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Original poster

Grade Boundaries

35 replies

kackle · 11/04/2023 19:21

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?

OP posts:

Skybluepinky · 12/04/2023 10:18

It’s all unknown, lots of schools have done catch up lessons after school, more students have been having tutoring outside of school hours. Schools have implemented more exams under exam conditions so pupils are use to them.

MrsHamlet · 12/04/2023 13:15

noblegiraffe · 12/04/2023 09:29

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

Exactly this.

Students really don't need to know this. What they need to know is what the mark scheme is looking for and how to achieve it.

BiancaBlank · 12/04/2023 16:11

I'm sure I read that last year the grade profile was intended to be halfway between 2019 and 2021 levels but in the event grades were closer to 2021. I found this interesting because I would have thought the exam bodies could set the grade boundaries where they like to get the desired profile - but if it's true, then it's possible that this year's cohort may still fare better than 2019's despite the official plan.

carben · 12/04/2023 16:49

I've just looked up Edexel Maths A'Level Grade Boundaries:-

2019 Raw Score 300 A* 217

2022 Raw Score 300 A* 217

Revengeofthepangolins · 12/04/2023 21:35

carben · 12/04/2023 16:49

I've just looked up Edexel Maths A'Level Grade Boundaries:-

2019 Raw Score 300 A* 217

2022 Raw Score 300 A* 217

Making the point that individual grade boundries are potentially pretty meaningless, being the product of many factors including how hard the papers were, prior attainment of the cohort and how able the cohort is at the point of examination.

Agree it is very annoying how poorly the pound about grade distribution is made in reporting of the issues.

PettsWoodParadise · 12/04/2023 23:35

You can’t compare 2019 with 2022 on so many levels including that pupils got advance notice of some details in their exams and could take in sheets of formulas for others etc in 2022.

I think the differences in those who had good lockdown learning and can self teach compared to those who had patchy teaching and struggled to fill in the gaps will give those who had the least disruption the most advantage as the curve of the spread of results will be affected.

DD sits her A levels in a few weeks time and has been told by teachers they understand the plan to revert to 2019 spread of grades is still the case.

SeasonFinale · 13/04/2023 02:52

curlywillow · 11/04/2023 20:50

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

They may well be lower actual grade boundaries if the student cohort does not perform well. However the number of A*s and As will be back to a similar amount awarded as 2019. Thus is they don't perform well the actual boundaries are lowered to allow the same % achieving the 2019 grades.

curlywillow · 13/04/2023 08:50

In 2019 the percentage of high grades was lower than in previous years.

7.8% in the UK got A stars (8% in 2018)
25.5% got As or above (26.4% in 2018)
51.6% got Bs or above (53% in 2018)
75.8% got Cs or above (77% in 2018)

801,022 A levels were sat. These are figures from the JCQ website

Shelefttheweb · 13/04/2023 10:00

PettsWoodParadise · 12/04/2023 23:35

You can’t compare 2019 with 2022 on so many levels including that pupils got advance notice of some details in their exams and could take in sheets of formulas for others etc in 2022.

DD sits her A levels in a few weeks time and has been told by teachers they understand the plan to revert to 2019 spread of grades is still the case.

It is not just about good and bad lockdowns either. As a pp mentioned some schools have been offering catch-up lessons, extra tutoring (and some have accessed this privately), some do Easter revision classes, some extra exam practice - and some don’t.

redrobin75 · 13/04/2023 12:28

Anecdotally from speaking to 6th form teachers the issues with the current cohort seem to be missing building blocks of the curriculum due to reduced syllabus in 2021 - ie more has had to be taught to cover the A level syllabus plus missing bits from gcse syllabus and lack of time - course work has taken longer than expected and classroom time is running out to cover the complete syllabus before mid May - not helped by 2 upcoming strike days and 1 extra bank holiday in May.

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