City & Guilds Functional Skills Maths and English Pass Mark

Indicative Pass Marks
Functional Skills English and Maths
(4748)

How does City & Guilds decide on the pass mark for each Functional Skills assessment version?

Our Functional Skills assessments are designed to measure whether or not a candidate has met the requirements of a particular Functional Skills  qualification. They are awarded on a pass/fail basis and are criterion-referenced. This means all who take an assessment and demonstrate that they can meet the required standard are awarded a pass. Our assessments are not norm-referenced, and therefore there is no requirement for a set number of candidates to pass.

Each test version that is set live by City & Guilds will have gone through a rigorous quality process, which has been ratified by the regulator; Ofqual. Every test version is written against a very clear test specification to ensure that the content is appropriate and in line with the subject content statements outlined by DfE. Due to the complex nature of the tests and the underlying contexts which underpin each version, we acknowledge that some versions may end up being slightly more or slightly less challenging than others and so we always set a pass mark for that version based on a thorough review of the statistics and candidate responses. This process is known as Awarding. The aim of Awarding is to ensure that the pass mark is fair for all candidates sitting the test.

During Awarding we work with our subject matter experts to scrutinise each test and compare candidate responses against the pass descriptors. We also compare the pass marks for the current test version against other versions of the test to ensure a comparable standard over time.

City & Guilds provides a range of support materials; including sample tests which help candidates to prepare for the assessment. It is important to note that a sample test only provides a snapshot of the content of the test, and that candidates should be prepared using a range of sample tests to ensure they are fully prepared against the full breadth of subject content.