Exams are easier, says schools watchdog

Evidence that some exams are getting easier has been uncovered by a government watchdog.

A report by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) supports claims that steadily rising pass rates conceal "grade inflation".

It is a blow for ministers, who have defended pass rates at A-level and GCSE, saying they are proof of the success of education reforms.

In the latest reviews, covering five subjects at A-level and seven at GCSE, the watchdog says standards remained constant in most subjects for up to 20 years.

But it found "evidence that standards of performance declined" between 1995 and 2000 in GCSE double-award science - worth two GCSEs, and covering physics, biology and chemistry.

Despite this, the pass rate rose over the same period. In 2000, 3.4 per cent of entries were awarded the top A* grade, compared with 3.2 per cent in 1995. Over the same period, passes at grades A* to C

increased from 47.7 per cent to 51.5 per cent.

There were changes in the material studied after 1995 when, as for other GCSEs, the curriculum was simplified. The watchdog said the level of knowledge demanded in 1995 was "too high" and was "more appropriate" in 2000. But the exam structure also changed between

1995, when papers were split into three "tiers" of questions, and 2000 when there were two.

The QCA said "the demand of some of the 2000 higher-tier examination papers resembled that of the 1995 intermediate tier papers". The study was hampered by the absence of answer papers because these had not been kept by the exam boards. But it said: "On the limited evidence available, standards of performance were judged to have fallen."

It added that, in lower-level papers, candidates "often received a significant number of marks for general knowledge rather than science".

There was also criticism of coursework. "In several cases, a candidate's coursework compensated for a poor performance on the written component," the study said. "This was compounded by some overly generous coursework marks."

A spokesman for the QCA said a new GCSE course had come in last year and grades awarded would be "kept under close scrutiny".

Exams expert Professor Alan Smithers said: "It is disturbing that performance has fallen and the quality of coursework is disappointing, and yet grades have gone up. That is clear evidence of grade inflation."