28th August 2019 9:00
By Blue Tutors
The pass rate for GCSEs has grown by a small amount this summer following the introduction of more difficult exams. Reported on the BBC, the number of GCSE passes was 67.3% up by 0.4%. In addition the number of GCSEs awarded a 7/A or above grew by 0.3% to 20.8%. Many people have questioned how it’s possible to make GCSEs harder, and yet passes and the top grades can still increase, but Ofqual have explained that this is in an effort to maintain standards over time in what they call “comparable outcomes”.
The increased difficulty of GCSEs has allowed examiners to differentiate students at the highest levels. For example in physics students needed 77% to achieve a 9 (the highest grade) and for French the figure was 80%. Chemistry was 80%.
These harder exams made the percentage for a pass, a 4, significantly lower in many subjects. For an Edexcel maths paper and chemistry this was 22%, physics 26.5% and French 30%. Teachers have warned that this is demoralising for many students because the exams are so frustrating; getting 1 out of 5 questions correct, and still passing doesn’t feel as good as it should.
One notable positive was that the gap between boys and girls in the sciences has decreased. Girls have narrowed the gap in GCSE chemistry and GCSE physics, and boys have done likewise for GCSE biology.