The regulator OFQUAL has determined what the policy should be in England. Examiners have said they will follow the same direction for their international A level and IGCSE exams. The 'consideration' is that standards for grading and therefore the pattern of grades awarded should return to pre-pandemic outcomes. This says nothing about grade boundaries/thresholds that will be decided after an analysis of the results and will depend on how difficult papers were. Grade boundaries will be set so that the proportions of students who achieve each grade will be similar to those seen in 2019 and before rather than the inflated proportions of high grades awarded during the pandemic affected years, Grade boundaries could be similar to 2019 but they could just as easily be higher or lower and will vary from subject to subject and from examiner to examiner.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 4

flowersinmyhair

Clearing and Applications Advisor, Study Forum Helper

Original post by lilboim007

Yes grades threshold for 2023 is there any consideration like last time ( 2022) generous than 2019 and less generous than 2021

there is no way to really predict exactly what the grade boundaries will be as it is dependent on how people perform in the exams

Reply 5

Maybar

Original post by flowersinmyhair

there is no way to really predict exactly what the grade boundaries will be as it is dependent on how people perform in the exams

Yep, that's correct. I know that the top 20% of scores get level 9 and this is how the boundaries are formed :smile:

Reply 6

gdunne42

Original post by Maybar

Yep, that's correct. I know that the top 20% of scores get level 9 and this is how the boundaries are formed :smile:

A quick look at published grade statistics for past exams will show you that the % of grade 9 at GCSE varies from subject to subject and that "the top 20% of scores get level 9" isn't true.

e.g. https://www.aqa.org.uk/exams-administration/results-days/results-statistics/results-statistics-archive

Reply 7

Maybar

Original post by gdunne42

Ah I see. That was what I was told by my school but maybe that's not the case :smile:

Reply 8

gdunne42

Original post by Maybar

Ah I see. That was what I was told by my school but maybe that's not the case :smile:

It may be true that the top 20% of students at your school typically tend to get grade 9s, especially if you are at a high performing school, but it isn't accurate for candidates in general.