the point of exams

gcse results

now i accept that exams allow some comparison between pupils, but if the government are going to fiddle what is the point!

Happens all the time.

Our old English teacher (lit & lang) was an examiner and they'd be told how how much of an increase in results was expected.

Lo and behold, there would be an improvement in results…

IQ levels are adjusted over time.

The point of exams is they are easier to mark than loads of coursework.

But coursework is fundementally more flawed than exams. Who's parents/tutor/older sibling/search engine, is best scores highest.

It demonstrates your ability to learn as compared with others in your society.
The baseline to which you are graded will change as the knowledge base changes.

If you do shiat in an exam, you can expect to have a job that doesn't require a high degree of learning to function (MacD's etc).
If you get a degree first or similar, you can expect to quickly get frustrated in the same job…
;o)

but rather than fiddle the grades would it not make more sense to award a percentile score to each and every pupil? you couldn't compare between years but you would know who were the best in each year group?

So the braniak nerds can study lame boring rubish and normil peppel can lern usfull stuf for doing normil things

but rather than fiddle the grades would it not make more sense to award a percentile score to each and every pupil? you couldn't compare between years but you would know who were the best in each year group?

Or, we could simplify by assigning letters to ranges of percentile scores?

Well, every post-grad exam I do doesn't ahve a fixed pass mark, instead it's comparable to the others takling the exam (i.d the pass mark is 1.5SD from the mean, for example).

It's not clear if this is how these are marked, but if it were, you'd generally always have the same number passing well, the same number just passing, and the same number failing, regardless of the TOTAL score?

DrP

It should be done on a normal distribution with X% getting A, Y% getting B etc. BUT Government has demanded that everyone show added worth so by definition the passes and good passes % must increase year on year.

So the braniak nerds can study lame boring rubish and normil peppel can lern usfull stuf for doing normil things

Blimey Mark – what are you a student of? I hope it's irony.

Well, every post-grad exam I do doesn't ahve a fixed pass mark, instead it's comparable to the others takling the exam (i.d the pass mark is 1.5SD from the mean, for example).

That's worrying. I can understand the requirement to moderate marks upward or downward depending on mitigating factors (poor lecturer with consistently poor marks etc) but to scale based on the rest of the class – that's poor form. I'm glad they've not taken that route where I work, or the last place I was at. It's an utterly pointless way to go – group laziness leads to maintained pass rates 😯 How are standards meant to be maintained? The course creator knows what's required, knows the content and knows how it's covered. They should set the exam in a way that will test the students knowledge and provide an accurate representation of their ability.

Mark Datz – Member
So the braniak nerds can study lame boring rubish and normil peppel can lern usfull stuf for doing normil things

That's either comedy gold or a ringing endorsement of the need for education.

miketually, should have been clearer, i don't mean grading in that manner, more you divide the year group into segments and the top segment gets an A or whatever the bit beneath something else. But the segments are fixed not as a pass mark but rather as a reflection of the group.

miketually, should have been clearer, i don't mean grading in that manner, more you divide the year group into segments and the top segment gets an A or whatever the bit beneath something else. But the segments are fixed not as a pass mark but rather as a reflection of the group.

That's pretty much what happens now. The grade boundaries of individual exams are modified according to how well the students taking them do. If very few students get high marks, the grade boundaries move down. If they all do really well, they're moved up.