Virtually all school and college staff become aware of exams in May and June, even if only because certain areas are barricaded off with signs requesting silence and consideration. The temptation may be, when those signs disappear, to ask your …
I am sure many of you reading this blog will already be focussed on next summer’s GCSE and A level exam series, and first awarding of more new qualifications. Below are a few points of potential interest related to some …
Much has been written about the ‘low’ grade boundaries in GCSE maths and how they are lower than previous years. This has been interpreted as Ofqual lowering the boundaries in the first year of a new qualification. Unfortunately, it’s really not that simple. The new maths GCSEs were designed to be different from the old A* to G GCSEs, so you really can’t compare new and old. Here’s why.
The new GCSE grade scale has been the subject of much debate in recent months. Why did we change it? That’s the question we’re being asked a lot this summer, as we await the first of the new grades. To …
This month we’ll see the first awards of the new GCSEs and A levels in England. Pupils are looking forward to receiving their results after two years of study. Our own preparation can be traced back several more years. Since …
We're seeking external subject experts, to complement our expertise in assessment and regulation, who can help shape new qualifications by evaluating assessments and scrutinising qualifications. Working as a subject expert Ofqual experts are independent contractors who are paid for the …
Today we published a report showing the provisional entries for GCSE, AS and A levels in England this summer. We collected this data in April, so it’s not complete, but it does give a good guide to the sorts of …
As in previous years, we expect to see students letting off steam on social media...Some of these will be reported in the media, but that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a problem...
We have said that exam boards will rely more heavily on predictions this year for the new qualifications. But how are the predictions generated? And what do we mean by prediction matrices?
Grade 9 is not the same as A*; it’s a new grade, designed to recognise the very highest performing students. So there will be fewer grade 9s than there are currently A*s. And in the first year grade 9 will be calculated arithmetically.
There are many elements to get right with new apprenticeships, including defining clearly what an apprentice should be learning and designing appropriate assessments to test the knowledge, skills and behaviours apprentices are expected develop. With many organisations involved it is important that we work together.
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