Now it's going to be ilevels??

[Verycold]

Replacing GCSE's? So it says in the Times today... Does anybody anywhere actually have a plan?

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Dont worry next week it will be something different.

Oh FFS.
Story here:
www.telegraph.co.uk/education/secondaryeducation/10097344/GCSEs-to-be-replaced-by-new-I-level-exams.html

It says Gove admitted his plans to scrap GCSEs was a step too far.....so he's going to scrap GCSEs?

I levels is what you do in parts of London and Essex once you've done IS levels.

Needs a different name really because A levels and I levels sound the same in a southern accent. People will get confused.

I l

I like the idea of a new name actually because it draws a line between GCSEs and the new linear exam. I like the wider grade scale so that the achievement if the top grade is preserved for only the very best. It's the curriculum that matters rather than the name surely and there seems to be a consensus that the old GCSEs have lost credibility. In my day only the very top got a grades (no a* grades) and b and c was perfectly acceptable. (Shows age and runs!)

But the new linear exam is already in, so it's not a line in the sand for that.

Having 1 as the worst is just weird. 1 is the best in pretty much everything else!

PMSL.at I Levels. That's going to be confusing rahnd 'ere.

Can't we just have OWLs and NEWTs?

noble - the article made the point that having 8 as the top grade now makes it easier to add further higher grades in the future. Or we could have 1* in the future instead? :)

Yes, but adding provision for further higher grades in the future just suggests they are expecting the system to be inadequate. If they did something like at a-level where to get an A* you have to get over 90%, then surely no one could doubt the top grade's quality.

noble - Decades ago the four minute mile seemed unattainable. Yet today most/all international runners have beaten that time. Academics is no different.

With improved teaching methods and outreach programs GCSE performance will improve. As more parents become better educated this will have a knock on effect on their children's academic performance

Standards rise over time which was why we went from an A to an A* to IGCSE.The provison for further higher grades is an acknowledgement of this as opposed to an acknowledgement that the system is inaequate.

I know the four minute mile is now attainable, but you still have to be pretty bloody good to do it.

I think getting over 90% (UMS equivalent) in a national exam is good enough to be considered exceptional without it mattering if more people achieve it in future years. Is there really a need to distinguish between people who get 90% or 95%? Then you're really splitting hairs and penalising people for silly slips rather than lack of ability.

It depends on whether you are the child/parent that scored 95% or 90%

I was, certainly at A-level, but that was before A*.

Having seen the students who get A* at A-level, you really do have to be talented.

I wonder what proportion of students get over 90% at GCSE. Not many, I imagine.

In another change, coarse work will no longer be part of the formal assessment in Year 11

Well done, National Newspaper of Standing for a spelling mistake in an article about education.

According to the 2012 stats, 90% of the kids at DS's school got A at least in the core subjects.

Then your DS goes to an exceptional school, Habba.

But to get an A can require maybe 70%. You don't need to be exceptional to get an A.

"But to get an A can require maybe 70%. You don't need to be exceptional to get an A."

And you are ok with everyone who scores between 70% and 100% getting the same grade?

But they don't, there's an A* grade?

Ok, just to keep you happy ...

"And you are ok with everyone who scores between 70% and 90% getting the same grade? "

Not really. The A-level system (in maths at least, don't know about other subjects) is roughly 10% between each grade (it shifts depending on the difficulty of the exam, but not by much).

I thought that we were talking about GCSEs and whether the current proposals were a good thing or a had thing?

Do you know anything about how the grades will work?