GCSE grades rise, but sharp fall in English

[Guest sibon]

Is it because we have more kids whose first language isn't English?

 

Did we have more kids last year who's first language wasn't Science?

[tinfoilhat]

Did we have more kids last year who's first language wasn't Science?

 

I'm not reading that, the words are too long.

[Guest sibon]

I'm not reading that, the words are too long.

 

A fine response.

[Mecky]

The only value of any qualification is how few people can pass it. An exam that anyone can pass has absolutely zero value. Kids need to learn to deal with failure and bounce back and succeed, an education system that mollycoddles them is of no use whatsoever when they are out there in the world of work with targets and expectations.

 

But they don't, they just throw the towel in, which is much easier to do, and end up with a low paid job if they're lucky and generally cost the state even more

[Doom]

The whole exam system has become a bit of a joke.

 

I wouldn't say kids are any brighter now than they were 20 years ago, but year on year we seem to be seeing an overall improvement in the pass rate, which in time makes the whole thing meaningless.

 

If I'm an employer and all the students applying for the job have Grade A, how am I supposed to sort out the wheat from the chaff?

 

It's all about politics. Governments and Schools can point to improving exam records to justify their education policy.

 

I've always thought the best way is to allow a certain percentage each year to pass at each grade, so for example it might be:

 

10% Grade A

20% Grade B

30% Grade C

40% Fail

 

All exam papers are marked and those marks are put into a computer and the computer decides where the cut off line is for each Grade.

 

That way an employer/university will know that somebody with a Grade A falls within the top 10% of those examined for any particular year.

 

Year on year the overall standard of pupils shouldn't really change that much, because you're dealing with a very large sample number.

 

It takes the politics out of the system and gives employers and universities a better chance of proper selection.

 

Regards

 

Doom

[Mecky]

The whole exam system has become a bit of a joke.

 

I wouldn't say kids are any brighter now than they were 20 years ago, but year on year we seem to be seeing an overall improvement in the pass rate, which in time makes the whole thing meaningless.

 

If I'm an employer and all the students applying for the job have Grade A, how am I supposed to sort out the wheat from the chaff?

 

It's all about politics. Governments and Schools can point to improving exam records to justify their education policy.

 

I've always thought the best way is to allow a certain percentage each year to pass at each grade, so for example it might be:

 

10% Grade A

20% Grade B

30% Grade C

40% Fail

 

All exam papers are marked and those marks are put into a computer and the computer decides where the cut off line is for each Grade.

 

That way an employer/university will know that somebody with a Grade A falls within the top 10% of those examined for any particular year.

 

Year on year the overall standard of pupils shouldn't really change that much, because you're dealing with a very large sample number.

 

It takes the politics out of the system and gives employers and universities a better chance of proper selection.

 

Regards

 

Doom

 

So what happens if 80% of pupils get a top grade for an exam? Are you going to fail the other 70% even though they get the same marks?

[Happ Hazzard]

Kids today don't seem to know English very well, even the so-call smart ones. How many GCSE students can conjugate a verb, for instance?

[Doom]

So what happens if 80% of pupils get a top grade for an exam? Are you going to fail the other 70% even though they get the same marks?

 

I think it's very unlikely that 80% of the pupils will get exactly the same mark.

 

If 80% of those being examined got 100%, then I'd be very worried about the difficulty of the questions or the leniency of the marking.

 

Regards

 

Doom

[Mecky]

I think it's very unlikely that 80% of the pupils will get exactly the same mark.

 

If 80% of those being examined got 100%, then I'd be very worried about the difficulty of the questions or the leniency of the marking.

 

Regards

 

Doom

 

That's not an answer though. The parameters don't really matter, they can be any level you want. Say the top 2% but 5% of pupils get top marks, which is not unreasonable, how do you decide which of the remaining 3% fail? On the whole, I think the area of marking can be very subjective, even more so when you start adding the variable of different markers

[Doom]

That's not an answer though. The parameters don't really matter, they can be any level you want. Say the top 2% but 5% of pupils get top marks, which is not unreasonable, how do you decide which of the remaining 3% fail? On the whole, I think the area of marking can be very subjective, even more so when you start adding the variable of different markers

 

I'm not quite sure what you're getting at.

 

If there are 100,000 pupils who take an exam and 10,000 have a mark of 79% or above, then that's the cut off point for a Grade A.

 

If the next 20,000 have a mark of between 65% and 78%, then 65% is the cut off for Grade B....and so on.

 

The pass mark will change year on year, but the % getting Grade A will always remain roughly the same. I say roughly, because in my example above it maybe 10,040 who get 79% or above, so in that case 10.04% get a Grade A.

 

There's probably not a lot you can do about the subjective nature of marking for some questions, that's always been the case and probably will always remain the case.

 

Regards

 

Doom