Exam Data Nerds step this way

[noblegiraffe]

A bunch of tools for looking at the GCSE data here:

analytics.ofqual.gov.uk

My favourite is this one: analytics.ofqual.gov.uk/apps/2018/GCSE/9to1/
You can look at the distribution of grades for all the reformed subjects which is quite cool, but you can also look at the distribution of grades in a certain subject for pupils who got a particular grade in a different subject or two.

Want to know how many students got 9s in Lit, Lang and PE? It’s 220 out of the 75,740 students who took that combination, so only about 0.3%.

And look at the grade distribution for Ancient Languages!

Also surprised to see that the modal grade for English Language was a 3.

So much fun to be had here.

It would be interesting to know - do exam systems in other countries have norm referenced rather than criteria referenced grades?

I think there are some subjects where criteria referencing (rather than fixed caps on the number getting a particular grade) would make more sense, and not be too difficult to examine - mfl for instance. What's the objection to it?

Don’t know if they regulate IGCSE.

They don’t.

Has anyone seen the pre U results for this year?

Would be very interesting to see how they compare with 2017.

Would be particularly interesting to see results for those schools involved in last year’s cheating scandal.

For those of us from olden times, O level results were set to that 10% got an A, 15% got a B and so on, the grade boundaries were moved to follow a standard bell curve. Is there anywhere that shows the equivalence for current GCSE results?

It would be interesting to know - do exam systems in other countries have norm referenced rather than criteria referenced grades

I wonder too, how many countries norm reference these exams with a cohort including students with learning difficulties.

It's like they've transferred DWP 'tests' of 'fitness to work' to the exam system on our children.

Of course, British qualifications have no mutual recognition with any of the EU economies from 29.3.19, so arguably they are not only based on hugely dodgy ethical and educational methodology, they're also worthless.

Thank you NobleGiraffe
If Ofqual are not regulating iGCSEs then how are the two quals equal?

Interesting about no mutual recognition after March 2019!

I think it is possible for an IGCSE board to get the qualifications 'benchmarked' against GCSEs by NARIC - don't know what the initials stand for, but it gives advice on international qualifications and UK equivalents. I don't know how many exam boards do this.

The more I think about it the more I don't really understand why we do norm referencing. As another pp has said it does raise ethical issues as well as practical ones like the problem of different cohorts for different subjects. What happens with eg Physics/Chemistry A level - is that criteria or norm referenced? I would guess they have higher ability cohorts than many A levels - or is that not right?

wurzel There was an article in The Times about pre U a few days ago. It came under a genral headline about private schools 'gaming the system' as pre Us are now seen as easier than A Levels, ironically, in terms of getting the very top grades. These are The Times' views not mine, having no stake at all in pre Us.

'Norm' referencing is contingent on the definition of 'norm'.

If Ofqual are not regulating iGCSEs then how are the two quals equal?

good question

Initially IGCSEs could only be taken by private schools. When Gove decided that they should be available to all, then the boards submitted IGCSEs to ofqual for accreditation. They sometimes had to make changes to get them accredited but by and large the accredited/non accredited versions of the qualifications were the same standard. As evidenced by lack of teacher uproar and by the fact that in (some? Many, I think?) cases the same exam papers were used for both quals.

Then the gcse system changed to 9-1 and threw everything up in the air again, so now it’s probably more of a debatable question again.

No one wants a race to the bottom. Not even the exam boards selling the quals, because they want to uphold their prestige and have the quals be seen as worth the effort. But exactly the same standard- you can find people to debate it either way!