Cambridge iGCSE

[MoiraQueen]

There was a thread, I can't seem to find it now, but I posted under another name.

Anyway... DD has heard today (from a fairly reliable source) that Cambridge are intending pushing the grade boundaries up way higher than 2019 in some subjects - history was specifically mentioned. DD is gutted, she's at a state school and they've had such an awful time of it, with so little teaching, this would actually be a disaster for her.
Wondering if anyone else has heard similar.

As there are no exams there are no grade boundaries are there in the UK? Unless you are sitting them outside the UK? There is a paper on their website explaining how they will set grade boundaries for those who are sitting the exams having looked at the results from some “benchmarked centres” who are awarding teacher assessed grades. So I don’t think they will have a clue yet what those grade boundaries would be.

There are no grade boundaries for the assessment route to IGCSE this year. Unless you’re outside the UK, grade boundaries don’t exist as there is no requirement for them. Teachers are submitting grades, not marks, and teachers’ grades are final this year - no manipulation involved like last year. So unless you’re not in the UK, this ‘source’ is nonsense. I say this as a secondary teacher currently sorting out my students’ IGCSE teacher assessments!

@EnidSpyton

Thank you very much for the reply.
The source was a teacher.

How are you grading, if you don't have grading boundaries? If the school is picked for moderation you have to supply the portfolio with justification for grade?

@MoiraQueen We are grading based on the most recent grade boundaries available. In my subject that’s November 2020. We’re using past papers for the assessments, marking using the official mark schemes for those past papers, then calculating the grades based on the most recent grade boundaries. That’s what every school should be doing.

In practice hardly any schools will be moderated. The exam board don’t have time or the resource. There’s such a short turnaround between grades being submitted and results being published, they are going to have to just trust us.

I have no idea where this teacher of yours has got the grade boundaries being adjusted idea from. It’s literally impossible as there aren’t any! Also every school is doing different elements of the curriculum for their assessment so you couldn’t have universal grade boundaries when there’s no universal total mark if you see what I mean.

Thank you. I do see what you mean, although DD's school seems particularly fearful of being moderated. I am wondering if it is the SLT setting boundaries, that the teacher has to use. It's a poor performing school, but DD's year is particularly bright and was tipped to bring in their best results ever, if it had been a normal year. This particular teacher is one of the decent teachers and is also a Cambridge marker in normal years. They are using coursework as well as past papers.
I have read through all the Cambridge guidelines, which seems to support what you are saying, so not sure what to make of this rumour. DD is stressed to the hilt (I imagine you are too💐).

I suspect unfortunately your school are using the stick rather than the carrot approach to make students work harder and not realising the additional pressure they are placing on students. Just tell DD to do her best, that is all she can do and see where her grades end up.