Good GCSE grades in science are to become harder to achieve, the examinations regulator has announced. The move follows a report that criticised varying standards of assessment among boards, and complaints by academics that little mathematical knowledge is required.
Ofqual has now published new criteria for all science subjects, to be introduced for courses that begin in 2011. It said that these had been drawn up to address the concerns expressed in the report, released earlier this year, and among the science and maths communities.
In its report Ofqual had said that two of the main exam boards — OCR and Edexcel — were too generous in awarding A and C marks in GCSE science.
It checked papers after being told of concerns about a lack of challenge in some questions in 2008.
Yesterday Ofqual said: “The regulators will closely scrutinise materials submitted in the accreditation process to ensure they represent a valid assessment model for how science works, and that individual assessments have sufficient scope to discriminate accurately across the full range of candidate performance.
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“We also require the awarding organisations [exam boards] to ensure that new specifications attend to the views expressed by the science community about boosting the mathematical demands in new GCSE examinations in science subjects.
“The regulators are planning to work with the science community over the next month to clarify the particular mathematical skills that are fundamental to each of the separate subject titles.
“When scrutinising [exam papers] the regulators will therefore need to be satisfied that awarding organisations are requiring candidates to demonstrate a greater degree of mathematical knowledge, understanding and skills than is typically used in current GCSE sciences examinations.”