Grade boundaries for Digital Technology A2

Roedd y cais yn llwyddiannus.

Dear Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment,

I would like to ask if the grade boundaries for the GCE a2 digital technology exam will be lower than normal grade boundaries as it is the first year it is being done?

Yours faithfully,

Emily McKinn

FOI, Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment

Emily, where grade boundaries are set is determined by the difficulty of an assessment. If an assessment proves challenging, grade boundaries will be lowered to reflect this, whereas if it's not as challenging as planned, grade boundaries will be raised. When subjects are revised, grade boundaries tend to be a little lower as candidates for example aren't as familiar with the new material and past papers aren't available. This is known as the sawtooth effect.

Because this is the very first year that GCE A2 Digital Technology has been awarded, there is no historical grade boundary data in this subject upon which draw comparisons on an decisions that will be made in summer 2018. Because of obvious similarities, grade boundaries and grade outcomes from the legacy GCE ICT qualification may be used as a guide to give some indication of where they should be set, but it will only be a guide. Suffice to say that CCEA will ensure that the grade boundaries set reflect the overall performance of candidates in the assessment and the overall grades awarded in this subject in summer 2018 are in line both with the strength of the cohort and those awarded in cognate subjects.

Many thanks
John

John Boyle
Communications & Information Executive
Marketing & Communications
Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment
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