use those to boost their marks, often involving performing arts of a dubious quality.

I find that the actual coursework in the UK is of much lower standard... well, not standard, but less in quantity and breadth maybe? than what I'm used to (eastern europe)
We were amazed that when learning eg the circle theorems, the proof of why it is what it is, is not taught. A lot gets lost without the deeper understanding.
On the marking/grading side I still can't get my head around how in the UK the number of A/B/c... are actually set per cohort. To me this means that if you are lucky and your uk-wide cohort is shit, then you need less knowledge to get an A. But even then, if your school has an allocated 5 A grades and you would get an A nation side level, you can't because you are eg 1 point less than the 5th highest in your school.
For me this means that I can't trust that all A student in the past 5-10-x years have the same knowledge.
Looked at some stats to try to figure out why it is said to be fair, but couldn't. Which doesn't mean that it's shit, but I haven't gotten my head around for either pro or con arguments to make a judgement. But it doesn't feel right.

Is a B still considered to be a good grade? According to my half-sister, anything less than an A isn't sufficient.

I’m American. Did an Ivy League undergraduate degree there (biology) with a semester here (UCL) and then a whole second undergraduate degree here (veterinary).

I had plenty of exams graded on a curve in the US where an “A” was 70 or less.

Overall the educational standards in the UK were higher and the courses much more difficult. I struggled!

Agree with OP. Her grades are correct. That is how it should be.

This has nothing to do with standards as Lazy suggested. Nothing.

It should be universal. In UK when you sit your accountancy papers 55% is a pass. Wtf? Stupid.

A friend of mine did a year abroad in the US as part of her degree. That year in America she came back with over 100% because of extra credit, something like 106% for the year. That would never happen in the UK, and they changed it to 72% so that it wasn’t unfair on other students.

On the marking/grading side I still can't get my head around how in the UK the number of A/B/c... are actually set per cohort. To me this means that if you are lucky and your uk-wide cohort is shit, then you need less knowledge to get an A. But even then, if your school has an allocated 5 A grades and you would get an A nation side level, you can't because you are eg 1 point less than the 5th highest in your school

Schools don't have a set amount of A grades. I am not sure what you are talking about.

Grades are awarded for the mark you get. They look at the marks over the country, look at the difficulty of the paper, and then say what marks are equivalent to each grade.

@TheSunIsStillShining

I find that the actual coursework in the UK is of much lower standard... well, not standard, but less in quantity and breadth maybe? than what I'm used to (eastern europe) We were amazed that when learning eg the circle theorems, the proof of why it is what it is, is not taught. A lot gets lost without the deeper understanding. On the marking/grading side I still can't get my head around how in the UK the number of A/B/c... are actually set per cohort. To me this means that if you are lucky and your uk-wide cohort is shit, then you need less knowledge to get an A. But even then, if your school has an allocated 5 A grades and you would get an A nation side level, you can't because you are eg 1 point less than the 5th highest in your school. For me this means that I can't trust that all A student in the past 5-10-x years have the same knowledge. Looked at some stats to try to figure out why it is said to be fair, but couldn't. Which doesn't mean that it's shit, but I haven't gotten my head around for either pro or con arguments to make a judgement. But it doesn't feel right.

That’s not how grades are awarded at all. They are done nationally, not per school.

@Arealmanithink

I am, however, amused by how defensive the brits are about the education system. I asked an innocent question.. To honestly get an answer, and it went a bit OTT. FatherBuzz, thanks for your input. You sounded the most rational!

You didn't ask a question. Read your original post! It's entirely phrased as a statement, there is not a single question mark or anything even phrased as a query.

American here, and tbh, thought the same about percentages as the OP, however DD1 is in Y10, and the teacher explained that she was being graded against GCSE standard.

Had totally forgotten about the whole, 'extra credit,' scenario which is ridiculous.

Depends on how hard the question or expected standard is, how harsh the marking is. Here generally the grading boundary is changed based if lots of people get high marks

Yes English standards are crap, that's why you can go to uni in the US with 5 GCSEs grade C as they are considered equivalent to a HSD.

If you go to the US for uni then A Levels allow you to skip 101 classes in that subject.

Medicine is a 5 year course here, not 4 years college + 4 years medical school but Drs trained in the UK can work in the US.

I don't understand where 70% is coming from. You need to be more precise with your question, unless you just wanted to open up a US vs UK debate.

There is some confusion over are we talking about (high) school grades and exams or university grades and exams.

Surely it depends to some extent on the type of exam.

An essay-type exam is quite a different thing from e.g. a maths ditto, or one which is all multiple-choice, where answers are either right or wrong.
I’ve been told that in the US, multiple-choice type questions are more common, but I’m prepared to be told I’m wrong.

I’ve had this conversation with a German person before.

In humanities subjects (as an example and because that was my area) in the UK 70% is a first, while 80%+ is exceptional and 90-100% matches very highest academic quality in the field & is publishable standard.

So, the percentages were abstracted via qualitative criteria to represent a much wider spectrum of quality than anyone was expected to achieve. It wasn’t like a spelling test where there are 100 questions and your mark is how many of those answers you got right.

It allows for the possibility you will write something groundbreaking.

@Weave Now THAT would be an interesting and adult way to grade!

@chomalungma

On the marking/grading side I still can't get my head around how in the UK the number of A/B/c... are actually set per cohort. To me this means that if you are lucky and your uk-wide cohort is shit, then you need less knowledge to get an A. But even then, if your school has an allocated 5 A grades and you would get an A nation side level, you can't because you are eg 1 point less than the 5th highest in your school

Schools don't have a set amount of A grades. I am not sure what you are talking about.

Grades are awarded for the mark you get. They look at the marks over the country, look at the difficulty of the paper, and then say what marks are equivalent to each grade.

I assume that the poster is thinking about the algorithm for this year, and perhaps getting a bit confused and thinking that's how it always happens?