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[jacobi1804]

In my department in charge of deciding what credits and placement are awarded to entering students with national test scores.  So if a student gets a 4 on the AP Calculus AB exam, they get credit for our Calculus I and can take Calculus II.  That I know.

For 10 years in this line of work I have not been able to make head or tail of the GCSE system they use in the UK.  They seem to have many testing authorities, each with a different curriculum that changes frequently.  The codes and words they use obviously have a meaning but those meanings are unknown to me. 

For instance, my predecessor determined that we can award credit and placement to an A on a GCSE Mathematics exam if it had a code of H2, but not H1.  I think not all testing authorities use this H code, because we found one from Singapore that made no reference to it.  So I asked an educational consultant through a colleague what to make of it.  This is what I got in return.

I discussed your question about the joint Cambridge / Singapore H2 level.  According to one of our  senior experts, this qualification is the same as the A level on the Edexel exam.  WES would award 8 credits for each A level from Edexel and 8 credits for each H2 level from Cambridge.  For AS level (Subsidiary) from Edexel and H1 level from Cambridge, WES would award 4 credits.  However, if the student sat for AS and A level exams in the same course, WES would award 8 credits, not 12.   Hope this is helpful!

• What does "qualification" mean?
• What is a credit?
• What does "subsidiary" mean?

At least I know what "sat for" means.  (bangs head on desk)

Where can I find a guide to translating this system into American English?  Wikipedia and Google have not been helpful to me.  I want to know, if this student got this grade on some exam, what was he or she tested on and how do I interpret the grade?

[I hope this is the right place for this question.  If not, please let me know.]

[rattydog]

Being an American in the UK for over 7 years now and having done my PhD here in the process I can understand how being completely outside the system is so confusing. I was in England for the first 7 years and am now in Scotland and they don't have GCSE or A levels but things called 'Highers' which are slightly different?!

But first to your questions (and others can correct me if I am wrong):

Qualifications - that is pretty much anything that ends in a certificate or diploma. An A level or AS or GCSE (in some subject) is a 'qualification' as is a BA, MSc, or PhD.

Credit - I am assuming that this information is regarding transfer US college credit. If they did an A level in Maths then they would receive 8 college course credits. (I could be wrong here)

Subsidiary - Like a minor. In the early days that would shave been like doing about half the work.

I just had a discussion with my English colleague in my office and she had a right rant in filling in some blanks as when she did GCSE they were changing from what were then called O levels.

Regarding the grading of the GSCE. It is generally graded from A-G. In Maths there is the Basic course that is graded only up to B and the Higher course that goes to A. My colleague assures me that one of the big changes from O level to GCSE in Maths was the removal of Calculus. She only did advanced algebra and trigonometry.

Also, the GSCE is the most basic qualification, so like a HS diploma, but you get it at about age 16. The A levels take up the following two years.

According to the wise woman behind me - the A and AS level thing has changed and apparently now most kids take 5 AS levels in their first post-16 year and then drop two and do 3 for A levels. After that they go to University.

Here is a bit of information that may be useful:

http://www.britishcouncil.org/usa-education-uk-system-k-12-education.htm

The H1 and H2 vs A and AS is a difference in how the two testing authorities do the ratings - so AS=H1 and A=H2. Since the AS is 'picked up' along the way to qualifying for the A level the WES would award only 8 credits for the A level.

I hope this makes sense and isn't completely off base!

[jacobi1804]

This helps a lot.  If learning is the temporary interruption of confusion, I did learn something. :-)

[jacobi1804]

So a student who has an A-level qualification in maths with an A has taken two years of math beyond high school and has earned the highest possible distinction?  How much worse is B than A, etc?  Any rules of thumb for the distribution of letters?

What is the difference between Maths and Further Maths?

[rattydog]

An explanation of the grading can be found here:

http://www.a-levels.co.uk/grading-and-marking-of-a-levels.html

Basically below a C is not so good.

Further Mathematics is beyond normal A level Maths (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Further_Mathematics) and the highest someone can do without going to University.

[theblondeassassin]

Statistics on the distribution of A-levels by examination are published by the Office of National Statistics. The distribution of letter marks varies considerably by subject (and sometimes by examination board), so what's true for English is not necessarily true for Physics, for example. Since the A* was introduced only two years ago, previous years would have only A.

The AQA is responsible for overall specifications, but you might find the materials published by individual examination boards helpful as well.

Further Maths is a follow-on to the Mathematics A-level, and covers some topics from that course at a higher level, as well as introducing some additional topics.

Nearly all of the students who apply for my course and are interviewed are predicted (or have achieved) As (or A*s now) in both Maths and Further Maths, so I don't know whether it's regarded as an extra-whizzy qualification, but we would be looking for (at least 2100 in the SATs incl. Writing or 32 on the AT) plus (three 5s on APs or 3 700s on SAT subject tests)  as the equivalent of 3As at A-levels.

Note: General Studies is not usually accepted as one of the three A-levels for university admissions.

[jacobi1804]

Thanks for all the information.  I think I've finally got it now!  I was able to find and go through the specifications of all the major boards and determine what credit we would award to what.

The certificates that students show me don't say much more than the name of the examination board, the name of the student, the qualification and the grade.  Sometimes grades are given as, for example, "A(a)".  Does the second "a" mean anything?

Also, does the student get any record of the units which comprise the qualification, like a transcript?  Based on the module descriptions, we can give proper placement and credit depending on whether certain units are assessed (e.g., credit for Discrete Mathematics if the student takes FP1 and D1 from Edexcel.)

[britmom]

Just to add that in Scotland...

Standard grades = GCSE
Highers = roughly equal to AS level in England
Advanced Highers = equal to A levels.

Scottish students would generally enter University after Highers, which are taken at 17. That's the reason why we have 4 year degrees in Scotland (instead of the 3 years in England). The first year of University is meant to take students up to the equivalent of A level. Those with good grades at A levels or Advanced Highers can apply for direct entry in to second year, and thereby do a 3 year degree. (We are really starting to push this at my institution now that English students will have to pay £9000 fees per year to study in Scotland. This way we can compete with the £27 000 fees that they will be paying for a (3 year) degree in England.)