More than half a million teenagers will receive their GCSE results on Thursday after a long and anxious wait.
But for students in England, the piece of a paper showing their GCSE grades will look very different from previous years following major exam reforms.
Instead of alphabetical grades, Year 11s will be given numerical grades in the majority of subjects.
What do the new numerical grades mean?
The reformed GCSEs in England are being graded under a nine-point numerical system – with 9 as the top grade and 1 at the bottom – rather than the eight-point alphabetical A* to G scale.
It is not easy to make comparisons between the two grading scales – apart from at three points:
- The bottom of a grade 7 is equivalent to bottom of a grade A
- The bottom of a grade 4 is equivalent to bottom of a grade C
- The bottom of a grade 1 is equivalent to bottom of a grade G
A grade 9 is the top grade and it will be harder to get than an A*.
Some experts have predicted that as few as 200 students will achieve a clean sweep of top grades under the new system – compared to thousands who were awarded straight A*s.
Will the numerical grades apply to all GCSEs this summer?
Last year, 9 to 1 grades were used for the first time in maths, English language and English literature.
This summer, the numerical grades will be used in 20 additional reformed GCSE subjects.
These are: biology, chemistry, physics, combined science, computer science, geography, history, art and design, French, German, Latin, Spanish, classical Greek, dance, drama, music, food preparation and nutrition, PE, religious studies and citizenship studies.
So some students in England will still have a mix of letters and numbers on results day. But by summer 2020, all students will receive numerical grades for their GCSEs.
Are the changes well understood?
Earlier this year, a survey from exams regulator Ofqual found that there was still confusion among employers, parents, and universities about the changes to the grading system at GCSE.
Almost a quarter (23 per cent) of employers surveyed wrongly believed that 1 was the top grade, compared with 64 per cent who correctly stated that 9 was the highest grade.
The Institute of Directors previously warned that the new grading system was “gibberish” and that employers may not understand the numerical grades when handed CVs by school-leavers.
Tens of thousands of pounds of public money has been spent on explaining the GCSE exam reforms.
What grade is considered to be a ‘good pass’?
A lot of the confusion has been about what the “good pass” – which used to be C – is under the tougher reformed GCSEs and new grading system.
Schools and further education colleges use this when deciding whether to take a teenager on for post-16 study. They often used to look for five GCSEs at grade C or above in their entry requirements.
Originally, the Department for Education (DfE) said a grade 5 – the equivalent of a high C or low B – would be seen as a “good pass” under the tougher GCSEs.
But last year, the government said a grade 4 – similar to a grade C – would be enough for pupils to avoid compulsory resits for English and maths GCSEs. It would be a “standard pass” for students.
However, the DfE said a grade 5 was a “strong pass” – and schools would still be judged in league tables for the percentage of students achieving grade 5 or above in maths and English.
So why were these new grades introduced?
The idea was introduced by Michael Gove, the former education secretary, to allow for more differentiation at the top end of scale to help universities and employers set apart the top achievers.
The numerical grades were also introduced to make it easier to differentiate between the tougher reformed GCSEs and the old legacy GCSEs – which had A* to G grades.
