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Definitions:
Grading: Process of deciding how many marks a candidate needs in order to obtain a certain grade
How do CIE converts marks into grades?
First, some things they DON’T do:
•Set a pass mark that is the same for everything every year,
e.g. 50% for a pass, 65% for a B, 80% for an A.
•This is what some people think . Would make life easy, but...
•Inappropriate across different subjects
•Inappropriate across different sessions/papers
•so they don’t do that...
•Another thing CIE could do, but don’t, is to set a QUOTA of candidates who are going to pass at each grade, e.g. the top 10% will get an A, and so on.
•In 1970s guidelines for A Level said
–A for top 10%
–B for next 15%
–C for next 10%
–D for next 15%
–E for next 20%.
•but again...
•Inappropriate for different subjects
•Could be unfair for candidates who happen to be in a ‘good’ year
•Especially difficult for global examinations
•Countries come and go from syllabuses
Some Questions you may have!
•If they’re not maintaining the marks,
•and they’re not maintaining the pass rate,
•what ARE they trying to maintain?
The answer is simple, STANDARD!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE BIGGEST QUESTION:
•What is the lowest mark for which the performance this year can be deemed equivalent to that achieved by candidates at the lowest mark for the same grade last year?
The answer:
The PEs’ recommendations
•Each Principal Examiner makes recommendations for the answer to this question on Form SRS.
•They can state a range of marks /a tolerance.
•They have archive scripts.
•CIE reminds them of last year’s thresholds.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The easy way to understand:
•HARDER paper should mean LOWER thresholds.
•BETTER candidature should mean HIGHER pass RATE.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Judgmental thresholds (1)
•However, not for all the thresholds, just for certain ‘key’(or ‘judgmental’) ones, i.e:
•A Level: A, B, E
•O (and AO) Level:A, C, E
•IGCSEA, C, E, F
•CIE sorts these out and let arithmetic (and EPS) suggest the rest
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is that it?
•No, because CIE don’t just do what PEs recommend.
•Why not?
–Because sometimes their recommendations are inconsistent
–Because they don’t know what the outcome of their recommendations is going to be in terms of % of candidates getting through
Basis of CIE grading
CIE grading is based on
•statistical evidence
combined with the
•PEs’ professional judgement
as sorted out by
•the professional judgement of the Product Manager.
To do this, sometimes they have a Meeting.
Order of setting thresholds
•CIE set each key grade on each component for a syllabus,
•then set the key grades on the syllabus (or syllabus option),
•then check what they have done looking at various countries as well as the overall figures,
•then set the arithmetic boundaries,
•then check that they look right,
•then pass it over to the Standards and Projects Manager for a further check,
•and to CIE’s Accountable Officer for another look.
The complications
No use carrying forward last year’s standard if CIE think:
•Subjects at the same level really were harder than one another
Or
•CIE are out of line with our UK equivalent
Or
•June is easier/harder than November
Finally,
These are a way of comparing different subjects:
•CIE don’t necessarily expect the same percentage pass rates in Economics and Principles of Accounting because the field of candidates will not be the same.
•However, they could isolate those candidates who did BOTH Economics and Principles of Accounting and, if had enough candidates, might expect them to do more or less equally well on the two.
•If CIE found the same candidates did a lot better in Economics, they take another pair, say Economics and Maths, and another, and so on, to check whether Economics was too easy.
Note: This was extracted from one of the CIE's documents. We(Alevel Forum) put it here so that everyone could find it easily.
source: Christine Cayley, CIE
Copied from a forum.
Grading: Process of deciding how many marks a candidate needs in order to obtain a certain grade
How do CIE converts marks into grades?
First, some things they DON’T do:
•Set a pass mark that is the same for everything every year,
e.g. 50% for a pass, 65% for a B, 80% for an A.
•This is what some people think . Would make life easy, but...
•Inappropriate across different subjects
•Inappropriate across different sessions/papers
•so they don’t do that...
•Another thing CIE could do, but don’t, is to set a QUOTA of candidates who are going to pass at each grade, e.g. the top 10% will get an A, and so on.
•In 1970s guidelines for A Level said
–A for top 10%
–B for next 15%
–C for next 10%
–D for next 15%
–E for next 20%.
•but again...
•Inappropriate for different subjects
•Could be unfair for candidates who happen to be in a ‘good’ year
•Especially difficult for global examinations
•Countries come and go from syllabuses
Some Questions you may have!
•If they’re not maintaining the marks,
•and they’re not maintaining the pass rate,
•what ARE they trying to maintain?
The answer is simple, STANDARD!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE BIGGEST QUESTION:
•What is the lowest mark for which the performance this year can be deemed equivalent to that achieved by candidates at the lowest mark for the same grade last year?
The answer:
The PEs’ recommendations
•Each Principal Examiner makes recommendations for the answer to this question on Form SRS.
•They can state a range of marks /a tolerance.
•They have archive scripts.
•CIE reminds them of last year’s thresholds.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The easy way to understand:
•HARDER paper should mean LOWER thresholds.
•BETTER candidature should mean HIGHER pass RATE.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Judgmental thresholds (1)
•However, not for all the thresholds, just for certain ‘key’(or ‘judgmental’) ones, i.e:
•A Level: A, B, E
•O (and AO) Level:A, C, E
•IGCSEA, C, E, F
•CIE sorts these out and let arithmetic (and EPS) suggest the rest
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is that it?
•No, because CIE don’t just do what PEs recommend.
•Why not?
–Because sometimes their recommendations are inconsistent
–Because they don’t know what the outcome of their recommendations is going to be in terms of % of candidates getting through
Basis of CIE grading
CIE grading is based on
•statistical evidence
combined with the
•PEs’ professional judgement
as sorted out by
•the professional judgement of the Product Manager.
To do this, sometimes they have a Meeting.
Order of setting thresholds
•CIE set each key grade on each component for a syllabus,
•then set the key grades on the syllabus (or syllabus option),
•then check what they have done looking at various countries as well as the overall figures,
•then set the arithmetic boundaries,
•then check that they look right,
•then pass it over to the Standards and Projects Manager for a further check,
•and to CIE’s Accountable Officer for another look.
The complications
No use carrying forward last year’s standard if CIE think:
•Subjects at the same level really were harder than one another
Or
•CIE are out of line with our UK equivalent
Or
•June is easier/harder than November
Finally,
These are a way of comparing different subjects:
•CIE don’t necessarily expect the same percentage pass rates in Economics and Principles of Accounting because the field of candidates will not be the same.
•However, they could isolate those candidates who did BOTH Economics and Principles of Accounting and, if had enough candidates, might expect them to do more or less equally well on the two.
•If CIE found the same candidates did a lot better in Economics, they take another pair, say Economics and Maths, and another, and so on, to check whether Economics was too easy.
Note: This was extracted from one of the CIE's documents. We(Alevel Forum) put it here so that everyone could find it easily.
source: Christine Cayley, CIE
Copied from a forum.
