Summer Science GCSE grades 'down'

[creamteas]

It has been announced that the science grades will be slightly lower than in previous years here.

Whilst it is not uncommon for this to happen in the first year of a new curriculum, the cynical part of me thinks that this is just lowering expectations so that the politically motivated large grade deflation will not cause as many headlines in the summer :(

[littlemisswise]

Maybe it should be that the DC who meet the required percentage for A*, A etc should get that grade, regardless of however many other children get it.

DS2 knows, and is very, very angry. He was at work this morning with another DC who told him about it.

[circular]

Russians I certainly never meant to offend, or to underestimate your daughters situation at the time of taking the exams.

I do think last summer English (possibly science too) and this spring maths sitting ARE relevant, as they were hit by grade boundary changes too. So those DCs that sat some then as well as May/June this year will be hit both ways. The module vs linear will always be a contentious issue though.
Making science linear may not change much, as I suspect many schools will just do Core Science early rather than a bit of each.

Wasn't it just the English papers re-graded fir the Welsh board for Wales? DDs school had any within a few marks off a grade boundary re-marked, some went up but not all.

[creamteas]

Whilst English GCSE hit the headlines last year because of the sheer number of DC taking it and the extent of goalpost moving, there was grade deflation more generally in many subjects. I know more about A levels than GCSEs as I saw the gulf between predicted grades and actual grades in terms of university admissions.

This summer, from what we know so far, is likely to be worse. All of the DC due to finish exams this year will suffer (and those that have done modules have already been effected) but clearly extent of the impact of individuals will vary depending on the range of subjects taken.

If I was Ofqual, I would be wary of doing much to English, as the media will be looking out for it, but we shall have to wait and see.

[Arcticspill]

Yes there was general deflation in other subjects last year but English hit the headlines as all children take it. It is difficult to bring it to public notice. As Copthall said, there was inconsistency between different awarding bodies' approach and response to appeals, which damaged some individuals' results more than others.

I hope your children all do well and are not disappointed after their hard work.

[basildonbond]

anyone know if IGCSEs are affected as well?

[glaurung]

Igcse should't be affected. Last year all gcse subjects had a new system of grade balancing applied to them (equivalent outcomes) and were all marked lower than they would have been under the old system. This meant that approx the same number of dc achieved the grades achieved by dc siting the exams 2 years previously, rather than having grades a little better than the previous years. english was an anomoly due to the new syllabus and the exam boards inability to guage accurately the final grade distribution when the early modules were sat. Overall this meant the numbers achieving each grade were in line with other subjects, but most of those with better grades had sat early modules. Science this year is also a new syllabus which was introduced in response to a study thday showed the old syllabus lacked sufficient demand. It was always mean't to be tougher and have fewer dc scoring high grades on it - this isn't news, and the exam boards were outrageously tough marking the very first modules, and then seemingly eased off a little, but hopefully having learned from the english mess up won't make the same mistake quite as badly again. The other subjects this year are supposed to be being levelled according to the same principles as were used last year, and my guess is that this will result in grades a little lower, but not much lower than last years. This is just my guess, only results day will tell.