Chemistry results inquiry call

Chemistry is acknowledged to be harder than other subjects

The proportion of students obtaining top A* grades in chemistry GCSEs varied widely between different exam boards, figures from last year's results show.

Almost 26% of those taking AQA's exam scored the top grade, compared with less than 18% of those who took OCR's.

The Royal Society of Chemistry, which collated the figures, wants an inquiry into how students could achieve a grade C in one paper by scoring just 18%.

OCR described that paper as very hard, but said results were "disappointing".

A quarter of those taking the AQA exam gained an A* in 2008, but just 17.6% of those who sat the OCR exam achieved the same.

Over 90% of students across all exam boards achieved grade C or above, of around 250,000 children who sat GCSE chemistry last year.

Some schools historically favour certain exam boards over others.

Last year, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority acknowledged that chemistry was harder than other science subjects, after investigating the way 10 different subjects were assessed.

'Out of their depth'

The Royal Society of Chemistry says a "rogue" exam paper from the OCR exam board meant students were able to score a "good" GCSE pass with just 18% of the marks - 10 marks out of 55.

It says it "raises quality assurance questions" and is calling for an investigation.

The exam board in question, OCR, said this specific paper was "particularly demanding", though it was "disappointed" at the results.

In this new paper, introduced last year, students had to write about ideas in context as well as being examined on the additional content in the single GCSE.

The board said this was a "higher tier" paper aimed at students expected to achieve at least a grade B at GCSE.

The report from OCR's Principal Examiner says "many were out of their depth at this level".

The exam was reformed to try to provide variety and stretch the brightest students.

But the Royal Society say these results suggest a "flaw" in the system which should be investigated.

They did not specify whether this may be due to marking error, or poor teaching.

A spokesman said "We believe this raises questions because these results are extreme - in other papers, the marks required for a C grade are higher."

Last year, the RSC claimed that science teaching was "failing a generation" because they were drilled to pass "undemanding" exams.

But the government says that standards are rising in science year on year.

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