‘A’ grades for pupils who get barely half marks in A-levels ...AND TOP DEGREE COURSES STILL HAVE PLACES
PUPILS sitting some of the new reformed A-levels only had to get as low as 58 per cent of the total marks to be awarded an A grade, leaked documents reveal.
Grade boundaries for top marks have been set low to compensate for poor performance caused by teachers not being familiar with the new, more challenging courses.
For example, in exam board Edexcel’s physics course, 39 per cent will earn candidates a C, 58 per cent will get them an A and 69 per cent will get them an A*.
The exam board’s maths course only requires students to achieve 42 per cent to earn a C, 61 per cent for an A or 76 per cent for an A*.
In the geography course 51 per cent will earn a candidate a C, 69 per cent will earn them an A and 77 per cent will earn an A*.
It means that in some of these courses, candidates only need to get around three quarters of the total marks to get an A* – which is supposed to be a true mark of excellence.
Another leak showed that the grade boundaries have also set low in many of the exams run by OCR. In one paper called biological diversity candidates only need 35 per cent to get a C or 51 per cent to get an A. In pure mathematics and statistics they only need 39 per cent for a C and 61 per cent for an A.
The grade boundaries were leaked online yesterday as it emerged that eight in ten degree courses still have places on offer in what is going to be the easiest year ever for those going through clearing.
Teaching leaders believe those missing out on their grades when the A-level results are published today might be let into their first choice university anyway if there are lots of spare places.
This summer, pupils sat a raft of new A-levels, acting as ‘guinea pigs’ for tougher qualifications.
Heads have warned that the changes could lead to volatility in the results, because of teachvantaged’ ers being unfamiliar with the new course materials.
Ofqual, the exams regulator, has said it will set the grade boundaries to take account of the fact that performance might be lower because of these problems.
The low grade boundaries in the reformed A-levels will mean a larger proportion of pupils get good grades. They have been set so that ‘no student is disad- by the new courses. The exam reforms, conceived by then education secretary Michael Gove, were started partly because universities had complained that students were arriving poorly prepared for the demands of degrees.
The grade boundaries for Edexcel’s exams were due to be published today, but pupils leaked them online yesterday.
The information had been shared with schools a day early, so it is thought teachers may have given them to pupils who then uploaded them to the internet. While the leak was not illegal, the exam board said it was ‘disappointed’ at the breach of trust.
Critics have warned that if the leniency continues for too long there will have been little point in making the exams harder.
A Daily Mail audit found that, as of last night, there were 27,576 courses listed as having vacancies for students from England – 84 per cent of the total of 32,763 available at universities in the UK. This includes more than 4,000 courses at elite Russell Group universities, including Bristol, Warwick and Exeter.
These figures, on the official Ucas admissions website, include combined bachelor’s and master’s degrees and are likely to change hour by hour as courses are added or taken off.
A drop in the population of 18year-olds has coincided with a numbers cap being scrapped, meaning there is an oversupply of places this year.
Ucas chief Clare Marchant said yesterday that because of the glut of courses it was ‘a fantastic time to be an 18-year-old and to want to go to university’.
Barnaby Lenon, chairman of the Independent Schools Council, said: ‘If you don’t get your grades it’s perfectly possible that the university will give you a place anyway through the Ucas tracking [facility].
‘If they don’t do this, and you’re a near-miss, the advice firmly is to ring up the university and see if there is any chance.
‘Sometimes when you ring the university, they can make a proposal of a similar course, like a joint honours course.’
‘Fantastic time to be an 18-year-old’