School grades in England

Tests are scheduled throughout the school period and at the end of each quarter tests prepared by the professors must be passed, which serve to self-evaluate, in order to be able to make a prediction on the final exam grade by the teacher. In this way, each student understands which aspects of a subject she has to deepen and what has been correctly assimilated. It is important to know that even if a boy gets low marks in the tests proposed by the professors, he can pass the GCSEs with the highest marks. In short, the scholastic path simply serves to prepare for the final exam.

Until 2016 the votes ranged from A * (or A star) to F, the G is very rare. E is a poor pass, D a full pass, but a subject is actually passed only with marks between C and A *. In fact, English universities and colleges almost always require at least a C.

From 2017 the votes have changed and have gone to numbers, with a system similar to the Italian one. The sufficiency, even if very narrow, is the 4, standard pass, which corresponds to an old C. Better to take grades from 5, corresponding to about a 6, upwards. The 7 and 8 correspond to an A and the 9 to A *. With this new method, therefore, it is possible to be more objective in evaluations because there are six votes (from 4 to 9) where before there were four (from C to A *). Compared to the Italian system, however, the sufficiency is not 6 but is positioned between 3 and 4.