One in three GCSEs open to challenge

MORE than a million GCSE results could be open to challenge due to unreliable grading under the reformed system, research has found.

Students this week were the first cohort to receive their results in a host of the new, “tougher” subjects, which use numerical grades 1 to 9, with 9 as the highest, rather than A* to G.

However, an expert has claimed that, whereas previously one in four grades may have been unreliable, under the new system this has risen to almost one in three.

“There is a huge unfairness which is by and large unknown,” said Dennis Sherwood, who has developed a model to predict grade reliability.

Since there is uncertainty around each grade boundary – with variance of just one mark potentially resulting in a different grade – the chance of a candidate getting an unreliable grade rises when more boundaries are added, Mr Sherwood said.

The boundaries between grades that affect the vast majority of candidates have increased from four (A* to D) to six (nine to three) in 23 subjects, including English.

An Ofqual spokesman said narrow grade boundaries were “undesirable” but that “the assessment of new GCSEs has been designed to support 9 to 1 grading and avoid these issues”.

They said Mr Sherwood’s research is “entirely without merit” and has drawn “incorrect conclusions”.

They added: “It is wrong to extrapolate the rate of marking error identified through reviews of marking to all GCSE grades”