Is there any information about grade boundaries for the two-tier GCSE (specification J518)?
This specification will first be certificated in June 2008 and so it will be helpful for teachers to have an idea of possible grade boundaries when doing mock and practice papers with their students. However, please note that the practice papers available from MEI have not gone through the same standardisation process as real GCSE papers. Grade boundaries for real papers are decided, by an Awarding Committee, after students have sat the exam and they vary from year to year. Boundaries are first set for grades A, C and F; the grades for which grade descriptors exist. The other grade boundaries are decided arithmetically from these. For Higher Tier, the design threshold for A grade is approximately between 75% and 80% and for C grade approximately between 35% and 40%. For Foundation Tier, the design threshold for C grade is approximately between 75%.and 80% and for F grade approximately between 35% and 40%. We must emphasise that these are design thresholds only which may or may not be a
