Britain’s biggest exam board is to introduce a new “super grade” to identify exceptional schoolchildren amid fears that too many pupils are already scoring top marks in GCSEs.

The Assessment and Qualifications Alliance will become the first board in the country to offer an “A* with distinction” for the very highest performers.
The grade – effectively two levels above an A and one higher than an A* – will initially be introduced as part of International GCSEs in further maths. IGCSEs are favored in private schools and state grammars as tougher alternatives to conventional courses.
But academics insisted the elite grade was almost certain to become a prerequisite to get into leading universities and would eventually be introduced in other subjects and qualifications.
The move is likely to reignite the debate over “grade inflation” following a sharp rise in the number of pupils gaining top marks in recent years.
A*s were introduced at GCSE in 1994 to pick out the brightest pupils. But in the last 16 years the proportion of teenagers being awarded the grade has almost tripled from 2.9 percent to 7.5 percent.
The latest move follows the introduction of A* grades at A-level for the first time last year.
Alan Smithers, professor of education at Buckingham University, said: “Exams tend to be a case of follow my leader. I am quite sure that young people not taking further maths might want to get an A* with distinction. So it could start a trend.
“In effect, you will be turning the A* into a kind of failure. You might be setting an impossible standard at the top.”
John Bangs, senior research associate at Cambridge University, told the Times Educational Supplement that “once one exam board does this, the others will follow.”
“This will become a prerequisite for Russell Group universities which look for these new distinctions as an easy way out of taking a 360-degree view of students,” he said.
Top universities already require students to score a string of decent GCSE passes as a minimum entry requirement – on top of A-levels. AQA will introduce its new IGCSE course in further maths for the first time this September.
According to the exam board, the course includes additional algebra, geometry and calculus and is designed to stretch “really top performers” preparing for A-levels.
Last year, some five percent of students taking conventional maths GCSEs gained A*s while 11 percent were awarded A*s in further maths.
AQA insisted that it would not award the elite “A* with distinction” to a set number of top candidates each year. Instead, examiners will be expected to use their judgment to award it to the most exceptional students displaying “sustained performance in higher order mathematical skills such as reasoning, proof and problem-solving, alongside exceptional technical proficiency”, a spokesman said.
Andrew Hall, AQA chief executive, told the TES: “We believe the most able mathematicians who are already likely to achieve A or A* at GCSE will be motivated by the added challenge of mastering the most demanding skills and being rewarded for this.”
Source: Daily Telegraph)