Angry Gcse Result Parents .....

[Smowball]

I don't know about all of you but we have a local FB Page for our town and you can ask anything relevant to the area. Well you can imagine after yesterday's GCSE results have sunk in there have been bragging parents, which I understand to a degree. But today there is a really really irate woman . Her son got a D in maths last year and he re sat it this year. Yesterday he got a - F. She's gone mental, going to report examination board blah lab. Bless him, maybe he is just no good at maths. But all his friends can see this , all his neighbours ........ Feel sorry for him.

[Buenchico]

Perhaps she needs to know a bit about the history of the exam system?

GCE O-levels were originally targeted at just the top 20% of the population academically, with CSEs for the next 40% below and with the remaining 40% being considered 'below examination standard'.

Over the years the two systems combined (as GCSEs) and the grade systems were merged, with the current A* to C grades representing an old O-level pass standard. So, based upon the original criteria, only 20% of young people should be achieving those grades. In fact around 67% of young people actually do. (The courses are still just as demanding but teaching standards have risen and, more importantly, the grade boundaries have fallen). Even so, around one third of all candidates should still be expected to fall below a C grade in their maths result.

Of course there could be a problem with trying to explain these figures to the women you're referring to. I'd be prepared to bet that, just like her son, she doesn't understand percentages ;-)

[andy-hughes]

I should imagine this happens every year.

There are plenty of parents who would rather vent their anger at anyone, rather than supporting their child, who really doesn't need an irate person around right now.

[Jackdaw33]

Nice one Chico. Also are results today normative based or criterion based?

[Cloverjo]

So much pressure is put on kids to perform amazingly well, some parents push too hard in the wrong direction. It's a shame.

I did O levels and got a D twice in Biology even though I was quite good at science in general. I don't think my parents even noticed.

It's so different now.

[Prudie]

The only thing I'd take issue within BC's post is 'teaching standards have risen'. i don't know how you'd measure that but it's for sure not using the massive number of high grade passes we get these days. It's not a comment I agree with.

[Jackdaw33]

A D then was a pass. Funnily enough, when I did my O Levels in the early 60s my board did not give grades. My certificates just record Pass for each subject (others may have had fail). Seemingly they did award grades 1 - 6, corresponding to A - C but these were only given to teachers and I had to beg to find out what my actual marks were.

[Cloverjo]

I agree, Prudie. In my year at school there was a girl who was brilliant in arts and sciences, PE and music. She got a mixture of As and Bs with a maybe a C. Nowadays, she would have got a string of A*s.

[anneasquith]

It's such a pity that some people feel the need to share their personal lives on social media I feel sorry for the child.

[Jackdaw33]

This reminds me. Can anyone who was in the sixth form in Northern England in the mid 60s remember the Use of English exam? You sat it two terms before A Levels and if you didn't pass then the Universities in the group would not accept you, no matter how good your A Level results were.

[Buenchico]

A good question, JD33.

When I was a member of the Maths panel for a local CSE board we religiously determined the grade boundaries based on the rule that a median student for the year group as a whole (rather than for the actual number of CSE exam entrants) should be awarded a grade 4 (on an 1 to 6 pass scale). It wouldn't matter if every single candidate scored well over 90% that year; an 'average' candidate for the year group MUST only be awarded a grade 4, with only a small percentage (based upon a normal distribution curve) being awarded a (O-level equivalent) grade 1.

So, by definition, the CSE pass rate in Maths each year was always very similar to the one for the previous year. It could never be anything else!

However, at the same time, our colleagues on the English panel adopted the opposite approach, whereby they tried to define a certain standard of achievement applicable to each grade, irrespective of assumptions based upon normal distribution curves. So, surprise, surprise, CSE English results got better every year!

The GCSE panels seem to have adopted a criterion-based approach but with (in the early stages) the actual criteria being re-considered (i.e. lowered!) year upon year. In my own school days (irrespective of whether it was GCE, CSE or just an internal school examination) the assumption was that to achieve a 'top' grade in an exam you needed to score at least 90% (and, in many cases, as much as 95%), with anything much below 60% often being a 'fail' mark. These days it seems that in many exams (not just in schools), 70% will achieve a 'top' grade, with scores as low as 30% still being regarded as a 'pass'. In particular, that applies to quite a few university courses in Medicine, meaning that the 'fully-qualified' doctor who treats you might well have never score much over 30% in any of his exams!!!

[Buenchico]

^^^ My post refers to JD33's question at 2157.

[Jackdaw33]

70% has been regarded as first class at universities for years. 80% is reserved for the professor, 90% reserved for the professor's professor, and 100% reserved for God.

[Jackdaw33]

Yes DB. I have only 4 O levels but sat them a year early, as some did, so that we could bypass the fifth form and go straight into the lower sixth, the aim being that we had an extra year to prepare for Oxbridge. This was a direct grant grammar school, abolished in 1976.

[Cloverjo]

When I studied at the Open University finishing about 10 years ago, 85% was required for a first.

[Prudie]

That was my route too - and at my grammar year there was one outstanding brainbox from 1st year onwards, he was the only one to get all As at O-levels. Not half the entire year like nowadays.

[Jackdaw33]

Mine was not a state grammar school. O levels were unimportant for those destined for higher education. It was 3 A Levels and an attempt to get as many as possible into the top universities.

[Buenchico]

Divebuddy:
JD33's school wasn't just a 'grammar school' (which plebs like you and I attended). I was a 'posh' ('direct grant') grammar school, where most of the parents paid fees:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_grant_grammar_school

[Jackdaw33]

I couldn't have put it better myself, Chico, except my parents didn't have to pay any fees. That's because I was a precocious little git when I was 11. In fact the local council paid for all my bus fares.