What are GCSE Grade 9s for...?

[Balootoyoutoo]

Just that really. I work in a university but am also a mental health professional, and I'm struggling to see the point of them. They cause a shed-load of stress and angst, but for what...?

I understand that they were introduced to help distinguish between the very able and the exceptional, but how many universities really need to make that distinction? The University that I'm with (think lower tier Russell Group don't tell them I said that, I'm fairly sure it's an instant dismissal offence) is very unlikely to need them for selection purposes, for even our most competitive courses. In fact, the only universities that I can think will make any use of them are Oxbridge, and maybe Imperial and UCL for their most demanding degrees.

Did we really need to upheave the entire system and demand ever higher levels of perfectionism, in the interests of a tiny handful of universities? Or have I missed the point?

Just to make it clearer, the mocks are based on adding the scores of your top 8 subject grades together.

lljkk - you mentioned comparisons between 1985 and 2015. I'm old enough to remember GCSEs don't go back that far, because I took most of my O-level exams that year, and an additional one in 1986 (Latin was only offered after school for 2 years and then in the first year of 6th form). I think the first year of GCSE exams might have been 1987 (they were definitely in by 1988 because I have a sister who would have done them that year).

holidayshopping, if that's 8 grades those students must have had marks of 9 in everything. However, they were mock exams - presumably internally marked - was the marking tough enough? Particularly given the lack of previous history and establishment of what a 9 would actually look like.

GCSEs started in 1988.

I wish they did it by percentages of the year as a whole...
Top 5% = 9
6 to 10% = 8
11 to 20%= 7
21 to 30% = 6
31 to 40% = 5
41 to 50% =4

That way you top know who were the cream of the year.

Yes but that wouldn’t account for the standard of the exam.

Well the results are out now so it may all.be clearer...

Damned radio saying 9s are the new As, no they're not!

Quite a few all 9s at DS’s school!

Private or selective?

Incidentally, if any DC got a 9 in maths, they can enter a Casio competition for a free colour graphical calculator (would be great for A-level) calculators.casio.co.uk/gcse-results

A 7 is not equivalent to an A back in the day. It's more like a B

dds school said its a 'low A'
An 8 is a high A low A*
and a 9 is a high A* and beyond

The really unfair thing will be if they want to go to uni later. For example some dentistry courses required A at eng language regardless of whether you did it prior to the a star being introduced or the old a level. So if they start adding numbers on it could reaLlysfaen disadvantage the early takers of the new gcses.

Grammar, though not a super selective.

dicky .... this all feels so mad... level 9 is already going to more people than A* did in its first years....

you gave us 2.8% in 1994 versus 7.3% in 2012 and already:

4.3% are 9 in 2018…..

How ON EARTH is any employer ever meant to compare people who did their exams 10 years apart?!?!?!?!?!

Jeez loveyouradvice you are right! 😱