GCSEs 2018 (12) Are we nearly there yet?!

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Oh sost your poem cheered my breakfast

slinkyme you are by no means the only one about grade boundaries. I try to understand but each time I find myself saying ' hang on, that doesn't sound totally fair to all abilities' and at the back of it all I'm thinking its all a method of segregating DC even further in not only exam results but in society even more.

Thanks brainmelt can't think what is worse Teresa May or Gove for Priminister!

Well better make effort in garden, car in for mot trouble is I dig here, pup digs there, I clean up here pup messes up there. I try and put in board for border, dog digs it up or runs off with and chews stakes I cut to secure said boards...............

@slinkyme - same here.
I have (rightly or wrongly) reached the conclusion that grade boundaries are a bit of a red herring. It looks like they just award the grades on a % of cohort divisor. So x% get a 9, x% get an 8 etc. The grade boundaries would then be back calculated to indicate where the boundary happened to have ended up.
So assuming the test was the same degree of difficulty and the the cohort was roughly the same intelligence then the boundary would be about the same as the previous year.
I think the adjustment according to KS6 would be alone the lines of adjusting the number DC who get the grade. So if 2% of 2017 kids get a grade 9 but KS6 shows that the 2018 cohort are brighter then they would expect more to get a 9 this year so would award the grade 9 to 2.1% etc.

Definitely my interpretation and stand to be corrected by all the more knowledgeable parents/guardians on this forum!!!!

final week here - buts its a hard week with 6!

We have a post exam pizza planned for Friday and head of for holiday Sat!

CBlue that is also my impression

That makes more sense actually.

Cblue I think that's right so rather than lowering the grade boundaries its a case that if the cohort is bright, more will have done well, but rather than upping the grade boundaries to a level such that the exact same amount get 7's as the previous year, they up them but to a level that allows a few more than before to get that grade to reflect the fact that the cohort is supposedly bright and expected to get more 7 s and its right that they should. Does that make sense - probably less clear than before :) I think the movements are very marginal though.

Good point in subject specific language Sos. I wished we'd spent some time just specifically learning that on reflection. DS s explanations and descriptions are so vague and general. Too late now though.

DD said Biology was tough (IGCSE) - hardest 2nd paper she has done but OK and lots of smiles as I picked her up... 3 to go now!

Cblue that's very insightful and feels right.

Text from DS saying that the Biology IGCSE was really tough. I told him to eat chocolate and crack on with his Geography revision...

According to twitter:
Combined (AQA) Biology had lemurs, triploid oysters and the International Rice Research Institute.

No news about triple biology yet.

DS2 is staying at school for Geography paper 3 and then going to orchestra, so I won't see him until 5.15.

Yup apparently AQA had no human genetics (it was all applied to oysters and rice ?!). No feedback from DS as he's also staying for Band - another sign he sees the end in sight.

And yes, the IRRI does actually exist.
Motto: "Rice science for a better world"

Most of the IGCSE paper2 was apparently plant Biology.

iGCSE Biology was 'alright'. But as all exams are 'alright' it's hard to know what it means. From the tone of his voice I think it was 'good'. Lots of stuff missing (heart, nitrogen cycle and inheritance). Thankfully the word protein / protien didn't come up. DS1 chilled and pleased to have 24 hours to focus on chemistry as it's his favourite science, Biology is his least favourite.

Same as teen here. IGCSE Edexcel Bio was the hardest second paper DS has met. He was quite happy though. Apparently they asked them what sewage was.

Feedback from dgd on biology ( higher) paper 2 AQA......it was a pleasure to actually have proper biology questions, a lot better and easier paper for her. All questions answered. A 'good' paper. Then she rushed off to Starbucks with friends!

Feedback on igcse Biology was that it went fine but the marks for some questions were odd - ie answers with not much to say had 5 marks and those that should have had more had few marks 2.

That's triple biology I meant to say not combined.

Glad DC so far did fine in biology little s. Onwards and upwards to geography this afternoon then only 4 left! Wayhay! Seems such a long time ago the prospect of so many exams was daunting and now here we are almost there!

Similar feedback on igcse biology from DS. Was tougher than any past papers he's done but he thinks it was ok. He's been scoring 90% plus on past papers in the last few days but he says he's certain he won't have scored so high in this. Given that paper 1 was also tough, it's crossed fingers time for relatively low grade boundaries!

DS says igcse bioloy was a bit weird, and a lot of them were complaining that there had been very little human biology across the two papers. It's such an extensive syllabus, it really is the luck of the draw as to whether your good subjects come up or not !
Not sure about DS's definition of sewage- think he may have mentioned fatbergs