What does 3 and 4 mean in the old letter gcse's?

[elliejjtiny]

I know 9 is the top grade and 1 is the bottom. But not sure what number is equivalent to the old C grade and what 3 and 4 would be in the old system.

Hmm, my 5 in GCSE maths last year was a massive achievement! It was special and it was celebrated!

@cosima1 I think grade 4/5s at GCSEs are likely to be more suited to BTEC/Apprenticeship than to A levels. There is quite a variety of BTECs around but you may have to look around as not all places offer all BTECs.
Off the top of my head I can list: Computing, Business Admin, Travel, Health, Science, Hospitality, Engineering, Animal Care, Fisheries, Beauty, Sports, Public Services. All of these are within 45mins travel from our house.
The difficulty is when the young person doesn't have a career in mind. Some I think are more flexible than others. My DD did Travel & Tourism which covered Travel specific stuff but also Customer Services, Events management, marketing, making business plans, employability skills.

Smarv I think you are conflating 'nothing special' with 'not an achievement'. Yes, most people may get 4s & 5s, so the grades themselves aren't 'special', but that doesn't mean those grades aren't an achievement for many of them. This is not about being snowflakes. This is about having some empathy and realising that many pupils have to work damn hard to get those grades and for you to just dismiss this is plain rude.

Every child who puts the effort in should be proud of their achievements regardless of the grades. I know kids who are going to be disappointed with less than 9s, and kids who are happy just to be getting 4s in Maths and English.

All work hard, and their personal achievement shouldn't be taken away from them.

And for the record, I did terribly in my GCSEs and A levels, got a better degree, and was then top of my class in my MSc with an offer of a fully funded PhD - anything is possible.

I have thee children of wildly differing academic ability. I will be as proud of my youngest if she scrapes 4s and 5s as I was of my eldest who got A*s and As - the pomposity and arrogance of those who think their children are 'better' for their academic achievement makes me seethe - aah feel better now!!

4s and 5s are the most common grades so aren't really special

What matters is progress from a child's starting point.

From an average starting point, agreed, these are expected results.

From a high starting point, they would be poor results.

From low starting points, these would be excellent results.

As a primary teacher, I would cry with joy if some of the pupils I have taught get 4s and 5s at GCSE, because they would represent massive progress and huge personal triumphs - more so than other pupils getting 9s.

9= A* (only about 5% of the country get this, apparently it's just the higher end of the A students )
8=A*
7=A
6=B
5=C
4= low C
3= D
2= E
1= E/F
U= unmarkable
That's what my brother said and he sat his two years ago so I'm going off what he said.

everyone that actually did as they were told in class passed at a 6 or more

I have taught excellently behaved children, who have done everything i have ever asked them to do to the absolute best of their ability, for whom getting 2s would represent a HUGE success. I would say that, as a pupil in a mainstream school where you are likely to have been grouped with other pupils of roughly like ability, you have absolutely no idea of what a true ability range can look like.

Our school recommend BTECs for people whose results are mainly 4/5 and A levels for people whose results are mainly 6+. Quite a few subjects required 7 for A-level study in that subject and a 6 in maths for subjects that had a mathematical component.

It's really awful to downplay 4s. Some people with 4s have put in a lot of effort while others with 9s may not have studied half as hard.

@ShmarvDogg you may be intelligent and good at passing exams but you are demonstrating great ignorance. With your intelligence there is no excuse for this.

I have twelve O levels at grade A, the highest grade then possible. One of my children is on target for 4&5 in all his GCSEs, with maybe two 6s. He is far far better behaved at school than I was and he will have put as much effort into his schooling as I put into mine. He is of no less value at 16 than I was but his disabilities and learning difficulties make it much harder for him.

So for everyone thinking they are ripping on me for what I said I just wana point on a few thing, A if ur child is putting in effort but getting bad grades maybe it's time to move school and go somewhere with better teachers. B stop telling me how ur children are all disadvantaged, I am also a disadvsntshed student and with a lil hard work and some good teachers I got my grades. At the end of the day GCSEs aren't that remarkable as they are designed to be easy so everyone at that age has a chance of passing, I would not think of someone as dumb for not passing or nearly passing as they adjust the grade boundaries to ensure that arround a quarter to a third fail each year but that still does not mean a 4 is an achievement, when kids are going off into the big wide world you should not tell them it does not matter if they dont pass cause it's a good grade for them as employers aren't going to look at it that way when they apply for a job, u just gotta be real to some people.

You talk utter shite. Hth.

Ever heard of dyslexia Shmarv?

By the way, I don’t mean to be rude, but there are some of us on here whose children will have got all “9s.” If you are claiming to have achieved a “9” in English this year, it’s very evident that this would not have been the case, given the way you write on here. If you actually are a young person, I apologise if this us hurtful, but you are talking nonsense, frankly.

What I mean is that you don’t even use basic punctuation. You need to be using commas and question marks, combined with a clear sentence structure to get a 4/5 at GCSE. Was that your teachers fault? Should you have changed school? Or is it just not one if your strong points?

@Yaas If you were as good at english as you expect me to be when posting to this board then you would know that there are different styles of writing, we were even taught methods of writing incorrectly during descriptive to emphasise a point such as age, there are different ways to write in english and I chose to be lazy cause I can, dont need no lecture from someone who doesn't know what they are talking about

Ok, so you’re adopting a style of “english” now are you, to emphasise your age? But in the exam you would have decided to use capitals? Ok then.

I feel bad making personalised comments if you are in fact, a young person, but you are the one mocking other students achievements and you need to be aware of how this comes across.

I agree with Yaas . In English Language you are taught to write for your purpose and intended audience. Your intended audience here is readers of a site that expects good quality written English from anyone who is actually capable.

If your purpose is to show that anyone who works hard enough can achieve high GCSE grades, then you are sabotaging your own efforts by your writing style. Either you are showing yourself to be untruthful, as your writing style would not be capable of achieving high grades, or you are showing yourself as unable to write to the intended audience.

I also think you are not comprehending the counter arguments. No one is telling our children that their grades do not matter. Rather the contrary, which is why so many of them try so hard to reach the 4 grade, so they at least achieve the pass that does open doors for them.

I repeat again for the hard of understanding. For many pupils, reaching grade 4 is a real achievement for them, and something they have to work extremely hard to obtain. That grade might not achieve plaudits in the outside world, but their families know how hard won they are, and what an achievement they are for that particular young person, and they are definitely a cause for celebration.

Schmarv
Have you never worked really really hard at something and still not achieved the top result?

For me, I have academic qualifications coming out of my ears, but I can't draw for toffee. I could spend hours following every possible type of advice and putting in 1000% of effort but I would still end up drawing a dog that looked like a tree. Drawing a dog that actually looked like dog, even if it wasn't great artwork, would be an achievement to me. And doubtless any number of artistic people could look at it and point out that even a small child is capable of drawing a dog and I must be really lazy not to be able to manage this, but most people are kind enough to realise the amount of effort put in and make at least neutral comments.

If achieving highly was as simple as just doing what your teachers said, then why (for example) is everyone not a top athlete? After all, it's a case of following the instructions you are given?

You may come from a disadvantaged background, but you clearly have the capability to do well academically, and with some work and effort you've managed to achieve. Doesn't mean that other people are not working just as hard and still not getting the same results that you are.

Shmarv, go away and find a dictionary. Look up the word 'empathy' and start applying it to everything in your life. You won't get far with your current attitude.

My DDs are 16 and 18 and show a great deal more maturity and human decency than you are managing at present.

To everyone getting triggered at what I said, dont tell me to go look up empathy, u should just not get so triggered by the fact that I am telling you Strait facts that mid range and low grades are nothing special, they might nearly get you by in life but that does not make them special or a worth while achievement.

#1 We are not getting triggered . We are getting somewhat annoyed by your complete lack of empathy towards people with lower academic ability for whom grade 4s only come after masses of work and are thus a massive achievement for them.
#2 does not make them ... a worth while achievement . That statement is obvious nonsense, since gaining a 4 is extremely worthwhile as it opens access to Level 3 courses at college, and other professions. For example to do a Level 3 Early Years Educator qualification (for working in nurseries) you need your pass in English Language and Maths.

I am pushing this point because if you go round saying in real life what you have been saying here many people will think you are incredible naïve / rude / lacking in empathy / need to get some real life experience. It doesn't matter that I think this of you, but it will hamper you in life to continue like this.

We all know that gaining 4s isn't going to make the newspapers, or get someone into top universities. We know these kids are unlikely to end up in jobs needing high degrees of academic ability. We know that loads of people get 4s every year and they aren't top grades. But that doesn't mean that for many kids grade 4s doesn't represent a good achievement which should be rightly celebrated by themselves, their family, and their teachers.

They don't need to be 'special'. It's funny that you are so concerned with being 'special' when you sound like a bit of an idiot.

We aren't getting triggered. We are just older and we have learned that empathy and a little humility are useful things in life. You clearly have yet to learn those basic people skills.

Shmarv - there is nothing to get triggered about.

Yes 4/5 at GCSE may well be the average grade achieved for most students in the country. I don’t know, I haven’t looked at the stats. But surely you can see that this is a very different point to claiming that these grades cannot be an achievement for some.

Also it quite presumptuous when you are fresh out of school, to tell women who have no doubt done not only GCSEs, but possibly A-levels, degrees, MA/MSc qualifications, all sorts of professional qualifications and possibly PhDs that they don’t know what they’re talking about. Not only have we done all that, along with the life experience to back it up, we now have children embarking on it all again. Think about it.

As I said, I have one DC who got all 9s this summer and another currently in Year 10 who is dyslexic and will probably get 4s and 5s, maybe a few 6s if she’s lucky. It is what it is. But I can tell you this - even my DD who is still a couple of years away from her “non-achievement” 4/5 grades would know that “english” has a capital “E” and if she were to presume to give “Strait facts” to people three times her age, at least she would know how to spell “straight”. And she is dyslexic! So what does that tell you?

Wow, this thread escalated!

Can I just pick up on posters earlier who said you 'need' 7s (or above) to do well in A Levels. It rather depends on what 'well' means for a start. But , also, it doesn't seem to have massively occurred to people that schools that set very high entry standards do so so they can promote themselves by the number of A8s and As they get at A Level. This particularly applies to private school where the publishing of VA doesn't seem to be such a thing.

My school ahs basic entry requirements of a certain number of 4s and 5s. DS's school does a crazy points score thing with some pathways. Some subjects (usually maths) then set higher entry grades.
I have taught loads of students with 4s/5s/ Cs over the years who have done perfectly creditably at A Level.

And shmarv, the so called 'advice' you were given about changing your register for descriptive writing so you deliberately write 'like a teenager' is -frankly- bollocks. Any English teacher knows the markscheme mentions standard English.