why do oxford consider grade 8 and 9 as equal

Early days of new grading system and they don’t want to disadvantage people as well as the fact there is no evidence as of yet that someone with 10 9s will be better at uni than someone with 10 8s etc

:/ its rather annoying tho isn't it. Imagine someone working hard to get the top grade in all their subjects but slip up in one or two subjects, but then ends up at a disadvantage over someone with straight 8s. Woulsnt it be just easier to aim for an 8 in everthing? seeing as it's considered the same as a 9.

That might sound logical, but putting so much weight into GCSEs isn't exactly logical to begin with though right? Its all based on evidence that its those with good GCSEs that do well. And there isn't enough time to establish that people with 9s do better than 8s yet.

I have to say though that if I were in charge i might consider making a change anyway, especially in science GCSEs.

yea true, I understand your point, but there should be at-least a slight difference between a grade 8 and 9 so students who do get a 9 from hard work are kinda rewarded in a way by getting a slight advantage. Idk if that sounds unfair but thetas how I think it should be, otherwise, what was the point of introducing the new grading system?

They used to do just proportion of A*s, so someone with 7A* would score higher than someone with 13A* 1A.

So far the only applications cycle there has been with the new system was for those doing their GCSEs in 2017, where only english and maths had the numbered grades. So I guess this year they'll find out if they do actually need to distinguish between 8s and 9s in future cycles.