One of Ofqual's key responsibilities is ensuring that
qualification standards are set and maintained appropriately.
This means that students can be confident in their
qualifications. The grades they achieve have currency and can be
trusted, both now and in the future.
This is why the return to normal grading last year was so
important. Grades should reflect what students know, understand
and can do. They provide evidence that students have the
knowledge and skills to enable them to progress to the next stage
of their lives.
Marking and grading are happening as normal this summer and this
will continue in future years. As in any year, students' exams
are being marked anonymously by expert examiners. Non-exam
assessments are, as usual, being marked by teachers and checked
by exam board moderators, or marked by expert examiners.
For external exams, grade boundaries are set after students have
taken the assessments and once marking is nearly complete. Senior
examiners recommend grade boundaries based on a range of
judgemental and technical evidence. Grade boundaries typically
change each year to make sure the standard of work needed for
each grade remains stable and to reflect any differences in the
difficulty of the assessments. For vocational and technical
qualifications (VTQs), some assessments are graded directly,
using pre-set criteria.
This summer, we expect overall results for GCSEs and A levels to
be broadly similar to summer 2023. It's normal for results to
vary a little each year due to changes in the cohort of students
taking particular qualifications, and based on how students
perform in their assessments.
For VTQs, new Tech Awards that are taken alongside GCSEs are
being awarded for the first time this year, as are some Technical
Qualifications within T Levels. As with other new qualifications,
students and teachers may be less familiar with the new
assessments, so Ofqual has asked awarding organisations to
consider this when setting grade boundaries.
As part of Ofqual's role to ensure that standards are set and
maintained appropriately, we carefully consider evidence to
inform our approach. This summer we are requiring awarding
organisations to make some adjustments to grading standards in 3
GCSE subjects – computer science, French and German. These
adjustments will have a small impact on results in these
subjects. As the changes are small, and only relate to 3
subjects, we still expect overall GCSE results to be similar to
summer 2023.
GCSE computer science
GCSE computer science is a relatively new qualification that was
first awarded in 2012. Since then, there have been some changes
to the qualification, and the cohort has rapidly increased. Given
this, and following representations from stakeholders, Ofqual
conducted an extensive programme of
research considering grading standards over time.
GCSE computer science is unusual because of the changes that have
occurred within the short lifespan of the qualification. Changes
to the design of a qualification, the context within which it is
operating, and the nature of its entry can introduce challenges
in effectively maintaining standards.
Our research suggests that standards may have become slightly
more stringent through the period from 2014 to 2019. This is
likely due to the changes to the qualification and the
context, during this period. Our analyses also suggests that any
changes within a single year were likely to be very small. As
such, it is unlikely that these changes could have been detected
by awarding organisations when setting grade boundaries for their
qualifications. These changes are not, therefore, because of a
failure of awarding organisations' oversight through the awarding
process.
Having carefully considered the research findings, we think there
is sufficient evidence to make a small adjustment to grading
standards. We are therefore requiring exam boards to reflect
the research findings when setting grade boundaries in GCSE
computer science this summer and award more generously at grades
9, 7 and 4.
GCSE French and German
Ofqual decided in 2019 to better align grading
standards in GCSE French and German with Spanish, following
the conclusion of an extensive programme of work considering
inter-subject comparability. We required exam boards to award
more generously at grades 9, 7 and 4 in GCSE French and German in
summer 2023. We also set out our intention to review this to
consider whether any further adjustments were needed.
Following these adjustments, there is greater alignment between
GCSE French, German and Spanish than prior to the pandemic. We
were always clear that any adjustment might be phased over more
than one year, and we are therefore requiring exam boards to make
a further positive adjustment this summer in GCSE German (grades
9, 7 and 4), and GCSE French (grades 7 and 4). We are not
requiring exam boards to make a further adjustment at grade 9 in
GCSE French, since the evidence suggests that there was broad
alignment with Spanish in summer 2023.
Making these small adjustments supports Ofqual's role to secure
qualification standards.
