11 Aug 2020
In a year like no other, Cambridge International released the results of its June 2020 series on time, to thousands of schools around the world today. Altogether more than 950,000 grades were issued, to almost 4,000 schools in 139 countries.
Globally, the most popular Cambridge International AS & A Levels this year are English General Paper, Maths and Physics. The most popular Cambridge IGCSEs are Maths, First Language English and Physics.
Christine Özden, Chief Executive, Cambridge International, said: “In a unique situation Cambridge International had to respond quickly so that our global community of Cambridge students stayed safe, but could progress with their education. A key priority was to ensure Cambridge students received grades that are trusted by employers and universities around the world.
“We engaged worldwide with other awarding bodies, governments and universities to develop our process for awarding grades. It works across the many different countries in which we work, and is similar to the process used in the UK.
“I would like to thank our schools and teachers for the huge amount of effort they put into supporting our awarding process for the June 2020 series, which has enabled us to provide students with reliable and trusted grades this year.
“I hope our students around the world can now move forward with their lives, and come through this experience stronger and more resilient, after what has been a very challenging time for everyone.”
This year Cambridge International took the decision not to hold exams for its global June 2020 series. Instead, we engaged with education authorities, governments and schools around the world to develop a robust process for awarding students with assessed grades.
Our awarding process combined teacher insights – predicted grades and rank orders - with a rigorous standardisation process. This ensured grades issued for June 2020 would be fair and reliable and accepted by universities and employers globally, in the same way as any other year.
Results are mostly higher this year than in June 2019, although exact comparisons with previous years are difficult, given the reduced cohort this year. The proportion of Cambridge IGCSE candidates worldwide achieving A* to C increased by 3.1 percentage points. The average rise across all grades at Cambridge IGCSE was 2.1 percentage points. The proportion of A Level candidates worldwide achieving A* to E increased by 4.2 percentage points. The average rise across all grades at A Level was 4.6 percentage points.
Just over half of grades we awarded to students are the same as those predicted by their teachers. Of the rest, some are higher, but most are lower. The vast majority of the grades we have awarded are within one grade of the predicted grade. Predicted grades for June 2020 were higher than historical school performance data for the last three years, which is understandable, as teachers want to see their students succeed. The rank orders teachers created were a key part of this process, and have stayed the same throughout the process.
Our awarding method is robust, clear and available on our website. Universities have confirmed they are happy with the method used to determine assessed grades this year and have said they will be flexible, to help as many students as possible to progress with their educational journeys.