change in Biology grade boundaries

[Shazy123]

My son has recently had his gcse results, although we were overall happy with the results I'm sure he would have done better if grade boundaries were changed. He had an A in B1(3 marks off 100%), A in B2, and A in B3. The teacher told him that his coursework was and A too. When the results came the coursework was down as an A! When my son questioned this, the teacher told him that the grade boundaries had been change. I feel he was robbed of his A after working extremely hard. Are there any other parents on here who feel the same?? A similar scenario happened in English gcse.

Sorry forgot to mention his overall grade in Biology was an A!

Teachers cannot award final marks for controlled assessments, they can only advise what they think the grade will be based on the grade boundaries of previous years. Likewise, the mark the teacher gave him might have been altered due to moderation, making it lower. What is likely is that the task this year produced higher marks than last years, meaning that grade boundaries were slightly higher. Really, the teacher shouldn't have told him that he'd achieved an A* as they wouldn't have known themselves before moderation.

There's nothing can be done - the ISA/coursework grade boundaries for science have always gone up every year (even for exactly the same tasks) as the teachers allegedly get better at teaching them. If he did the best he could for the final exam then an A is the correct overall result. If he didn't do the best he could because he thought he could rely on the extra marks from the CA that's a very risky strategy, but might have meant he could have gained a higher mark in the last exam with better info (I don't think many dc do actually work like this though). The teacher should have explained more clearly that the CA mark was provisional based on last years grade boundaries, but that's the only mistake that may have been made.

If he's in year 11 did he do the old spec and therefore coursework not controlled assessments?
I had a chat with another member of department today and they think they've changed the grade boundaries for the coursework in Science (21st century) which is why some of our borderline kids have dropped from predicted C to D.

If so, it does seem unfair considering there is no difference between this year and last year so why change the boundaries. However, I haven't looked into it and not sure if this was the case for definite.

The Report on English mentions science briefly. The was a decline in the results but they are saying it is because they made the spec harder. see here page 24

My DD was in a similar position re Chemistry and Physics, although she got the A in Biology. She was carrying forward A from the exam she did in January and the controlled assessment.

She recognises that she was over confident and frankly did not work hard enough for the 2nd and 3rd papers she did this summer. Yes the grade boundaries have moved a bit but quite a few kids got A and she could have been one of them if she had put more effort in. She may appeal the Chemistry where she was 2 ums off but she also knows if she applied herself more she would have got the A. She was also aiming for the grade boundary instead of for 100%. It is a harsh lesson and she was upset, but at least she is determined to work harder for her AS levels.

I am sorry your son is upset, but A is still a good result and he should put it behind him and move on.

OP, how can the teacher say that his coursework was A* before the exam board moderated the sample from the school?

It is really very irresponsible of teachers to do this. She should know better.

you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/reinstate-grading-system-for-gcses-that-teachers-and-pupils-were-working-to

Please sign this petition and pass it on to all fair minded people you know. If we are to have any faith in the GCSE system for the future.

Which exam board is it?

With Edexcel, old specification, there is no fudge for grade boundaries in IAAs. The teacher gives a mark out of 36, and this is scaled up to being out of 40 for UMS purposes (ie they multiply the raw score by 40/36). If the exam board moderator agrees with the teacher marks +/- 3, they won't change anything. If they don't, they will intervene.

If the teacher gave him over 32 marks, this would have been an A* subject to moderation.

He may have done that well, but it is possible his whole school was scaled down if the marks of the moderated sample were too high.

This has nothing to do with the current English investigation by Ofqual, creamteas. This is about the old specification which ran from 2006 till June 2012.

The Ofqual report mentions the new Science qualification which has had its first year, and has not filtered through to year 11 yet. There have only been B1, C1 and P1 papers to date.

If it's AQA than our pupils are in the same position with regards to ISAs/CAUs. I inform the pupils of their grade based upon the previous years grade boundaries, which is all we can base it on, however it is stressed that that grade is out of our control and could change.

Most of my students were marked down from where I had placed them originally and did make a difference to final grades.

I may be being a thicko here but I can't really understand why grade percentages should change at all.
They should be fixed and then everyone would know what they were aiming for
i.e reaching
50% would always be a C
75% would always be a B
over 75% up to 89% would always be an A
over 90% would be A*

if in 1 academic year a lot of people got A's then surely over the years this would balance out.

It seems more unfair to me that 1 year you could have a C and the next year group a D or a B because of 'grading changes'

The grade boundaries do have change to adjust for the difficulty of the paper(s) - it is this adjustment that is supposed to make sure that standards are the same for each year. So if one year the papers are judged to be more difficult the grade boundaries are lower (and vice-versa). But this adjustment should usually be quite small.
HTH

Marks are given by teachers (and subject to moderation) and boundries are set by the exam boards. All of my daughter's GCSE coursework marks were given like so:

31/40 (subject to moderation)
27/40 (subject to moderation)

When I asked what grades they were, I was told it would depend on the boundries set by the exam board and the assumption the marks would not be changed during moderation, so the school could not say what the grade would be. That's what your son's school ought to have advised.

My son was told he was on a solid A*. I agree that it's probably better to forget about it now, although I think something's gone wrong somewhere, even with moderation. I sometimes think it doesn't pay to complain and make a fuss about things as it makes you an unpopular parent!! Thanks for your replies though.