Reformed A-level exams results are due out today
More than half a million students in Wales, England and Northern Ireland are receiving A-level results today.
And many new A- and AS-level and GCSEs designed specifically for Wales are being awarded for the first time this year.
So how can students, who were the first to take the new exams, know they are equal to previous qualifications and that grades they get are fair compared to previous years’?
Qualifications Wales, the independent qualifications regulator, says it is confident standards have been maintained and grade boundaries are fair.
“Students, teachers and parents can be confident that their results are an accurate reflection of their achievements,” the regulator promises.
According to UK qualifications regulators – who say they have used comparable outcomes to help make it fair for students and maintain standards while exams change – say exams weren’t harder this year.
“The purpose is to protect students so that they are not unfairly disadvantaged by being the first to sit new qualifications,” says Qualifications Wales.
It says it works on the idea that if, overall, the students sitting a qualification this year are of roughly the same ability as those who sat it last year, then they should expect results at a national level to be similar as well.
There have been major changes to A-levels in England, with a move away from coursework and modular exams throughout the course, but UK qualifications regulators jointly say they have used comparable outcomes to help make it fair for students and maintain standards while exams change.
New Wales-only specifications were examined for the first time in six GCSE and 14 A-level subjects last year. A further 15 new GCSEs and 10 A-levels first taught in 2016 were examined this summer and students will be picking up results today and next Thursday.
Students in Wales took the first reformed qualifications in 10 A-level subjects this summer: drama, French, geography, German, mathematics, music, PE, religious studies, Spanish and Welsh second language. In Wales, AS- and A-levels remain coupled – the AS still contributes to the A-level. But for the new qualifications in Wales the AS-level will contribute 40% towards the overall grade compared to 50% previously.
The 15 GCSE subjects reformed for first teaching in September 2016 and examined for the first time in summer 2018 are applied science (single and double award) art and design, biology, chemistry, drama, food and nutrition, French, geography, German, music, PE, physics, Spanish and science (double award).
This follows six new GCSEs introduced in September 2015.
For all of the new GCSEs the content was updated and assessment strengthened. There is less coursework and controlled assessment.
Wales has kept the GCSE A* to G grade structure unlike England, which has switched to a new 9-1 grading scheme.
So is it harder to compare results in England and Wales now and harder to compare year-on-year results?
At A-level, Wales retains the coupled AS which contributes to the A-level, whereas England has not and only the A-level is taken.
At GCSE Wales is retaining the A* to G grade scale whereas England is expanding the 9-1 grading structure it introduced last year for maths and English.
So, while outcomes should be comparable it may be harder to make a direct comparison.