Tag Archives: normalization

Aside

I want to talk about normalized percentages. “What makes these irrational?”, I hear you say. Their application to examinations and assessments is what.
The big change for students completing A-levels this year was the introduction of the A* – an attempt to increase the value of the ‘gold standard’, as I see it. Unless of course you are taking Maths, Further Maths, Further Maths (Additional), Statistics, and Use of Maths AS. No AS will have the A* grade available.
“We can’t rely on A-levels any more.” [Sir Richard Sykes, Rector of Imperial College quoted in The Sunday Times].
Lower tier students (oops, I mean foundation…) are expected to work proportionately harder to achieve the higher grades than those doing the higher tier.
Does a C at GCSE mean they did enough to get 60% of each question correct but not reach the final answer of any of the problems? Or am I just being silly?
I have one word which I feel would address most, if not all, of these issues: portfolios.
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