Students across England receive A-level results

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

GCSE results are due this week, one week after A-Level students received theirs. Students can go to school and collect them from 8am on Thursday, August 24, ending a summer of anxiety for many. They became the first cohort to take moderated exams since 2019, and some Covid rules will guide their grades this year.

How are GCSE results being decided this year?

UK education arrangements saw a return to the status quo in 2022 when educators reintroduced exams for the first time since 2019.

After a standardisation algorithm caused an exam controversy in 2020 and teachers assessed grades in 2021, GCSE and A-Levels now depend on individual assessors again.

But students still receive some leniency this year, with some Covid rules remaining to help them readjust.

Exams regulator Ofqual has decided to be more generous with awarding grades, but less so than in previous years.

Officials have lowered boundaries, allowing students to receive higher grades for fewer marks.

Dr Jo Saxton, Ofqual’s chief regulator, told the BBC the new boundaries would serve as a mid-point between pre and peak-Covid arrangements.

She said: “As we return to summer exams, in 2022 exam boards will set the grade boundaries based on a profile that reflects a mid-point between 2021 and pre-pandemic grading.”

“This will provide a safety net for students, to reflect the disruption this cohort have experienced already in their course and recognising the fact that, because of the pandemic, most A-level students won’t have taken public exams before.”

Ultimately, Dr Saxton said the regulators aim was to “return to a pre-pandemic grade profile”.

She added: “But we don’t think it would be fair on 2022’s students to do it all in one go, given the disruption they have experienced.

“We will aim, therefore, to return in broadly two steps.”

Students will receive additional help via a reduced curriculum and more detailed pre-exam briefings.

The rules mean that, while attainment rises, grade inflation from previous years should fall.

Cancelled exams meant that students received higher grades between 2019 and 2021.

The proportion of top grades, between 7 to 9 – the equivalent of a high B to A* – rose to 28.9 percent.

The figure marked an 8.1 percent rise from 2019 when 20.8 percent of students achieved the same.

For economics, performing arts and engineering, the proportion increased by 20 percent during the same period.

A-Level students saw a similar boost, as 45 percent received A* and A grades.

They will fall slightly this year but remain above the average GCSE students received before Covid.

Source: Read Full Article