When visiting England, American tourists should remember that a gallon of water is 160 ounces, not 128; the hood of a car is the roof, not the front cover of the engine; and a 17% correct response on an exam is a B, not an F:
Pupils have been awarded a B grade in a maths GCSE exam despite scoring only 17 per cent, The Telegraph can reveal. The pass marks for the new exam, which was taken last summer by 7,500 children from 65 schools and is due to be introduced nationwide next year, were an all-time low.
Pupils sitting GCSE maths last year had to achieve about 40 per cent to get a B grade. But with the new exam, designed by the Cambridge-based exam board OCR, those who got as little as 17 per cent were given a B, while those scoring 45 per cent were awarded an A.
The move, revealed just days after Government ministers hailed "record" achievements at GCSE, was condemned yesterday by examiners and teachers, who said it would invite ridicule...
The new exam has been designed to replace the "three-tier" GCSE, where teenagers sit a higher, intermediate or foundation paper depending on their ability. Pupils taking the lowest paper cannot achieve the all-important grade C. Candidates will instead take a "two-tier" GCSE. The more difficult paper allows pupils to get A* to B grades, while a less difficult one covers grades C and D.
If the difficulties of the papers differ by that much, then yes, it's possible that a 17% on the higher-level paper really is B work. Not something that looks good to the public - especially if the observation is that those who get those B's and A's really aren't capable of doing that well later on - but it is possible. However, it doesn't seem very useful to have an exam in which even the A scorers get half the questions wrong, because all those additional items go to waste. It would make far more sense to assemble the exam to have many more of the B level items, which would both raise the percent-passing level for a B (thus satisfying the public) and better discriminate among B and A level students. There can still be a few impossible items on there to sort out the A from the A* kids, but there don't need to be many of such items, if they're well-chosen.
(Hat tip to Captain's Quarter's for the link.)
Update: Tall, Dark, & Mysterious has much more on the topic of grade inflation (especially in Canada, where she's based). Well worth your time to go read it all.
Posted by kswygert at January 16, 2005 01:16 PM