New-look tougher GCSEs revealed

[Omah]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-22841266

New-look GCSEs for schools in England are to be unveiled, with exams graded from eight to one rather than A* to G.

From 2015, GCSEs will move from coursework and continuous assessment to exams at the end of two years.

There will be an emphasis on more rigorous content, such as making sure that pupils studying English read the whole of a Shakespeare play, a 19th-Century novel and more poetry.

There is no sign of a change in name to I-level - as had been suggested.

The format, though, may be familiar to anyone who once took O-levels.

Wales and Northern Ireland are keeping GCSEs, but so far are not adopting the changes proposed for England.

The changes to GCSEs in England will be presented on Tuesday in two reports. Exam regulator Ofqual will explain how the exams will be structured and ministers will give details of the course content.

The reforms will initially apply to a group of core subjects - English language and literature, maths, physics, chemistry, biology, combined science, history and geography.

Hundreds of thousands of pupils will begin studying these revised GCSEs from autumn 2015 and the first candidates to take the exams will be in summer 2017.

Apart from exceptions such as practical experiments in science, there will be a strong push towards exams being taken at the end of two years, rather than in individual units during the course.

Grading will be numbers rather than letters - with eight at the top and one at the bottom. The pass mark will be pushed higher, with claims that it will be pitched at the level of the highest-performing school systems, such as Finland and Shanghai, which have topped international rankings.

The new GCSEs will represent a push for a more stretching, essay-based exam system, reminiscent of O-levels, taken by pupils until the late 1980s.

In history there will be more essays and fewer short-form questions, and the removal of a controlled assessment.

In English, responding to concerns that pupils were only reading chunks of books, there will be a requirement to read whole works and an expectation that pupils will study a wider range of of writing from different eras.

Maths will promote the idea of developing independent problem-solving skills, rather than setting types of questions that can be rehearsed.

This is the latest stage in Education Secretary Michael Gove's drive to reconfigure the exam system.

Last year, Mr Gove announced plans for the scrapping of GCSEs and their replacement with English Baccalaureate Certificates, with each subject to be set by a single exam board.

This re-branding was scrapped, with GCSEs to be retained but reformed instead.

These latest plans will be put out to consultation over the summer, with a timetable that will see the exam boards preparing to produce courses that can be accredited by Ofqual to be taught in schools from autumn 2015.

These changes are for exams in England.

Seems like a good idea .....