Ofqual 2015 Summer Exam Series report

Thank you to Ofqual for their latest report on the issues that took place last summer, published at the end of December.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ofqual-2015-summer-exam-series-report

The following two paragraphs go some way to show the issues that took place,

"We asked Cambridge International to provide us with the evidence for how they had come to its awarding decisions in 2015. In setting standards in IGCSEs, Cambridge International use very similar evidence to the GCSE exam boards. Cambridge International considered predictions based on KS2 prior attainment and comparisons of the results for 'benchmark centres' - schools with stable entries for this syllabus in 2014 and 2015. Evidence from the benchmark centres suggested that to tighten grade standards as far as Cambridge International had intended (in relation to KS2 predictions) would have been too severe. 

The other factor that made awarding more challenging was the bunching of marks, particularly around the C/D boundaries. On one paper, the difference between C and A was only 4 marks. We concluded that Cambridge International had carried out its grading appropriately. Cambridge International has carried out further analysis since the summer and is confident that their grading was appropriate." 

Next I will look at the November 2015 entry pattern and results.

I presume but do not yet know that Ofqual will insist that Cambridge International have to provide progress tolerance statistics in 2016.