Transcription of Functional Skills Pass Grade Boundaries - All Levels
1 Pearson Functional Skills | Grade Boundaries | August Pearson 2021 Functional Skills Pass Grade Boundaries Sawtooth and COVID and Pass Marks What is the Sawtooth Effect? It is generally recognised that as a reformed qualification becomes more established over time, factors such as familiarity, greater availability of professional development and support resources, increased teacher confidence, greater numbers of past papers and so on, can all contribute to improvements in cohort performance. The converse of this is that when new qualifications are introduced, there can often be a dip in cohort performance. This is often referred to as the Sawtooth Effect . To take into consideration the Sawtooth Effect in the reformed qualification and to ensure learners were not disadvantaged, Grade Boundaries in the first few tests were set lower. The expectation was that as we moved out of the saw-tooth effect (which would be evidenced through inspection of learner work at awarding), Grade Boundaries would be raised to reflect the normal level of performance attainment that would be expected of a pass learner.
2 Impact of COVID-19 As the impact of COVID-19 happened very soon after the reformed qualifications were first released, the transition from going out of saw-tooth effect has never been evident. In recent awards whilst it is impossible to distinguish whether it is the impact of COVID-19 or the saw-tooth effect, there is still evidence of impact on learner performance and so Boundaries have reflected this. Pass Marks The following tables provide an overview of the pass thresholds for Functional Skills assessments. The Pass Percentage column is the approximate percentage mark needed to pass the assessment. Each test version is awarded separately, so we can ensure the pass requirement is consistent across different tests. Therefore, the percentage required to pass may vary from assessment to assessment, but this percentage is provided as a guide as to where it will be.
3 English Reading Level Total Marks Pass Percentage Entry 1 16 75% Entry 2 20 73% Entry 3 24 73% Level 1 30 65% Level 2 35 65% Pearson Functional Skills | Grade Boundaries | August Pearson 2021 English Writing Level Total Marks Pass Percentage Entry 1 30 75% Entry 2 35 73% Entry 3 36 73% Level 1 36 63% Level 2 36 63% Mathematics Level Total Marks Pass Percentage Entry 1 20 75% Entry 2 28 75% Entry 3 36 70% Level 1 56 63% Level 2 64 59% For Pearson s Functional Skills Practice Tests (available at Levels 1 and 2), there are no pass marks on the website. For these we recommend using the pass marks above. For our Sample Assessments and Retired Assessments, the pass marks are included in the downloadable packs.
