GCSEs 2018

[DoNotBringLulu]

Hi all, I am sure many of us with dc going into year 11 this year are trepidatious about teachers and pupils thrown in at the deep end due to the new GCSEs.

There is one thing I can do which I hope will help my ds (even though he thinks I'm mad!), which is to get hold of this year's GCSE English Language and English Literature papers, read the books and work through the paper myself - I studied English Lit at university over 20 years ago. I will know for myself after I've done this how difficult the exam papers are at least - I'm not sure who I can ask to mark it for me though!

Can anybody tell me how challenging the Maths and English papers were for their dc? I understand these were the two subjects introduced with the new format.

A 5 is a good pass it's a low B or high C and most subjects apart from Maths accept for A Level.

I'll need to check the admission criteria again as i thought you needed a 7 to study the A level.

I believe only a 7 for Maths everything else 4 or 5...could be wrong we have a confusing year

DS has been given number grades for some subjects and letter equivalent for others, but we will be given a report of all the results and I think that will have the results as numbers.

Each subject seems to have had a different approach Maths gave out 3 9's 88%+, science no 9's not sure where they put the boundary, geography 1 9, history 3 9's, don't know about the other subjects. It will be interesting to know how many 9's your schools give out?

For context i shoudl say DS's school is a state comp with about 250 pupils in his year.

DD was given a 9 for maths with 80% on the real papers sat in June, but she's been given an 8 in geography with 88%. No others back yet. I've told her that she is only as good as the mark next summer, so don't even think about cruising for the next few months. Her Spanish mark should bring her firmly back down to earth again.

Well done your DD Stickerrocks, she must be looking forward to getting the rest of her results, if they're as good as that

Well done to your DD stickerrocks.
Re: the levels, it sounds like yours school is using last year's levels for English and maths, and the 90+=9 for the other subjects.

There was some sort of adjustment made for the first year so the grades were lowered, but that should mean that our DC will get an easier ride in 2018 for the sciences, geography, history, MFL etc. than the current year 10s will get in 2019

I think it's simply that the same % will get a grade 4+ in the first year of each new GCSE as got a C+ in the final year of the old GCSE for that subject.

So that's why they had to lower the pass mark for a grade 4 down to something like 18% for maths in 2017.
It was only a special arrangement for the first year though, so when it comes to maths and English, our DC will have no such protection in May 2018. They will get it for all the other subjects though.

I thought they were doing the same for all the other papers and maintaining the %s.

True - the grade boundaries will go higher over the next few years. They are set after the papers are marked.
There is some pressure off DS as the sixth forms he wants are asking mainly 5s for entry (although more like 8s to start with 4 subjects!) He needs a 7 in maths.
Geography teacher says no more homework - it’s all revision now!
DS spent 2 1/2 hours after school yesterday producing something extra for his artwork. Apparently he also has three or four more pictures to do but it’s actually looking as though he’ll meet the deadline!

@Stickerrocks maintaining the %s for maths and English? that's not my understanding.

Here are the levels for AQA English and maths in 2017, if anyone is interested:

Eng lang
Level Score %
1 16 10%
2 34 21%
3 53 33%
4 72 45%
5 82 51%
6 93 58%
7 104 65%
8 113 71%
9 123 77%

Eng Lit
Level score %
1 16 10%
2 32 20%
3 49 31%
4 66 41%
5 82 51%
6 98 61%
7 114 71%
8 127 79%
9 141 88%

Higher Maths
Level score %
1
2
3 33 14%
4 46 19%
5 72 30%
6 98 41%
7 125 52%
8 157 65%
9 189 79%

AQA: filestore.aqa.org.uk/over/stat_pdf/AQA-GCSE-RF-GDE-BDY-JUN-2017.PDF

Edexcel: qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/Support/Grade-boundaries/GCSE/1706-gcse-9-1-grade-boundaries-v1.pdf

formatting fail! Try again!
English Language AQA Grade boundaries 2017
Level score %
L1 16 0%
L2 34 0%
L3 53 0%
L4 72 0%
L5 82 1%
L6 93 1%
L7 104 1%
L8 113 1%
L9 123 1%

English Lit AQA
Level score %
L1 16 0%
L2 32 0%
L3 49 0%
L4 66 0%
L5 82 1%
L6 98 1%
L7 114 1%
L8 127 1%
L9 141 1%

AQa maths 2017
Level score %
L1 .n/a
L2 .n/a
L3 33 14%
L4 46 19%
L5 72 30%
L6 98 41%
L7 125 52%
L8 157 65%
L9 189 79%

DD3 got an RE end of unit test back - 23/24 - except that was apparently a grade 9 . I think some departments are linking an old A* to a 9, and there's going to be a big shock come August, for staff as well as students.

We also started mocks yesterday, and have a "results assembly" towards the end of term. DD is fairly calm about them atm, mainly because we've had a series of chats about how this set of mocks is only to see where she needs to concentrate on before the summer.

This is what AQA say:
The approach to awarding the top grades will be the same for all GCSE subjects. A formula will be used that means that around 20% of all grades at 7 or above will be a grade 9.
The grade 8 boundary will be equally spaced between the grade 7 and grade 9 boundaries. To carry forward the current standard, the number of grades 7, 8 and 9 awarded for an individual subject will be based on the proportion of the cohort who would have been expected to get an A or A*, had the qualification not been reformed.

Well, It's a good job DD doesn't plan to take sciences. The top set were scraping 40%-50% in their biology mock and were thrashed by the combined science sets.

Just been through DS' GCSE timetable, he has exams from the beginning of May to the middle of June. Perhaps I should just ask the school (private school) but are they normally on study leave for this whole time? And then off school when the last exam is over?

DS1 had study leave from early/mid May onwards.

He then had to go in to school for an official 'last day' at the end of June (give back textbooks etc).

our DC will have no such protection in May 2018

mmzz that's not strictly true, grade boundaries are set so that students will achieve on average what they were expected to achieve from their KS2 results. If this current Y11 are brighter than last year's Y11 according to their SATs then the grade boundaries will be set to ensure they get better GCSE results than last year's cohort.
Despite all the hype about how the grade boundaries would be set so that the same % of students would get a 4+ as got a C+ the year before, they always said only roughly, and actually the percentage who got a 4+ was slightly lower than the C+ percentage because the 2017 cohort were weaker than the 2016 cohort.

The grade boundaries are expected to be higher in 2018 than 2017 for maths and English because the students will be better prepared for the exam but if the papers turn out to be way more difficult than last year (which they shouldn't!) then the grade boundaries could actually be lower.

Study leave depends on the school. Ours does it once English and Maths are over, though I’m expecting it later this time as school has got stricter re Progress 8 subjects.