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Thread: A level grade "boundaries" leak

  1. #1

    A level grade "boundaries" leak

    What a farce. 55% gets you an A grade in Maths!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-49347539

  2. #2

    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    Quote Originally Posted by Gofer Blue View Post
    What a farce. 55% gets you an A grade in Maths!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-49347539
    A certain percentage of people get each grade. A isn't the highest anymore either. The exam was probably solid!

  3. #3

    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    Yes. I bet there were many unhappy people after the exam all thinking they'd blown their uni place.

  4. #4
    CardiffCitySince1927
    Guest

    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    As a person who took the test. It is solid. Don’t comment unless you have tried the paper. It is a lot harder than back in your day

  5. #5

    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    Quote Originally Posted by CardiffCitySince1927 View Post
    As a person who took the test. It is solid. Don’t comment unless you have tried the paper. It is a lot harder than back in your day
    Have you taken the papers that people sat back in our day?
    If so did you sit them without the use of a scientific calculator? Did you use log books?

    Good luck with your results

  6. #6

    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    Quote Originally Posted by CardiffCitySince1927 View Post
    As a person who took the test. It is solid. Don’t comment unless you have tried the paper. It is a lot harder than back in your day
    Whatever the degree of difficulty was "back in my day" (mid 1960's) all I know is that to get one A grade at A level was quite an achievement and to get three A's was almost unheard of! You would have been looking at a 90%+ mark in each subject. I am not denigrating the achievement of today's youngsters at all, as it is not their fault that the standards have been dumbed down over the years and finally the education authorities have realised that something had to be done. Unfortunately it may be that the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction and the exams are now so difficult that they have to reduce the pass mark to compensate! Hence my comment, what a farce.

  7. #7

    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    Quote Originally Posted by Gofer Blue View Post
    What a farce. 55% gets you an A grade in Maths!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-49347539
    "Exam boards set grade boundaries once all the results are in.

    They take into account the predicted achievement levels of the cohort taking the exam and the difficulty of the paper, in an attempt to keep standards the same from year to year."

    The English word cohort comes from the Latin word cohors, which meant "an enclosed area" or "a pen or courtyard enclosing a group of cattle or poultry."

  8. #8

    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    Quote Originally Posted by Gofer Blue View Post
    Whatever the degree of difficulty was "back in my day" (mid 1960's) all I know is that to get one A grade at A level was quite an achievement and to get three A's was almost unheard of! You would have been looking at a 90%+ mark in each subject. I am not denigrating the achievement of today's youngsters at all, as it is not their fault that the standards have been dumbed down over the years and finally the education authorities have realised that something had to be done. Unfortunately it may be that the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction and the exams are now so difficult that they have to reduce the pass mark to compensate! Hence my comment, what a farce.
    If anyone should be annoyed, it's me who got an average of over 95% in my Maths A level. I've now only got an A instead of the A* . I really don't care, also this "standards have been dumbed down" is rubbish, look at what young people are achieving now. If an exam board writes a paper that is outside of the curriculum (which has happened) it is deeply upfair to judge someone on it.

  9. #9

    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    Quote Originally Posted by Pedro de la Rosa View Post
    If anyone should be annoyed, it's me who got an average of over 95% in my Maths A level. I've now only got an A instead of the A* . I really don't care, also this "standards have been dumbed down" is rubbish, look at what young people are achieving now. If an exam board writes a paper that is outside of the curriculum (which has happened) it is deeply upfair to judge someone on it.


    If that is what has happened here, then I absolutely agree, that is just crazy. Is that how they make an exam harder? Once again, what a farce!

  10. #10

    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    Quote Originally Posted by Gofer Blue View Post
    What a farce. 55% gets you an A grade in Maths!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-49347539
    It’s always been like that and I’m university too. Everything is graded on a curve, if an exam is easy you could get 85% and still get a C.

    It just depends how many people score in a certain range.

  11. #11

    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    Quote Originally Posted by rudy gestede View Post
    It’s always been like that and I’m university too. Everything is graded on a curve, if an exam is easy you could get 85% and still get a C.

    It just depends how many people score in a certain range.
    When subjected to a bell curve, it helps if the majority of your fellow students are bellends!

  12. #12

    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    Quote Originally Posted by Wales-Bales View Post
    When subjected to a bell curve, it helps if the majority of your fellow students are bellends!
    Very true, spent many an exam praying everyone did worse

    I remember being sure I’d got 100% on an exam once and got a B, which meant rather than being the genius I thought I was it was actually piss easy.

  13. #13

    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    Quote Originally Posted by rudy gestede View Post
    Very true, spent many an exam praying everyone did worse

    I remember being sure I’d got 100% on an exam once and got a B, which meant rather than being the genius I thought I was it was actually piss easy.
    How is that even possible? How do you get an A?!

  14. #14

    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    Quote Originally Posted by delmbox View Post
    How is that even possible? How do you get an A?!
    It would happen if 20 percent of the cohorts got a higher mark. If the exam was easy, you would need to be in the top 20 percent to get an A.

    For example, say you scored 98% and 20 percent of the class got 99% or more, then you would get a B!

  15. #15

    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    Quote Originally Posted by Wales-Bales View Post
    It would happen if 20 percent of the cohorts got a higher mark. If the exam was easy, you would need to be in the top 20 percent to get an A.

    For example, say you scored 98% and 20 percent of the class got 99% or more, then you would get a B!
    I see, I was more wondering how you could get 100% in an exam and get a B but I now realise he might have just thought he'd got 100%

  16. #16

    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    Quote Originally Posted by Wales-Bales View Post
    It would happen if 20 percent of the cohorts got a higher mark. If the exam was easy, you would need to be in the top 20 percent to get an A.

    For example, say you scored 98% and 20 percent of the class got 99% or more, then you would get a B!
    ^^^^ 20 percent is an arbitrary number, it's whatever the examiner decides the grading bands should be.

  17. #17

    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    Quote Originally Posted by delmbox View Post
    I see, I was more wondering how you could get 100% in an exam and get a B but I now realise he might have just thought he'd got 100%
    As you say, Rudy probably dropped the odd mark and as it was easy, his UMS mark dropped. I needed 90+ in some of my exams to get an A but again, that wasn't reported in the papers cos kIdS hAvE gOt It ToO gOoD tHeSe DaYs is a quick win to sell papers.

  18. #18

    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    Quote Originally Posted by Pedro de la Rosa View Post
    As you say, Rudy probably dropped the odd mark and as it was easy, his UMS mark dropped. I needed 90+ in some of my exams to get an A but again, that wasn't reported in the papers cos kIdS hAvE gOt It ToO gOoD tHeSe DaYs is a quick win to sell papers.
    snOWflaKE GeNEraTION theY diDN'T FIghT iN tHe WaR lIKe NoNE Of US DiD eITheR

  19. #19

    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    How times have changed. In my day even those who got 3 good A levels couldn't get a University place even though relatively few managed to get 3 A levels. There was a huge shortage of University places which enabled only around 2% of the school population to attend. By contrast you only needed 5 O' levels to secure a place at a Teachers Training College which would never happen today. Jobs for school leavers were plentiful.

    When you think back it's amazing that we used to get paid to go to University in the form of a grant but today kids have to mortgage their futures to get a degree and many find they can't find a job with career prospects afterwards. Basically there are too many people with degrees chasing too few decent jobs making it difficult for employers to sort the wheat from the chaff. It's much harder for kids today but I hope those who decide to go to University on the back of today's results study for a degree that is of use to them in helping to secure a job afterwards.

  20. #20

    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    When I was at school I remember my father telling me that exams had got easier since 'his day' i.e. the 1940's!

  21. #21

    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    Quote Originally Posted by delmbox View Post
    How is that even possible? How do you get an A?!
    Exaggerating with the 100% but I thought I’d done really well. Have also done shite and came out with a good mark, just lucky if you’re classmates are stupider!

  22. #22

    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    Quote Originally Posted by rudy gestede View Post
    Exaggerating with the 100% but I thought I’d done really well. Have also done shite and came out with a good mark, just lucky if you’re classmates are stupider!
    More stupid, not stupider 🧐

  23. #23
    International jon1959's Avatar
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    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    Stupid, stupider, stupidest! Innit?

  24. #24

    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    Quote Originally Posted by Gofer Blue View Post
    Whatever the degree of difficulty was "back in my day" (mid 1960's) all I know is that to get one A grade at A level was quite an achievement and to get three A's was almost unheard of! You would have been looking at a 90%+ mark in each subject. I am not denigrating the achievement of today's youngsters at all, as it is not their fault that the standards have been dumbed down over the years and finally the education authorities have realised that something had to be done. Unfortunately it may be that the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction and the exams are now so difficult that they have to reduce the pass mark to compensate! Hence my comment, what a farce.
    That's my recollection 3 A levels in the day was exceptional, now it's 8 or 10 , sorry it doesn't make sense in today's dumbed down society .

  25. #25

    Re: A level grade "boundaries" leak

    Quote Originally Posted by life on mars View Post
    That's my recollection 3 A levels in the day was exceptional, now it's 8 or 10 , sorry it doesn't make sense in today's dumbed down society .
    It's still 3 or 4 A levels. Why does everyone fall into this trap of the new generation is stupid and mine wasn't, do you not remember peple saying this when you were younger too? How have you not cottoned on that it's all nostalgic bollocks?

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