Contextualized GCSE score

[Perzival]

Hi, I've been looking for info on how Oxford calculate the cGCSE score but can't find anything definite. I was just wondering if anyone knew please?

I have never seen an explanation. I assume the schools or some government agency must provide the school reference data to which the candidate's results are compared. If your school announce detailed GCSE outcomes you can at least tell if your child has a positive or negative score, but I have never seen anyone explain how to quantify it.

They score between minus 3 to plus 3. If your child's gcses are average for the school they attended they get zero, better a positive and worse a negative.

Then I believe they receive a ranking against the other applicants based on that score to put them into centiles.

I will see if I can find their official guidance on that point somewhere.

From my DC's feedback

My DD said whether you get contextual depends on if the state school you attended had a negative value add Progress 8 score or not. My DDs was negative but she said a similar school had a mildly positive school so that wouldn't be contextualised.

8s and 9s also count the same I think at Oxford and I think it's number of 8s and 9s they use. The subject admission reports on some college websites like Merton's show the typical number of 8s and 9s of applicants and offer holders by subject. So my DD sat 12 GCSEs and a level 3 at 16 and the level 3 isn't counted and the 8s and 9s are counted so her score would be 10 which was the number most offer holders had in her subject.

https://www.merton.ox.ac.uk/undergraduate/admissions-feedback#:~:text=Merton%20received%20712%20applications%20in,recently%20launched%20Opportunity%20Oxford%20scheme.

Yes, obviously the contextualised gcse result is a positive or negative number calculated by comparing the candidate's results (number of A star equivalents,I believe) to the average at their gcse school, but I haven't been able to work out how to quantify the calc ie one can't calculate someone's result. It if course means that if a candidate goes to a highly selective school, they can easily end up with a zero result on very good gcses. For some courses, such as history at Oxford that zero will make up 50% of their shortlisting score.

The interesting aspect of the table extract shared above is that the contextual score for initial applicants is slightly negative (though not successful candidates). This extract might relate to a specific subject only and I can imagine wide variations between subjects.

It is true that a 'strong but not as strong as peers' applicant, who attended a highly selective school at GCSE, might have a contextualised GCSE of zero or below. It will equally apply to a 'strong but not as strong as peers' applicant attending a comprehensive school at GCSE, perhaps with a socio-economically advantaged catchment and with a track record of strong GCSE results.

I assume the schools or some government agency must provide the school reference data to which the candidate's results are compared.

These data are in the public domain: https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/schools-by-type?step=default&table=schools&region=all-england&for=secondary&orderby=ESTABLISHMENTNAME&orderdir=asc

Thank you all for your replies. It is all very interesting.

Ds's school is a state selective grammar in the North. It does out perform other local schools and I feel it is a great school but in terms of grammars it doesnt come close to others. Ds achieved 6 x 8/9's, 3 x7's and a 4 in MFL. He wants to apply for physics. The school offer no data in terms of how many children achieved 8/9's and the only data I can find is on the gov school comparrison site.

I think he scored a slightly higher number of 8/9's than the average for the school but I can't be sure.

For physics ue has to sit an exam when he applies and I'm hoping he'll score high on this. Does anyone have any stats for physics please like the ones spiralling downwards shared above?

I guess there isn't anything than can be done about it now but I think it would be good if we could see the calculations.

Sorry, data on numbers achieving grades are at https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/download-data?currentstep=datatypes&regiontype=all&la=0&downloadYear=2021-2022&datatypes=gias&datatypes=ks4&datatypes=ks4underlying

(This is only for England)

@NoNotHimTheOtherOne thank you. I looked at this but couldn't see any data on 8/9's rather than grades 4and above. Please could you point me in the right direction, I've just looked again and can't find a breakdown? Where should I he looking please?

@Perzival - Did my link to the page with the downloadable spreadsheets work? The data on how many achieved which grades are in those spreadsheets (England only), but you have to do a bit of searching and/or filtering to find them.

@NoNotHimTheOtherOne ah right, amazing. Sorry i didn't understand. Thank you very much. I really appreciate the help.

Yes the extract was for my son's particular subject which I would rather not state but is for let's say one of the more popular non science subjects.

My son was one of those whose score most people would assume be a positive as exceedingly high gcse grades (9 x A* 3 x A) was a negative score in the context of his super selective school where many kids knocked out gcses as part of their extracurricular as we ascertained after. Despite the negative gcse score his PS and test results were sufficiently high enough to get to interview stage.

Do those tables tell you the actual number of 9's, 8's etc, I can't see that. Or do you just take the attainment 8 scores and extrapolate from that?

It's worth noting that the cGCSE has a different weight depending on the subject. For example, for physics, Oxford calculate an initial R-score which is equal to the score a candidate gets in the Physics Assessment Test (PAT) plus 10 x the cGCSE. The former is out of 100 and the latter is out of 30.

You either need to get over a certain threshold in the PAT to get an interview, or over a combined threshold for the R-score where the threshold depends on other measures of disadvantage.

If you get through to the interview stage then the interviews are out of a total of 200 marks. So you can see that in the end the cGCSE has only a small weight (less than 10%) in the final R-score.

Of course that will change from course to course and also, but less likely, from year to year.

@tadger98 thank you. I'd read that the range for the cgcse score was -3 to +3 so the overall score could be from 270 to 330 if a maximum score is produced after interview. I completely appreciate and really hope I've misinterpreted so I'd be really grateful if you could explain where I've gone wrong please?

@Reallyunlikely I haven't had time to sit down and go through it properly just yet. It's on my to do thus evening or tomorrow.

I also read in the physics report for last year that to automatically qualify for an interview without any mitigating circumstances the r score for last year had to in the top 75% of applicants. A score of -30 may really impact on that.

You can get Freedom of Information request responses on who got an interview in the past like this one. I just had a quick search and this was first one so maybe a better one but this gives an idea.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/cy/request/undergraduate_students_physics_e

I'd love to but don't think in brave enough to do that, maybe after he's applied next year.

@Perzival Yes that's right. So the cGCSE is scored between -3 and +3 and then multiplied by 10 to contribute to the R-score. My 'out of 30' was playing a bit too fast and loose with the English language.

That's one someone else did and the response they got back and goes through candidate by candidate.

Thank you. I did just find this for anyone in the same boat with physics that's following the thread.

I really appreciate all the help, thank you very much.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/undergraduate_physics_admissions_4

I would look at it more holistically. Don't worry too much about the GCSE's, as it sounds as though those won't be contextualized. The more important focus should go on the entrance exam and PS. Lots of students have spiky GCSE's and still get interviewed.