VERY HIGH grade boundaries!

Hello,

For GCSE French, my school follows this specification:

gcse applies business french-edexcel gcse 2701

For written coursework my teacher said that:

(out of 20)

19.5=A*
19=A
15-18=B

etc.

And for another piece of coursework (out of 24)

24 = A* (FULL MARKS!)
22-23=A
B=19-21

Is it just me, or are these VERY HIGH?

Reply 1

utare

they are, as clearly 80% is an A and 90% is an A*. so

it should be really about 18 for A* for the first coursework.

and about 21 for the second

Reply 2

Annaconda

it doesnt really matter, it is the mark that is put forward to your grade, it doesnt really matter what letter is assigned to it

lol gcses

they are high

utare

they are, as clearly 80% is an A and 90% is an A*. so

it should be really about 18 for A* for the first coursework.

and about 21 for the second

Yes, that is what I thought too, but my teacher said that

'I worked these out by myself from what grades people got last year' :confused:

Reply 6

TheWiseOwl

Shehz94

Yes, that is what I thought too, but my teacher said that

'I worked these out by myself from what grades people got last year' :confused:

Then they are having you on...just trying to push you to get as high a mark as possible, it's quite a common tactic used by teachers. :yep:

Reply 7

Sakujo

Shehz94

And for another piece of coursework (out of 24)

24 = A* (FULL MARKS!)
22-23=A
B=19-21

Is it just me, or are these VERY HIGH?

That sounds similar to when I took GCSEs, a few years ago.

Reply 8

Shehz94

TheWiseOwl

Then they are having you on...just trying to push you to get as high a mark as possible, it's quite a common tactic used by teachers. :yep:

Are you sure? She always looks serious when telling us that :frown:

Reply 9

miranda13

maybe it's because gcses are so easy if you make a little effort they don't want every single person getting an A* if you only need 90%?

Reply 10

bun

They may be high (they definately are) but it still is incredibly easy to get such high marks - you should be aiming for full marks on both pieces (as I got) and not just aiming for A* - itr will make your exams seem less painful/less pressure, if you've already got full marks going into it.

Reply 11

Shehz94

bun

They may be high (they definitely are) but it still is incredibly easy to get such high marks - you should be aiming for full marks on both pieces (as I got) and not just aiming for A* - itr will make your exams seem less painful/less pressure, if you've already got full marks going into it.

Well I try my best :frown:

, the lowest I ever got was 18/20=B :frown:

I will just work very hard for the exams :smile:

Reply 12

im so academic

Shehz94

Can I just say your teacher is talking crap just from one thing I've noticed - all three courseworks are weighted equally, 20 for each.

Looking through the Specification, Unit 2 Applied Written
Communication in French (or coursework) is marked like this:

Each piece of coursework is 20 marks.
10 for Communication
5 for Application of Language
5 for Accuracy

So, your teacher is wrong from the start.

Anyways, grade boundaries - I don't have access to Summer 2009, but the most recent one I can get is Summer 2008 - which should be of some help. :smile:

So, looking at the Summer 2008 grade boundaries for Applied French - it seems that you need (altogether) at least 51 out of 60 to get an A* in coursework. :yep:

In fact, that's the same for the normal French syllabus.

So, I have concluded that:

1. Your teacher is wrong of what coursework is marked out of.
2. The grade boundaries are not as high as you think.

In fact, for the 18/20 you got - that would be an A*, definitely not a B or even an A tbh. :yep:

French, Applied or the normal syllabus, is not that strict in grade boundaries (overall for an A* it's generally 80 or so %) compared with other subjects, e.g. Art and Drama where it can be as high as 97/98%.

So, actually, a third point I've concluded is that:

3. No way would it be Full Marks for an A* in a 24 Mark piece of coursework. :rolleyes:

So, in fact, I would show these two documents to your teacher to see what she makes of this - because this is from the exam board and you can't argue with that. :wink:

I see it's 2701 - well, that's the specification and that's the grade boundaries for 2008 your teacher can't argue about! :yep:

Tbh, your teacher has "marked" your coursework harshly, so I'd expected moderation to boost it up to an A* for that 18/20. :wink:

Btw, for your exams, here's the Bilingual Glossary from the exam board which might come useful.

So, don't fret about it. The figures you quoted are false and I think you're on track for an A*.

Good luck! :smile:

Reply 13

loveisjustasong

GCSE French isn't that hard...

Reply 14

bun

Shehz94

Well I try my best :frown:

, the lowest I ever got was 18/20=B :frown:

I will just work very hard for the exams :smile:

sorry - I probably sounded really pretentious saying '' get full marks'' and all that - I didn't mean it in that way, I was just trying to say, if you aim for the highest possible, you won't feel as much pressure to perform as well in the exams - which I found was a great help, - especially in the speaking test. As for you getting 18/20 - thats really good, and at very least a high A (more than likely its an A*), and dont worry, because I had a similar situation in English last year, for all my courseworks, my teacher gave me a B or a low A, and I ended up with nearly full marks in both lit and language at the end - thus showing my teacher was a very harsh marker (though his marking and teaching did help incredibly, as it made me work harder)