How 'hard' are GCSEs compared with 'O' levels?

I'm not sure how many resits there are in reality.

Daughter has science modules and, if she doesn't get her target grade, can resit each once but right at the end and with no extra in school study help. So, yes, it's a second chance but it's certainly not resit after resit (maybe thats just her school though).

Maths is linear - so no modules there.

English has controlled assessments and, I understand, there is no room on timetable for extra chances at these (but one opportunity for each unit to redo using a new question will be available in after school hours).

I agree that MFL memorising requirements are ridiculous though. Exam boards really ought to get a grip on those.

I do, but a lot of younger teachers have never known any different because we have been teaching like this for years! Happily I am leading a 1-person campaign in my dept to change things a lot and my HOD seems to be coming on board!

I agree about language teaching. Surely the point of learning another language is so that it will be useful to you, not just so it's another pass at GCSE. Dd1 did French and German and cannot actually construct a sentence in either language yet she has passes in both. I can still speak reasonable French learnt in the late '70s.

It certainly needs looking at and the teachers must hate it.

Languages are very different and I would say definitely easier. However, there is a much bigger emphasis on 'learning by heart', something they are not used to doing so find very difficult.

I have seen 3 changes in the spec for GCSE languages and the first 2 made it easier! The more recent one, has made some things easier and if you teach it in the right way, definitely no harder.

However, I hope that these more recent changes will make schools realise that they need to teach children to actually manipulate language and so move onto more grammatically based teaching. The problem with that is that the textbooks are rubbish.

You need not fear.

I am currently on third DC taking GCSEs.

GCSEs are certainly easier 'different' to the old 'O' levels. There is no comparison really. They do actually do more non-stop work for them, but it is in manageable chunks and now they can even re-take modules to get the grades up. A number of pupils at my DS2's school are re-taking their individual science modules as they 'only' got As and want to get A*s!!!!

My DS1 did absolutely the bare minimum for his GCSEs but still passed them with reasonable grades including his French GCSE without being able to understand, or really speak, any French, quite a feat I thought.....

Having said that, he was certainly capable of getting all As, but got what he deserved, so you do have to work a bit to get the top grades and those that do, certainly deserve them. They have to work within the system, and it isn't to say those who get all A*s these days wouldn't have got top grades in the old 'O' level system too.

I am the school year group where GCSE were a very new invention so without many past-papers to work against, we used a lot of O level papers. I believe the difficulty of the questions was really similar but the change was in the syllabus/ topics covered. An old O level paper would have several questions on topics we hadn't covered- all those would look hard of course but the questions that were on both the syllabus' were about the same level.

From what I have read a pass at olevel is equivelant to an A/A* gcse.
When I did o'levels we were told 5 o'level passes put you in the top 15% of the country. You have also to remember that a D at olevel was a fail, but by less than 5%. whereas now an E is a pass.
Agree with Onehand that the languages now are little more than a memory test but that doesn't suit my DS at all.
English Literature we were not allowed to take anything into the exam at all, now I believe they get some sort of study note. We had to be able to quote as well as discuss the book/poem etc

I think there are differences. For example, in my French O level, we had to do an unseen dictation, and unseen translation, French to English, and one English to French, and oral exam on a topic which was not disclosed to us beforehand, and a letter/essay on an unknown topic. All at the end of the school year, too, not in little chunks throughout the year. I came out with enough understanding of French to bumble my way round in the language without much diffculty.

DSs (who are doing German) seem to be given all translations beforehand to memorise, the same with dictation, are given the subject of their orals, and essays seem to have been replaced with short questions and answers. Plus, "coursework" is scattered throughout the school year. DS1, who is now in 6th form, got an A*, and appears unable to speak a word of useful German.

Courses, not exams.

And the exams are split into higher and lower tiers so not all the same.

My dc are going through gcses, they have to do a bloody sight more work than I ever did with modules and controlled assessments etc as well as exams. I did nowt until about 3 weeks before the exams.

Re: pi

It is certainly required in the foundation maths papers. Probably a Grade D or C question. So, children not at that level may not have grasped it and the odd C Grader might not (assuming they have nailed the rest of the syllabus) but I would expect children getting D's and C's to know about pi (in terms of circumference and area)

Grades are different now. When I did O levels (and the odd CSE) my CSE certificate says the average for a 16 year old was Grade 4 CSE. Therefore, to my mind, Grade A* to C covers ability range O level to,perhaps,Grade 3/4 CSE. So, people who get a Grade C cannot compare with an O level Grade C, they are different.

However, children are still as clever as we were. So anyone coming out with 10 A* would have batted me into a corner in O level time too.

Modules aren't easier because they require consistent work throughout the two years. For my O level I worked from Easter to the summer of year 5 (now called year 11). My daughter has had to work the whole of the two years consistently. The system plays to the strengths of someone who works like that. It doesn't play to the strength of the lazy person who only works hard just as the deadline looms.

So, yes, they are different and I find it very sad that our children who are doing what they are given (by our generation in the exam boards and Government) receive such negative responses to their exams. It is NOT in their control. Give them credit for that and celebrate their success.

Well I took a GCSE about 9 years ago and I didnt find it any easier than the o levels I took at school. It was chemistry and it was mostly exam with small amounts of coursework but not broken into modules. Everyone was telling me I was sure to get an A. I didn't.