sejintenej wrote: ↑Wed Jan 08, 2020 4:44 pm
Also true in employment. Because you didn't get an A, B, C, D, ....grade in GCE O level I knew of companies who would not even interview you. They were too thick to understand that grades came in with GCSE - no GCSEs - no interview.
Umm - not strictly true. From 1975 GCE O Levels were graded A to E and, from their introduction in 1965, CSEs from Grade 1 (equivalent to Grade C at O Level) to Grade 5. Performance below that required for a Grade E (O Level) or Grade 5 (CSE) was considered to be unclassified or ungraded and did not appear of the certificate.
Immediately prior to this between 1963 and 1974, most exam boards used numbered grades 1-9, of which grade 1 was the highest and grade 9 the lowest, but these grades were not issued to students. Results which met the Ordinary standard (grades 1-6) were recorded as Pass.
From 1951 to 1962 students were recorded as having reached the Ordinary standard in subjects in which they were judged to have been successful. The required Pass mark was generally 45/100.
(Information above checked on Pearson qualifications and AQA websites).
GCSEs are now graded from 9 (highest) to 1 (lowest) with Grades 9 and 8 broadly equating to the former A* grade, Grade 7 to an A and downwards to Grade 1 equating broadly to Grade G. Interestingly, the exam boards consider a Grade 4 to be equivalent to a (lower) Grade C and thus to what is generally considered the 'Pass' level, however, Ofsted continues to record the numbers of students achieving 5 GCSEs at Grade 9 to 5 rather than Grade 9 to 4 as their measurement of success, although this statistic is no longer the principal measurement of effectiveness as previously.
As to the lower grades (below those considered to be a 'Pass') I am unsure of their value to employers. I could only find two who would consider the level of a Grade D in maths to be an acceptable level of achievement to progress: a hairdressing apprenticeship offered in Gloucestershire, and the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers where a Grade D was approximately the level required for their less technical trades.