Understanding grading: toolkit for schools and colleges
Useful information on how qualifications are graded, produced with headteachers and teachers in mind but helpful for anyone with an interest in learning more.
This toolkit is designed to explain how qualifications are graded. It has been produced with headteachers and teachers in mind but will help anyone with an interest in finding out more.
Headteachers and teachers play an important role in helping students and parents to understand how grading works, from exam marking to the setting of grade boundaries. But even if you understand, it can still be a hard process to explain to someone else.
These resources can support you to have those conversations and answer some common questions about such topics as:
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how exam papers are marked
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how grade boundaries are set
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how the quality of a student’s work in their exams determines the grade they get
How GCSE and A level grading works
We’ve also partnered with the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) to record a conversation between Sir Ian Bauckham CBE, Chief Regulator, and Pepe Di’Iasio, ASCL General Secretary, about marking, grading, and how Ofqual maintains grading standards.
And if you’d like to find out more about the National Reference Test taken each year by a sample of year 11 students, you can watch our short explainer.
Documents
Updates to this page
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Added a video about the National Reference Test.
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Added 'How GCSE and A level grading works – teachers’ and headteachers’ guide' and 'GCSE and A level grading: what you need to know' to the collection page.
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First published.