General Chat

The problem is that standards have been eroded time and time again over the past 50 years.

My eldest grandson is in year six doing sats in a week or so time. He it in the top quartile but his level is at least one year behind that we were at in the late 1950's.

English is what he finds the hardest, largely because the first three years at school he learnt very little.

I went on to do A Levels in the late '60's. An 'A' was rare and if in your main subject virtually guaranteed a place at top uni.

Rollo is absolutely right. Stop fiddling and accept that many are never going to be academic but still have a bright future as a properly trained artisan.

I was only given grade letters for O and A levels London board. Nobody has ever asked to see the certs which are a dull pink with results computer printed. Fiddling around with GCSE and A levels does nothing to fix the fundamental problem that educating those of an academic bent and those who prefer hands on all together is a bad idea for all. At least half the young people would do better to leave school at 14 and enrol in something like City and Guilds. Another big chunk would do better at 18 with a new version of the HND. As it is shaping GCSE and A level towards the debt treadmill of uni for all will be seen as even more foolish than brexit.

b4 you ask O level 5 a 4 b A level 3 a 1 s. The interesting parts were those that laid outside of the dreaded curriculum. Passing exams are sure fire evidence that the student has evolved / been taught a strategy for passing exams. They are no proof of any real expertise on anything else. The corollary of this is that those without a fistful of school certs applied themselves in another way and are dangerous non conformists.

Brer fox he lay low, he ain't sayin' nuttin.

I didn't stay on to take A levels, my English pass was enough to get into the Civil service with taking a basic exam so that is what I did.

I was the same Ann. I took them in 1957. We knew the pass mark was 47% but you could have got 48% or 99% and still just been graded ‘pass’. The pass mark for A-levels was 40% but you were given your actual percentage mark.

Lol when I took O levels in 1956 it was pass or fail and you never knew your marks, that is you never knew if you just passed or just failed. At school I got just 2 O levels, english and RI. I did pass more plus A levels later in evening classes. Just wasn't ready at school.

It will confuse people for quite a while I think. Especially the numbers being a reverse of what most people are used to.

If you were ‘academic’ you were expected to aim for A*-C.
D was quite good if you weren’t.

It’s going to take time for employers to get their heads around the new grading scheme; they’d only have experienced the ‘letters’.

I don't know how many O'levels I have.

One was a 'D' grade (History, the shame of it) and I don't know if it was a pass or fail.

It is pretty shameful, whatever it is!

I just looked.
Very confusing, and not at all logical.
Does some idiot think the more confusing, the better?
I can imagine some dawk with a smartphone and a 'suit' working this out whilst eating a Nando's, and thinking himself very smart indeed! :-S

My poor grand daughter is taking her GCSE's this year. :-|

Well don't the wheels turn around, or do they go backwards?

I took my "O' (Ordinary) levels in 1970. The grading then was 1 - 9, with 1 being the highest pass going down to grade 6. Grades 7-9 were fails. Although why there had to be 3 levels of fail I don't know - fail is fail. So in effect the complete opposite to the new grades.

The lower system was CSE's - a Grade 1 there equated to an "O" level pass

I will always think of 1 being higher than 9 as regards pass rates. First in class, number 1; first in sport, you're number 1 etc

I hated languages, forced to take French for 5 years and got a grade 9 - the question was would I like to resit! Answer - you've guessed it.
Had to do a second language in 2nd year - forced to do Latin - to help my French they said. A mark of 22% at the end of 3rd year allowed me to drop out of that class!

Passed the rest though.

What do people think of the new grading system for GCSEs? Will it make things easier having a wider range of possible grades or just more confusing for employers, Universities, Colleges and parents?

In Scotland almost 20 years ago when I sat my standard grades (Scottish GCSE equivalent) we were graded using numbers. Everyone sat a general level paper. We all then sat one other paper either credit or foundation depending on your abilities. 1 & 2 were credit grade passes, 3 & 4 were general level passes, 5 & 6 were foundation level passes and a 7 was a fail. Though a 3 was the lowest pass you were aiming for.