Grade Boundaries

[kackle]

Interested in people’s thoughts re grade boundaries for A levels this summer.

DD really stressed as to if she will get her grades for uni.

This cohort have never sat a formal exam. I know they have done mocks / school exams etc.

Do people think the boundaries may well be lower this year?

I think they will be higher - more like 2019 boundaries. They are looking to cut the % of A and A* grades.

Happy to be corrected if I've misinterpreted what I've been told

The grade boundaries depend on 2 things . How hard the exam was, and what % they want to get any grade.
The percentages getting grades is meant to be going back towards 2019 levels, but if the cohort as a whole underperforms due to knock on effects of covid, then the number of Mark's for a grade may be lower than previously.

The grade boundaries will be in line with 2019. We already know that.
Grade boundaries are set in relation to the performance in an exam series so no one can say in advance what they will be - but we do know that they'll be much more like "normal"

Yes as above it is impossible to tell as boundaries are set once all raw results are in. Seems likely there will be fewer of the highest grades awarded and they will move to be more in line proportionally will 2019.

I suspect the boundaries will be higher than last year but not as high as 2019 as I think this cohort will not perform as well as the 2019 cohort due to covid.

Yes agree with @Bobbybobbins , as schools approach the exam period the disruption this cohort has experienced over the past 3 years is so great - that exam marks are expected to be lower than 2019 but the same number of A stars, A's etc will be given out as 2019 ( or maybe slightly more). I was struck recently by my dd who is taking A level biology learning about the kidney in the same week as my ds was learning about it for his gcse because the kidney was removed from the gcse biology syllabus in 2021. This A level cohort have so many knowledge gaps due to reduction in GCSEs in 2021.

I agree. I am expecting the boundaries to be lower due to the disruption experienced by the cohort.

We have been told to work from 2019 grade boundaries. That’s certainly what they have all used when looking at how the raw marks from NEAs should translate to grades.

It should mean fewer of the very top grades.

It was made clear in 2022 that the 2023 boundaries will be back to 2019 levels. Make sure you know your childs exam boards and print off the boundaries on the morning of the exam results - if super close get them remarked.

I’m not sure why anyone would expect the grade boundaries to be lower. They have stated that they are moving back to 2019 levels

All my daughter's mocks were graded using the 2019 boundaries. Despite all the many assessments during her GCSEs she nervous about not having had to take 'real' exams before - two years coming down to a few hours.

Do the results show a grade and a percentage?

@Tree543 kids get a grade and school get the paper by paper mark which sometimes is added to the results info and sometimes you need to ask school for it. The grade boundaries are published by each exam board and therefore you can see if your child is a near miss for a grade.

I’m not sure why anyone would expect the grade boundaries to be lower. They have stated that they are moving back to 2019 levels

No, the grade profile is moving back to 2019 levels, with a guarantee that the proportions getting A*, A, etc., will not be lower than in 2019: https://edexec.co.uk/what-is-the-governments-new-plan-for-the-2023-exam-season/

As current students' education has been disrupted, they haven't sat formal exams before and, by all accounts, their general level of attendance and engagement has been low, it seems pretty likely the grade boundaries will have to be lower than in 2019 to produce the same proportions of top grades.

My point was more that I understand thjngs willl be back to normal this year.

But surely if the cohort as a whole do poorly, the boundaries will be adjusted.

The chief regulator, Dr Jo Saxton has said there will be a degree of protection for the kids, akin to when they moved to the new A level spec in 2017.

’I can confirm that, in 2023, we will return to pre-pandemic grading as the next step in getting back to normal. But giving the 2023 cohort some protection against any impact of COVID-19 disruption is the right thing to do.
We are, therefore, putting in place the same protection that was given for the first cohorts of students taking reformed GCSEs and A levels from 2017 onwards. That meant not disadvantaging students who might have performed less well because they were the first to sit new exams.’

Does that mean some subjects may have grade boundaries adjusted compared to 2019 more than others because of the grade profiles of the students taking the subject? For example, further maths grade boundaries may be as high as before because the students taking further maths tend to be bright and engaged , and therefore not affected by the pandemic as much?

Why are people so sure this cohort will do badly. All the year 13s I know are working their socks off

@curlywillow I’m wondering if it will be more of an issue for GCSEs this year. At my daughter’s school they’re further behind than they would normally be at this point. It does feel (very anecdotally) that the cohort could well underperform. She’s at a grammar school and after the mocks quite a few of the pupils were switched to the trilogy science which I don’t think would normally happen.

i agree re the Year 13s though - my DS is doing A Levels and this is my experience too. He’s doing arts subjects though so it might be different with sciences as you need that solid bedrock of knowledge, so they may be at more of a disadvantage if they started with shakier foundations (e.g. @redrobin75 ’s point about not having had to learn about the kidney). I’m sure they are all working hard but A Levels are demanding enough without also having to catch up on content missed during the GCSE years.

Did anyone see the article in the Sunday Times on this?

from the article:

Children taking their GCSE and A-levels this summer must be marked more generously due to the devastating impact of the ongoing teachers’ strike and the lingering effects of the pandemic, say head teachers.
The Northern Powerhouse Partnership, which has consulted head teachers and academy trust leaders across the north of England, has written this weekend to the exams watchdog Ofqual urging it to rethink its approach to this cohort.
At present, Ofqual has advised exam boards to return to “normal” marking for the first time since 2019. In 2020, public exams were cancelled, and in 2021 and 2022 they were graded more leniently.
Henri Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse, which is chaired by the former chancellor George Osborne, said teenagers taking exams this year are being treated “very unfairly” compared with those doing GCSEs and A-levels in the previous two years.

The exams won't be marked more generously. That's really not how it works. The marks schemes will be applied as they always are and the grade boundaries will be set at the end of the process, as they always are.
The intention is to return the grades to the 2019 distribution.

I thought they were back to 'normal' (2019) except that the overall ability of the cohort would be taken into consideration - based on all pre-Covid data held on the year groups. So if this year group were historically more able than 2019 they would be credited with higher results, and conversely if they were less able they would not be 'punished'.

Honestly this cohort more than any other have been affected by Covid. Last years Year 13’s hadn’t ever sat exams before yet were given more generous grades. This cohort missed so much of their GCSE content, have never sat an exam before yet are going to be marked against 2019 grade boundaries. How is that fair? It’s not even just the content they have missed, it’s the ability to even revise, do practice papers etc. I cannot imagine the first proper exams I sat being A levels. DS’s school don’t even do mocks in the school hall as they are such a small cohort so he has never even sat an exam anywhere other than his classroom.
He has already printed off the grade boundaries for 2019 and is working off them at the moment. Do they get published for this year on results day? I was just thinking about what another poster said about printing them off to check if they were close to the next grade.

This cohort missed so much of their GCSE content, have never sat an exam before yet are going to be marked against 2019 grade boundaries

No they won't.

If this cohort perform worse than the 2019 cohort, because of covid, because of the strikes, they will get the same grades as the 2019 cohort. Because it has been pre-decided that they will get the same grades as the 2019 cohort, the grade boundaries will be adjusted to make that happen.

I'm a bit baffled about this headteacher call for 'more generous marking'. Don't they know how grade boundaries work? What is 'more generous marking'? In maths they mark incorrect answers right? How on earth would they train markers to give more marks to an answer than it deserves? That call is confusing parents and muddying the waters.

I'm a bit baffled about this headteacher call for 'more generous marking'. Don't they know how grade boundaries work? What is 'more generous marking'? In maths they mark incorrect answers right? How on earth would they train markers to give more marks to an answer than it deserves? That call is confusing parents and muddying the waters

Exactly this. It's headline grabbing nonsense.

Grade boundaries are not a prep tool. Exam papers, mark schemes and examiners' reports are.
And for those people thinking about looking at grade boundaries to make decisions about remarks... remarking doesn't exist anymore, and you need to get any papers looked at by someone who is an examiner before you ask for review of marking. It's expensive and not the "hunt for marks" it used to be.

But that’s what the teachers are telling the students as well so clearly they don’t understand it either. If they don’t get it then how are we as parents supposed to understand. They are saying you need to get around 225/300 marks (no idea how accurate that is as just a random number I picked)to get an A star as that’s what it was in 2019.

The 'around' is important there. Teachers never know what the grade boundaries are going to be. Kids want a ballpark figure.