Apparently, over here in England, there has been plans to alter the grading system from the A* to G system of grades which were used when I took GCSEs and A-Levels, to a 9 to 1 grading system, at least for Maths and English to begin with, and a grade of 4 being equivalent to a C.

What are your thoughts on the changes, and are they really needed? Personally, I see it as a bit of a hindrance as those of us who got A*s before might not get grade 9s nowadays, as it is intended to be higher than an A* - plus, the exams are going to be much harder as well.

Seems like a lot of teachers do not like it, saying its very confusing.

Well I'm both out of school and in a different country (I live in the United States), but I'll weigh in on this if that's alright with you.

I don't understand why they would do this, though I'm sure they have their reasons. Still why tamper with the current system? Assuming you guys used pluses and minuses after the letters as well, the 1 - 9 system will actually offer less accuracy than the other (we use A-F here, by the way).

The only system that I think would be better really would be a pure percentage system: 0% - 100%. That way every single question on a test affects the grade, and offers the most accurate grading possible.


But this? I don't get it, but it doesn't seem like too big of a deal. Then again I don't see all of the details, having had no prior knowledge of the system or it's impact on the educational system in your country.

Eirinn :

We don't use the -s and +s in our grades, but straight letters. And a percentage grade is possibly a bit too narrow, IMO.

Anyway, I don't get it either. I mean, also, why increase the difficulty of the tests as well? I get what they might be trying to do, but I'm not sure that this is the way to do it.

I'm long done with school. I wouldn't care how they graded or what they did as long as they fairly reflected the work and effort I put into learning. Considering math and science are the two most important subjects for STEM careers and learning, I have no problem with making them more challenging.

The question is: Do they grade based on curves and what the students do as a whole or is it simply a score?

More importantly, if you do well, does it matter?

Go work hard, get the good grades, and look even better when you beat a 'tougher' grading measure in school. When you come back perfect, colleges and unis will be super impressed.