Y10 child predicted mostly grade 9s for gcse

[kitnkaboodle]

This can't be right - in either sense of the word, can it?? A friend was told this at a recent parent's evening at an average school. The child is bright and v. studious/conscientious, so all power to him, but .... can this be right? Doing about ten subjects and level 9 predicted in all but two

It's going to be easier to get an 8 than it was to get an A*.

Do you think noble.
I think it's significantly harder in my subject. We're expecting out A* rate to drop this year.

1-9 is a ( spectacularly badly done) welcome return to norm marking.

The problem arose when it was deemed that all A* should be academically equal -
hence the insanity of 50% of Chemistry students getting A/A*
Yup they were bright because they did Chemistry, but they were not the brightest Chemists.

At DCs school there was a year when 5 pupils each got 14 x A*
barking : I know the kids, there were bright but not that bright

Grade inflation had to be tamed but 1-9 is not the right way to do it ---- wait three years

Yes, Maisy, certainly in maths and English (not sure what you teach?). The 8 will cover the top of the A grade as well as the bottom of the A* grade, so some students who would have got an A last year will be getting an 8 this year.

It doesn't matter how relatively difficult the exam is to last year because the grade 7 boundary is pegged to the proportion who got an A last year, so the grade boundaries will be way lower.

That's reassuring me a bit.
I'm English and feel the demands at the top end of the mark schemes are really tough, especially with 3 texts and 15 poems from memory.
Could my most able get full marks? Absolutely. I've loved the more difficult content and no controlled assessments.

My worry is that in a 2h15 closed book exam they can't demonstrate the exceptional, nuanced arguments I've seen over the last 2 years.

Your post is making me feel fractionally less worried.

Glad it's reassuring, we can do with all the reassurance we can get at the moment! English Lit tomorrow, right? Will be interesting to see how it goes with a live exam. Good luck!

Maisy some posters are capable of bragging about the sun rising over their back garden. One very prolific poster on the education threads a few years back bragged about how her DC 'had a life' when her cousin (at the same school) got a full house of A* which the DC with 'a life' very decidedly did not. I don't think a full house of 9s will be required for bragging rights....

I used the term "handed out" but I did not mean to disparage those who worked hard. However, under the old system a lot of pupils did get As without being exceptional at the subject. I know - I have a ds who got As in most of his subjects but he freely admits that he was only top of the tree in a few of them. A = very good, but it did not identify those who were very very good. Ds and most of his friends got A for French. They can't string two words together! The old exam was largely a memory test and the new one is by all accounts a great deal harder.

How dd will do is anyone's guess as the school have done away with any kind of marking . No comments on any work and only ticks. They've been sitting controlled assessments and dd says no one has a clue if they've done well or completely flunked it. There was some guff about they were supposed to know themselves how they'd done.