How do GCSE grades work/add up?

[petal2008]

My DS took a maths gcse at the end of year nine and has just taken another. He's also taken biology, chemisty and physics and about to take ethics.

Can someone tell me how the grades he gets add up to the final grade? I presume he will be taking further exams between now and summer 2012 when he will be in year 11.

It's all a bit confusing to me - took O and A levels. You did the course for two years, took the exam in the summer and that was it!

[kingprawntikka]

Hi Petal. Was it a full GSCE both times or just a module. I have two teenagers , one in upper sixth form and one in year ten. The way it usually works is that the whole GCSE is broken down into three or four modules that are all added together and averaged out to get a final grade.

So if for example your son got a B last year and a B this year and a B next time he would get a B for his overall GCSE Maths when he leaves school . If he got two C grades and one B he would get a C overall . Often the school offers the chance to resit a particular module if the mark was low and will detract from the final grade.

Sometimes course work or a science practical is included to. So a Physics GCSE may be 3 module exams each worth 30% and one practical worth 10%. All the marks not just the grades are added together and divided to get the overall grade which gives the actual grade . Hope that makes sense!

[kingprawntikka]

Overall mark - sorry

[petal2008]

Great - thanks. I think they were modules so would be added together at the end.

[amerryscot]

Can you tell us the exam board he is using for Science?

[petal2008]

I think it's AQA but not sure. He got a D in biology, C in chemistry and an A* in physics and says he's resitting the biology.

[petal2008]

Sorry - just noticed that question wasn't for me!!

[crystalglasses]

Is this GCsE or A levels. I didn't know GCSE o levels worked like this

[duckyfuzz]

Sometimes its modular, sometimes early entry. School ought to tell you tho!

[amerryscot]

If he is doing Core and Additional Science, it is just a case of adding up all his modular grades and seeing what he gets out of the total. A strong paper can compensate for a weaker one. The grades for each paper are pretty meaningless.

If he is doing separate sciences (3 GCSEs) then it is important to do well on each paper.