26 June 2018

Are you up to date? GCSE grades look different now

GCSE grades are changing. We want to make sure you understand these changes and how you can expect CVs from potential job candidates to look from now on.

9 things you need to know about 9 to 1.

1 GCSEs in England are being reformed and most, from this summer, will be graded on a new scale from 9 to 1, with 9 being the highest grade.

2 New GCSE content is more challenging. The 9 to 1 grades will demonstrate that a candidate has studied the new, more challenging GCSEs.

3 Fewer grade 9s will be awarded than A*s.

4 More than 20 subjects will have 9 to 1 grading this year with most others following in 2019. During this transition, students will have a mixture of number and letter grades on their CVs.

5 The new grades signal that GCSEs have been reformed and will better differentiate between students of different abilities.

6 In the first year each new GCSE subject is introduced, broadly the same proportion of students will get a grade 4 or above as would have got a grade C or above in the old system. If the required grade for your job candidates was a C, your new requirement should be a C or a 4, unless you wish to raise the bar.

7 GCSE combined science is the size of two GCSEs and so has a double grade, from 9-9 to 1-1. More on that here and here.

8 These changes are only happening in England. Wales and Northern Ireland are not introducing the new 9 to 1 grading scale as part of their changes to GCSEs.

9 You can see how the 9 to 1 grades compare with the A* to G scale in our GCSE grading 'postcard.'

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