GSCE Results today

[SizeZero]

98.7% pass rate. What's the point in that then?

Shhhh, you'll hurt the self esteem of all those children who passed with D and E grades


Here in the Netherlands, you're told at age 12

* You are too thick to go ever go to higher education, so learn to fix cars/cut hair/wipe old peoples bums, or
* You're middle of the road and could get a polytechnic level degree; keep studying English and you can work in an office, or
* You're smart enough to go to a real University and do your Masters one day - that is your path.

On balance, I think the mobility for a GCSE student in the UK is still better; should they later realise they just wasted time in school but really DO have the intelligence to get a degree. But I so agree that exams have been devalued by political tinkering with what constitutes a pass grade (can't diplomatically say that this year though, having a niece who just got her results)

[Ruprect]

How long before another higher grade is needed, which I suspect will be called A**. One day not in the far future, an A* will be for thickos, so those getting them today shouldn't jump too high. We could get rid of B's at some point before then, but keep the F for 'failed to turn up'.

I was thinking today that the daily mash might come out with something along the lines of "new letter to be invented for GCSE students" or some such....

[Ruprect]

It would be quite interesting to see a comparison between this year's papers and those 20 years ago...*






















* but my google has stopped working and I'm going to bed

[TimberWolf]

A five-year-old girl is believed to have become the youngest child in Britain to score a GCSE after gaining a C in maths.

GCSE results: one-in-10 sitting exams early - Telegraph

He said year-on-year “grade inflation” was a “cancer at the heart of our education system

WHS

[VectraMan]

It would be quite interesting to see a comparison between this year's papers and those 20 years ago...*

I'd like to get hold of a GCSE paper in a subject I've never studied and see if I can still manage to acheive a "pass". It must be possible in some of the more vague subjects to get that far on common sense alone.

[TimberWolf]

GCSE results: top comprehensive plans to offer degree courses - Telegraph

Henrietta Barnett School, a grammar school in London, was rated the top state school overall with 100 per cent of candidates achieving five top GCSEs including 92.4 per cent at A* or A.

Surely shome mishtake?

All pupils at Thomas Telford are encouraged to take some GCSEs up to two years early

This year one student at the school, which caters for all abilities, achieved 14 A* grades while another got 13 A*s.

...Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, favouring universities cutting the length of standard degree course from three years to two to cut the deficit.

No sign of grade inflation or standards being lowered then. Nothing to see here, please move along and collect your degrees/GCSEs on the way out.

[shaunbhoy]

No sign of grade inflation or standards being lowered then. Nothing to see here, please move along and collect your degrees/GCSEs on the way out.

Very soon now, our Unis will be chock full of kids that all attained A* passes in everything they sat. There will only be a couple of things that they do not know..........

1) Who the fook is going to lend me the dosh to do the Course I want to do?

2) Who the fook is going to employ me even if I pass the Course I want to do?

[d000hg]

Very soon now, our Unis will be chock full of kids that all attained A* passes in everything they sat.

That's not actually true. Look at the graph again:
In 20 years, the % getting A/A* has gone from 10% to 20% in a fairly linear way. Even if we accelerate it to 10% up a decade it's going to be nearly a century.

[shaunbhoy]

That's not actually true. Look at the graph again:
In 20 years, the % getting A/A* has gone from 10% to 20% in a fairly linear way. Even if we accelerate it to 10% up a decade it's going to be nearly a century.

Pah! A century is nothing in the great scheme of things!

[sasguru]

Pah! A century is nothing in the great scheme of things!

Should a dumbkopf like you really be commenting on the state of the education system?
Perhaps if you had grown up nowadays instead of an age where O-and-A levels of rigour were de rigeur, perhaps you might have attained a couple fo grade E passes.