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Gcse Results
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Over half a million kids will receive their GCSE results today and I wish them Good Luck.
But I bet some stuffed shirt will appear will pop up on the media and say that exams were much harder years ago !
But I bet some stuffed shirt will appear will pop up on the media and say that exams were much harder years ago !
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What annoyed me most about that was that, for as many years as they've been doing all this bleating, they always seem to sidestep the whole business of the old mechanism of how grades used to be dished out.
One year might have a tough exam with top marks in the 80s percent. Top 2% would get the A grade. Following year's exam might have top marks in the 90s, scooping the A's and the 80 percent band fall into B grade.
Therefore Grades used to communicate something useful to employers - who are the best of this year's school leavers. It becomes an unfair system when people remain unemployed long enough that they're competing with a later year's set of school leavers and they were in a year where the A grade kids were particularly brilliant.
Nowadays, they probably struggle to sift between the large numbers of applicants who all have A-star grades... can't be easy.
One year might have a tough exam with top marks in the 80s percent. Top 2% would get the A grade. Following year's exam might have top marks in the 90s, scooping the A's and the 80 percent band fall into B grade.
Therefore Grades used to communicate something useful to employers - who are the best of this year's school leavers. It becomes an unfair system when people remain unemployed long enough that they're competing with a later year's set of school leavers and they were in a year where the A grade kids were particularly brilliant.
Nowadays, they probably struggle to sift between the large numbers of applicants who all have A-star grades... can't be easy.
It's possible to criticise the exams without criticising the students. I worked hard to get my GCSE results, particularly the two English/ English Literature exams, and most students do work hard. But it's plain that over time the exams have got easier, not year-on-year but certainly now compared with 20, 30 years ago the Maths GCSE is easier. Of course it is. GCSE merged two separate qualifications, CSE and O-Level, that were at two different tiers of difficulty, and the result is something in between and probably closer to CSE with a few O-level bits thrown in.
If it's rude to kid to say that exams were much harder years ago, it's surely patronising to pretend that they weren't. Like my headteacher did at the time, as I recall. Like I said, I worked hard for my GCSEs, and so do most students. But I also knew that they weren't as rigorous as O-Levels were. This wasn't offensive, and it didn't devalue the achievements, as you can only tackle what's in front of you.
Good luck to all those who get their results today.
If it's rude to kid to say that exams were much harder years ago, it's surely patronising to pretend that they weren't. Like my headteacher did at the time, as I recall. Like I said, I worked hard for my GCSEs, and so do most students. But I also knew that they weren't as rigorous as O-Levels were. This wasn't offensive, and it didn't devalue the achievements, as you can only tackle what's in front of you.
Good luck to all those who get their results today.
