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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

How do you find out grade boundaries?

41 replies

geraldine62 · 26/08/2011 19:52

Having gone through the HELL of results (A'level and GCSE) with various dc this last week, I have been completely perplexed by the actual scores on the results slip. How do people know that they were 1 mark short of an A*? How do you find out what the marks on the result slip are out of? Sorry if this is a stupid question, I have googled and googled but to no avail. The boards I am looking for are OCR, EdExcel and AQA and I would really appreciate enlightenment! Thanks in advance..

OP posts:

gingeroots · 30/08/2011 17:58

Oh golly I don't know ...is aggregation different maybe ?
It was a resat AS module which the school never asked the exam board to take into account .
Other resat units for other subjects were taken into account and he received AS certificates reflecting them even though he was continuing with the subjects to A2 .
It's just that the school had a big heavy talk to DS ( week after the parents evening at end of March when they never mentioned any concerns ) basically telling him that it wasn't worth his while taking the A2 exams in the summer .
And I kind of wonder if they were looking at his results and working on the D grade rather than the C he actually achieved in the AS .

Who knows - I ( used to ) consider myself reasonably intelligent ,but I can't follow it all . Heaven knows how parents for whom English may not be a mother tongue cope .
I sometimes feel my DS's school didn't want us to understand .

ellisbell · 31/08/2011 09:59

Sorry - as my children haven't done resits they aren't up on what happens. they did say at their school certificates are produced after AS but only after resits. The problems with schools is that they deal with this sort of thing all the time and forget they actually need to explain it to people who don't. Try the student room website or posting again here with a heading like resits and grade boundaries.

I'd guess the heavy talk was because they had some sort of test or mock exam after the parents evening and they didn't like what it showed. It's not unusual and can be what they need.

CrosswordAddict · 31/08/2011 12:15

geraldine62 I've just asked the same question on another thread! Then spotted your post here.
My question is this:
If the top 10% get an A, then 20% get a B and then 40% get a C and 20% get a D and 10% get an E (roughly) where do the A*'s and F/g candidates fit in?
Also, in a "poor" year academically your child might do rather better than s/he hoped.
In a bright year then your child could end up with a "B" whereas s/he might have got an "A" if s/he had sat the previous year.
In other words, is there an absolute pass mark for an "A"? And what if hardly anyone attains it?
Hope this makes sense, I'm not being controversial, just trying to make sense of it all.

CrosswordAddict · 31/08/2011 12:15

Sorry, forgot to say, I am on about GCSE's

gingeroots · 31/08/2011 18:19

Thanks ellisbell - I know what you mean about dealing with it all the time and not realising that it needs explaining .

Hullygully · 01/09/2011 16:52

Isn't it absolutely fucking ridiculous that there isn't a one-stop govt site that explains all this stuff clearly?

CrosswordAddict · 01/09/2011 18:39

Hullygully Have just come to check on my threads.I agree we need clarification.
People say there is a site called The Student Room which may help. Can't see why it's kept shrouded in mystery tbh.

t0lk13n · 01/09/2011 22:11

I marked GCSE RE papers but even I dont know the boundaries. Would like to know but will have to wait to see on Monday. Not taking a trip in to school especially. I think my son is 1-2 marks from a C in RE but will wait until Tuesday to ask school for a remark in case I am wrong. Most of his exams were WJEC so cant look on the above links.

CrosswordAddict · 01/09/2011 22:14

tolk13 That sounds interesting. Would be interested to know as I also mark GCSE. We never get to hear the grade boundaries, do we? How can we find out? Am no longer a teacher so do not have any inside info.

Hullygully · 02/09/2011 09:24

My ds' bloody school ( an "outstanding" one, hollow and bitter laughter), put a one line suggestion by the results that if people wanted to understand them, they should look on the exam board website.

CrosswordAddict · 02/09/2011 09:45

Hullygully You sound very disillusioned with your school, reading between the lines

Hullygully · 02/09/2011 10:11

It's just so irritating that they can't stagger into the twentieth century and manage communication properly. It doesn't make any sense, that what drives me mad!

CrosswordAddict · 02/09/2011 11:34

Hullygully I agree. Parents need far more information and guidance. It's no use schools handing info to the pupils, is it? Half the time it's lost or ignored. Parents' evenings are such a "Scrum" imho. We don't get a chance to ask a question. Most of the time is spent queuing up in the corridor.

t0lk13n · 02/09/2011 17:47

Crossword addict...I am not sure how we find out. I am only going to go on the results my kids I teach got when I see the results this coming Monday. I teach WJEC/Mark WJEC.

CrosswordAddict · 02/09/2011 20:09

tolk13n That's made me I taught WJEC and now mark WJEC.
Just interested. Not for my own DDs as they will be with other boards.
Btw WJEC do seem a very popular board with English centres now, don't they? Lovely to hear from you

ellisbell · 03/09/2011 08:28

WJEC don't seem to make grade boundaries available www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1755282

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