A* for Oxbridge

Oxford to defer use of A* grade for admissions? Why bother? Still doesn’t deal with the more fundamental issue of whether grades can be awarded fairly. Changing the grades won’t alter the fact that the whole grading system of A levels and so on is ripe for reform.

As argued before on EducationState, the awarding of grades is out-of-date as it doesn’t take recognise the impossiblity of removing personal judgement from the process. No matter what is done, be it anonymising papers to using mutliple markers, the grades awarded reflect the prejudices and biases of the graders, their backgrounds and their current situations. As a result, grading is a reflection of what a grader thinks is important and has been raised to value and NOT a case of applying objectively generated standards. These standards are themselves subjective judgements.