I honestly would not guess grade boundaries.

Why? Take the new AS/A-level Maths grade boundaries.

Some of the ones made before were bizzare and almost 90% of the predictions made on TSR were wrong and simply stressed out students.

Reply 3

Emmapie01xoxo

Some maybe leaked like the a level ones

Reply 4

mattlcfc

Original post by New Wonder

Well, I guess I know where the exam board is coming from - say the boundaries are high, people will just stress out even more. But on the other hand, since this year everything has been changing I wish I could just get a look at the grade boundaries, because honestly I have no idea what to expect. I mean the only grade boundaries we can sort of be sure of is Maths and English Lit and Lang - their boundaries may not move too much, max 4-5 marks but even that would be perhaps too high so reasonably 2-3 marks movement in boundaries.

Do you reckon they’ll move up by about 4? Eg if it was 72 last year it’ll be 76 this year

Reply 5

New Wonder

Original post by mattlcfc

Do you reckon they’ll move up by about 4? Eg if it was 72 last year it’ll be 76 this year

In all honesty - it completely depends on how the difficulty of the exam has changed from one year to the next, but generally the grade boundaries do not tend to move by a massive amount such as by 8-12 marks because that shows that the exam boards aren't being consistent in terms on the difficulty of the questions they set and many schools will not choose to follow their specs which means ... no money. They can also get in trouble with Ofqual if boundaries are consistently shifting far too much. I actually tried to see how the grade boundaries in Maths and English Lang GCSE changed between 2010 to 2016 for AQA only (though I'd expect this would apply to other exam boards) and the grade boundaries changed at most by 3 marks ONCE in Maths but for most years they either remained the same or they changed by 1 mark. In English Language especially the grade boundaries did not changed at ALL - I think they only changed once by something like 2 marks but for most years they were the exact same.

Now I can't say will definitely be the same for this year in Maths and English but that's what the TREND seemed to be. Most people in TSR feel that Maths GCSE was generally easier this year compared to last year (2017) but some others are saying it was hard. I personally found Paper 1 in Maths easy and Paper 3 OK while Paper 2 was horrendous but there are others who thought that Paper 1 was the worst and Paper 2 the best (I do /did Edxcel Maths GCSE by the way) so just because people in TSR found it easier or harder that doesn't and shouldn't be used as a representative of the comparison in difficulty between a GCSE in 2017 and in 2018.

As for English - people seem to generally agree that the difficulty of the paper was ABOUT the same as last year so I expect the grade boundaries will not move at all and even if they do I expect it would max move by 2 marks - although here I am only talking about the top grades. The grade boundaries for grades 3, 4, 5 and 6 generally tend to move more - sometimes even by 8 marks but usually by 3-5 marks. Whereas boundaries for grades 7, 8 and 9 move at a minimal rate.

But hey, I could be all wrong - I am only telling you what I have observed and inferred!

Reply 6

mrmanic05074

Do u guys know what the percent will be for a 6 in french ??? Do u think it could be like 56 percent???

Reply 7

New Wonder

Original post by mrmanic05074

Do u guys know what the percent will be for a 6 in french ??? Do u think it could be like 56 percent???

I didn't do French myself, but from what I heard it seemed like French exams and modern languages in general seem to be much harder and some exams were very difficult. If that is the case, then 56% for 6 seems like a reasonable prediction but I can't say for sure. Sorry

Reply 8

mrmanic05074

Original post by New Wonder

Thanks do u have any other predictions for other grade boundaries for other subjects like science and history???

Reply 9

/JR/

tbh i've been thinking for aqa higher triple
160/200 for a 9 in bio is pretty reasonable- however with all the new super specific mark schemes and the lack of teachers to mark+ the new linear a levels having the bio grade boundaries to be 63% for an A*- foreshadows that maybe with the new gcses the gb for a 9 will be like 70% or so

Reply 10

mrmanic05074

Yeah what do u think the physics and chemistry grade boundaries will be for a 7 and an 8???

Reply 11

New Wonder

Original post by mrmanic05074

Thanks do u have any other predictions for other grade boundaries for other subjects like science and history???

Umm... whenever you are trying to "predict" grade boundaries you must look at the nature of the subject and History and sciences are almost opposite in terms on what they require; history is a very subjective, essay-styled and required you have a good memory rather then be able to some massive analysis - if you can recall specific dates and describe things in details and your essay flows then you are all good, although some analysis and evaluation is of course required. I personally did OCR and the format of the paper never changes and the number of questions and the marks for each question never changes too - so its a rather like the English Language format. However some other teachers still have no idea about how best to approach the questions so unfortunately it may depend on which examiner you get due to the heavily subjective nature of the subject. So my predictions for history are:

87/88% - 9
82% - 8
75% - 7
67% - 6
57% - 5
48% - 4
42% - 3

For Science - well, Biology, Chemistry and Physics are very strict in both marking and the questions they set. I thought Biology was particularly difficult this year - they slightly mixed genetics (which is Paper 2 content) into Paper 1 and in both Paper 1 and 2 there was one 6 marker which was a practical question but it wasn't a required practical - so you would not have done it before. In Paper 1 there was that experimental question for measuring heart rate between smokers and non-smokers and in Paper 2 there was an experimental question for some sort of plants (dandelions I think) and you needed to apply your knowledge of transects to it and use transects and a device which measures light intensity to find out put how light intensify affects distribution across the field. I am just pointing this out so you understand the increase in difficulty in sciences, especially in Biology and the mark scheme is very strict so if your wording was off that is going to bring your mark down and considering many people were under pressure since many teachers were unfamiliar with the specification so they were unprepared on terms of both the question styles and the difficulty of the questions, many of the student's wording specificity was rather low so it is going to be interesting to see how that plays out.. But you need to keep in mind that this year there are rumours that exams are going to be marked leniently so that could change things but not by much. Also students this year were under a lot more pressure because almost ALL of their subjects have been reformed so this might affect their performance as they usually prioritise 2-3 subjects. I am telling you this so you understand where I am coming from. Anyways enough chit, chat and here are my predictions:

Physics (AQA):
74% - 9
63% - 8
54% - 7
40% - 6
32% - 5
23% - 4
18% - 3

Chemistry (AQA):
82% - 9
75% - 8
67% - 7
57% - 6
40% - 5
34% - 4
25% - 3

Biology (AQA):
76% - 9
68% - 8
50% - 7
41% - 6
32% - 5
23% - 4
16% - 3

Again these are JUST prediction and even I myself am cautious of following them but its not that I have come up with them out of the blue - I have done my research because stress has caused me to do so. *Sad*

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 12

New Wonder

Original post by mrmanic05074

Yeah what do u think the physics and chemistry grade boundaries will be for a 7 and an 8???

Physics (AQA):
74% - 9
63% - 8
54% - 7
40% - 6
32% - 5
23% - 4
18% - 3

Chemistry (AQA):
82% - 9
75% - 8
67% - 7
57% - 6
40% - 5
34% - 4
25% - 3

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 13

New Wonder

Original post by /JR/

70%? I personally think that is too low but for Physics and Biology I can see the grade boundaries for a 9 being in the mid 70s spectrum, but hey, everything has changed and we are all in a limbo so you could well be right!

Reply 14

mattlcfc

Original post by New Wonder

Physics (AQA):
74% - 9
66% - 8
58% - 7
51% - 6
43% - 5
33% - 4
24% - 3

Chemistry (AQA):
82% - 9
75% - 8
67% - 7
60% - 6
54% - 5
46% - 4
40% - 3

Wow way too high for A 5

Reply 15

New Wonder

Original post by mattlcfc

Wow way too high for A 5

Sorry, my bad! I have updated the boundaries - ignore my previous list

Physics (AQA):
74% - 9
63% - 8
54% - 7
40% - 6
32% - 5
23% - 4
18% - 3

Chemistry (AQA):
82% - 9
75% - 8
67% - 7
57% - 6
40% - 5
34% - 4
25% - 3

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 16

mattlcfc

Original post by New Wonder

These don’t look to bad, what are you basing these on? Would have similar thoughts but I reckon chemistry is a bit high

Reply 17

New Wonder

Original post by mattlcfc

These don’t look to bad, what are you basing these on? Would have similar thoughts but I reckon chemistry is a bit high

Well, I based them primarily on difficulty and then I looked at Maths grade boundaries online last year and I simply decreased them by a few percentage points for Physics. As for Chemistry - well, the general attitude is that Chemistry was the easiest science (I can only tell you this for AQA) and in all honesty the exam was not very difficult and you couldn't really go wrong with the wording either like you can in Biology so for Chemistry (AQA) I think the boundaries will be high since, remember this is for the Separate Sciences and most people who take all three sciences are generally average or better then the average student - so you need to take that into consideration.

Good Luck.

Reply 18

Rahmana04

Do people think 140/240 is enough for a 7 in Edexcel maths?

Reply 19

New Wonder

Original post by Rahmana04

Do people think 140/240 is enough for a 7 in Edexcel maths?

Yes, absolutely! The grade boundaries amongst the top grades (so 7/8/9) to not tend to move as much as the grade boundaries for the middle grades (so 4/5/6). I recon the move in the boundaries for 7/8/9 would be nby 3 marks maximum but realistically they may not move at all.

Do you think Maths THIS year was easier, harder or about the same as last year in terms of difficulty?