Details of the grades awarded to 2013 Year 10 and 11 students have been published on the BOSTES website.

A to E grades are awarded by schools to each student who completes a Stage 5 or Preliminary course, except Life Skills and VET courses. Stage 5 courses are usually completed in Year 10, and Preliminary courses are usually completed in Year 11.

BOSTES President, Tom Alegounarias, said the A to E grades allow students to compare their achievements with students across the entire state.

The distribution of grades awarded, across all courses, to the 89,080 Year 10 students were:

A 16% B 27%, C 33% D 17% E 7%

The distribution of grades awarded, across all courses, to the 85,449 Year 11 students were:

A 15% B 27% C 34% D 17% E 7%

Students were able to access their individual grades on Students Online, the BOSTES website for senior secondary students, late last year.

"The grades are awarded by schools for students' work over the year and are monitored by BOSTES for quality assurance and state-wide consistency before they are finalised and released to students. Classroom teachers compare their students’ work with work samples published by BOSTES" Mr Alegounarias said.

To further strengthen the consistency of state-wide grading, schools are required to keep samples of student work to confirm their understanding of the A to E standards. Independent reviews commissioned by BOSTES show that there is a high degree of consistency in the grades awarded by teachers across the state.

These quality assurance measures developed by BOSTES mean that students, parents and the wider community can be confident that a student will be awarded the same grade for the same achievement regardless of where they are studying in NSW.

BOSTES recognises the important work by classroom teachers in awarding and monitoring grades and providing samples of students' work for review, as well as the work of experienced teachers who participate in the independent work sample review process.

This year, for the first time, Preliminary course grades will be included on each student’s HSC Record of Achievement. Students who leave school before the HSC, will have their grades printed on their Record of School Achievement (RoSA).

With the introduction of the RoSA, students now have access to formal credentials displaying their grades up until they leave school. Previously, the only formal credentials students received included the School Certificate at the end of Year 10 and HSC results at the end of Year 12.

Students in Years 10, 11 and 12 can also take the optional literacy and numeracy tests. Results of this test enable students who leave school before the HSC to demonstrate levels of achievement of these core skills to potential employers and further education providers.

For a list of grades for each course: http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/ebos/static/ebos_stats.html

For information on grades: http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/rosa/grades/

For information about BOSTES monitoring of Stage 5 and Preliminary course grades, please contact:
Quality in Credentialling unit
(02) 9367 8371