AQA Biology Module - what did your teen think?

[NotAnOtter]

report

mine was gutted but i do feel better now..

What will you do if the results are lower than expected?

[violetqueen]

Well mine just said that people ,including him ,struggled to answer all the questions in the time provided.
He didn't seem to think it was the disaster that has been so widely reported.

[WhereChaosTheoryRules]

The way the grades are calculated will take this into account. An unusually difficult exam can result in a lower mark being attributed to a grade. There is cases of this having happened. My Maths Alevel paper had this done. So I wouldnt worry as if most students struggled to complete or answer the questions this will be accounted for when the grades allocated, so grade should be relatively reflective of this particular cohort of students.

[NotAnOtter]

wherechaosrules

ds teacher said it would prove impossible to differentiate between a competent and less competant candidate as the nature of the paper was so odd..

he anticipated real mish mash of results

[hocuspontas]

dd1 was surprised at the Facebook thing. When I asked her yesterday she said it was hard but thought she'd answered everything ok. Not like her at all!

[Hollyoaks]

I'm glad I spotted this thread, I'm a biology teacher and the content of the exam was very focussed on one aspect of the unit and there was lots not covered. Mainly the genetics component which many pupils would have done well in was completely missed out.

This has made me feel slightly at ease too.

[NotAnOtter]

ds wants to do genetics at university

he needs A* so is bricking it nervous now and went in quite confident!

[golgi]

I'm a biology teacher too. My students didn't sit the paper this time, will do it in June. I haven't seen the paper, but from reading the comments it seems that it didn't test a lot of the specification.

My students will be (understandably) worrying about sitting this paper in the summer now, and I am worried about how to prepare them!

[TheFallenMadonna]

When the AS was first introduced the very first exam in the January (I think AQA again) was really difficult. I remember going in to the exam hall to have a look at it and 37 pairs of eyes glaring at me. It was much harder than the specimen material had been. When the results came out the average result for the cohort was less than 50% and my students were getting As with 60-odd percent. It did work against the lower achievers, who were just plain flummoxed by the whole thing, more than the high achievers. There was a bigger spread of results than I expected.

[NotAnOtter]

thanks for the feedback

ye clever biology teachers may I ask advice?

what if ds decides to repeat the paper in june and scores worse - can he then 'revert' to this score?

[madrose]

he'll keep his best grade.

[NotAnOtter]

thankyou - may be the best option

[snorkie]

They can retake in the summer if their result isn't good enough I should think. I know two children who sat it at each end of the spectrum, the exceedingly bright child who always gets 95%+ found it hard, but the bright but very lazy child who has failed and given up most of his AS levels and only revised the night before thought it went well. So I do think your ds's teacher may be right unfortunately, NAO.

[NotAnOtter]

thanks snorkie all we can do is wait and see