In a previous blogpost we looked at the severity of grading in A-Level physics. Our view was that grading was more severe than in other subjects.
None of this was new. Ofqual itself has published lots of detailed research into inter-subject comparability, for instance. And before that the 2008 SCORE report by Rob Coe and colleagues did similar.
However, Ofqual has not shown any inclination to take any action. It investigated grading in science and modern foreign languages at A-Level in 2018. Although finding evidence of severe grading, it decided that adjustments to grading were not appropriate.
What I’ll show in this blogpost is that many students who take physics are doubly penalised when it comes to A-Level grades because they take other subjects that are also severely graded.
Before I get to that, let’s look at subject grading in all A-Level subjects.
