I think the GCSE English marking was fair. What's all the fuss about?

Parent's perspective here.

My son got a D, largely due to prolonged illness over the last academic year, and based on his marks would have gotten a D anyway. We always knew he was going to borderline and in the end he got onto a very similar level 3 course to the one he applied for, which includes some English to get him up to Uni standard as part of the course.

That said, he couldn't get either of the places he'd actually applied for due to his grade. Had he been one of the many thousands (hundreds of thousands from what I've read) whose mark would have gotten them a C if they'd taken the exam in January, I'd be royally pissed.

If you're expecting a C, your teachers are expecting a C and all your 6th form/FE plans have been based on you getting a C and then you don't get one because they change the boundaries 2 weeks before the exam, I think you have a right to be upset. Getting a C might be easy for some people but I assure it isn't for others and getting your plans/dreams shattered due to the vagaries of some political motivated decision really isn't nice.

Why does it matter when they changed the boundaries? Boundaries change from paper to paper as no paper is going to be equally challenging.

And no, it wouldn't be nice if it was simply done on "the vagaries of some political motivated decision" but the independent exam board regulator said it wasn't, the government said it wasn't and no-one has produced a single scrap of evidence to say otherwise. I know there is an obsession in this country to claim everything anyone in authority ever says is a lie, but unless you can prove otherwise, I'm not personally going to jump on the bandwagon and claim it's a political decision.

How can an English Language Exam be "easier?" I know someone who had an E overall, however, had he sat the exam in January would have had a C with his raw marks...

I got an A overall this year (year ten) however I thought it was unfair marking, not unfair grade boundaries...

Unit 1: 23/40
Unit 2: 25/40
Unit 3: 60/60
Unit 4: 56/60

Thats a huge gap between units which is why I was surprised... Either way, I think it was harsh marking and not the grade boundaries for A/A* but for the D/C the jumps were huge...

I got rainbow rades ranging from A to U in my A-Level module results this year. What makes you think this is abnormal?

Because I wrote to the same standard as my mocks, and in my mocks I got A/A*...

Posted from the Bottom of the Big Blue Sea...

I got B/A in my mocks and got CDE in my A-Level grades overall.
You have much to learn.

What constitutes a political decision though? Getting votes (this surely didn't as so many people are upset), bending to the will of the lobby (maybe, but the lobby can't be as persuasive and important as say the tobacco lobby)?

The aim of this change was to stop grade inflation - is that a political decision or not? It is a sensible one at any rate.

What lobby? There is no "make exam grades lower" lobby.

Who explicitly said that was the aim of the change of boundaries? Other than in a general sense (when a paper is easy it changes to make it fairer when you compare - which is also a kind of protection against grade inflation), I've never heard anyone actually in charge say it was. Unless I'm mistaken, it's just people speculating.

its unfair becuase poeple who were going to get c's to do their apprenticeships or a levels can't now because they raised the marks needed to get a C, and they only raised it because people started saying it is too easy to get a C, And i agree it is too easy but you can't raise the marks needed halfway through the course because that is not fair.

A bit late, but I think it's the fact that the boundaries were rocketed, rather than gradually increasing year by year. I think Gove's plan of English Bacc. is also going to have the same effect - the grades of the 2017 candidates will be disastrous.

So annoyed about this. I got a B but under the old marks I would have had an A, now I have to resit. And actually the paper wasn't any easier, only the boundaries changed.


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C'est la vie. I've just finished my A2 exams and I must have spent the majority of my time studying for philosophy. I ended up getting really good grades in my other subjects (english, classics), and a B in philosophy. Unfortunately effort doesn't always equal results, you just have to take it on the chin and move on - it really is a very sad fact about exams.