GCSE Results Day 2017

[justmumof1]

Hard to belive that I was here 5 years ago sweating it out for the results of his secondary school offer!

Only a few days now bwfore the GCSE results come out. DS is starting to get nervous....as am I!

According the school websites, 9s seem fairly prevalent!!

Yes, a local boy's school is high achieving and they have lots.

What DD has noticed is that many of the 9s she has seen are a spike amongst their other lower grades. Bs, a C, an A then 2 9s. I'm telling her to be proud of having effectively 10 A* and 1A!

It's looking like 9 is simply the new A*, rather than above an A star which is what it's meant to be. Every other grade will follow that pattern and so the average to lower ability kids will be the ones who suffer most.

Delighted to say our gritty inner-city Comprehensive has supported a good representation of Grade 9s across all 3 subjects.

It's neither the new A nor above an A. A smaller proportion of students got a 9 than got an A* last year. It is the top 3ish percent of marks in the exams. That's it.

It isn't like other grades where they give a set of skills that they expect a pupil of that ability to demonstrate (the grade descriptors)

The grade boundaries for the 4 and the 7 were set by proportions of students and the boundaries for the 5 and 6 were set arithmetically between them. Same for the 2 and 3 set between the 1 and 4, and the 8 set between the 7 and the 9.

Any grade descriptors are nonsense as who got what depended on cohort performance not on grade descriptors.

I completely understand how the new grading maps across to the old system. I perhaps didn't explain myself properly. What I mean is in lay people's minds, a 9 is the old A star. Because it's simply not as rare as we were made to believe. I don't know how else to explain what I mean.

I think Tiggy's explanation in her last post, last paragraph actually explains the 9 grade very well, that it's part of a 3 part top grade.

I think though it will take time for people to get used to the fact that Grade 9 isn't a Grade in it's own right as such though. It isn't something you can meet a number of criteria for and then be awarded. It is just a capped % of the top grade 7-9 grades for that year group.
Grades 7-9 are the top grades and a group in their own right. They are retrospectively (after marking) divided in a predetermined way to differentiate between the top and bottom of that band.

Very helpful.

It is as rare as stated before the results came out. 3.5% in Maths, 3.2% in Eng Lit, 2.2% in Eng Lang. If you are at a school with an over average results, there will be more than 3% of students getting them. Some schools will have less than 3%. Perceptions will be different in those schools.

3.5% in Maths, 3.2% in Eng Lit, 2.2% in Eng Lang.

Why is Eng Lang a much lower percentage?

I wonder whether a few noses are out of joint because there were more 9s than expected! Waiting for the chorus of "Well it can't be that rigorous if so many people got them. And from conprehensive schools too!'

The reason perhaps some people see dozens of children getting a Grade 9 is that their children or friend's children happen to go to a high achieving school. The top 3% of children by ability are unlikely to be spread fairly across all schools - they are in clusters.
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There are exactly as many Grade 9's issued this year as there were expected to be - around 3% per subject. And 3% by any definition is rare
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Incidentally, my ds'a secondary modern had 4 9s-2 in Lang, 1 lit and 1 maths.

Why is Eng Lang a much lower percentage?

Because everyone takes English language. The brighter the subset of the cohort that takes a subject, the higher the percentage of students that will get a 9. Subjects like Latin will have a massive percentage of students getting a 9.
Only the brighter students were put in for Lit as well as Lang.

Incredible patience from Maisy, TheFallen and Tiggy . I really appreciate it!

Oh and not forgetting noble, you see I didn't know that, I thought everyone did Eng Lit!

Because they didn't take exactly the top 20% of grade 7+, but used a formula to get around 20%. So a small difference between subjects.

Okay I accept I maybe assuming a bit, as I have no statistical evidence for what I'm saying.

Until tiggys explanation of what the 9 grade meant I actually thought it was like a trajectory of grades in a straight line. Where I schooled, we actually had a similar grading system, but it was easier to understand because we had 3 different types of A's. So an A1, A2 and A3, we had 3 different types of B's also, 2different P's for pass).
I think because it's here it's being done in numerical form, it's less clear that it's all 7,8 and 9 are all part one grade (top grade)..

This is a subject in itself. I can't help think that the more information you give people, the worse it is. I hear you teachers groaning "Hell yeah!"