25th August 2017 1:00
By Blue Tutors
For the first time this year in England, the new and reputedly more rigorous maths and English curricula were assessed and the first set of ‘new’ GCSE exam results were announced this week. 1.53 million 16-year-olds took the reformed GCSEs in English language, literature and maths this year, however 2.92 million took unreformed GCSE subjects, meaning that most students were given results as a mixture of the old letter grades and the new numerical system.
Ofqual’s message was clear: “overall GCSE outcomes are stable”. The pass rate in the key subjects for employers – maths and English – are in line with previous years comparing a C or above to a 4 and above. This year’s results have been widely reported as a ‘dip’ in attainment as the pass rate fell by 0.6% points to 66.3% overall, driven predominantly by the more significant drop in pass rate for the new English and maths exams that fell by 2.2 and 0.7 % points respectively.
Other than a one or two percentage point shift in distributions of top mark attainment across different subjects, the most significant difference is the distribution of students taking higher and foundation level mathematics GCSE. In 2016, over three quarters (76%) of entrants aimed for the higher qualification covering the entire curriculum with the full range of marks up to A* up for grabs; this year, the split between higher and foundation was almost split evenly down the middle (higher down to 53%). This reflects the change in curriculum content’s volume and difficulty, leaving many more students more comfortable with tackling only the core material.
A passing mark of 4 was awarded for those gaining only 18% of the marks in the upper tier paper for mathematics, whereas 79% was required for the top mark of 9. This is in sharp contrast to previous years where students were routinely achieving above 90%, and the new assessment does appear to be differentiating and stretching those students at the top end as promised.