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Original poster

GCSE maths early? (sorry, old hat I know)

26 replies

Sadik · 14/01/2017 11:00

As of next week, yr 10 dd's maths sets are being re-organised, with 12 A / borderline A pupils split off into a separate set.

So far so good - I suspect it's a mix of trying to figure out how to deal with the new 3 tier GCSE papers (we're in Wales, so still have letter grades, but maths split into two GCSEs, each with lower/intermediate/higher tier) and some interschool politics (look! we may have a dodgy intake, but we cater for high achievers!).

But, they've been told they'll be sitting the maths GCSEs early, either this summer, or next November, depending on when the teacher feels they're ready. After sitting the exam, they'll move on to studying the AS curriculum.

I can see this would be helpful for school (gives them a bit of early feedback on the new exams), but I'm a bit twitchy as I know there's a lot of negative views on exams being sat early.

They're already taking English language and Welsh language GCSEs this year - but we're stuck with that, it's longstanding school policy that they do language in yr 10 and literature in yr 11 (though a bit rubbish for dd as languages definitely her weakest point, and she's improving year on year).

So I'd just be interested in any views, suspect there's not much can be done, but I guess we can express our opinions at parent teacher meetings at least. (FWIW I suspect dd will go on to take A level maths and potentially further maths, but at 6th form college as school 6th form being abolished from her year.)

OP posts:
noblegiraffe · 14/01/2017 12:34

There's lots of evidence that sitting exams early is bad for students as they don't do as well as they could if they sat them at the appropriate time but aren't offered the chance to resit:

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/184109/DFE-RR208.pdf

However, if they do get an A*, then the bit that I would be more concerned about is 'moving onto study the AS curriculum'. Are they planning for the group to sit an AS or some modules early (I don't know whether Wales is decoupling AS and A-levels?) or are they planning to just study the maths with no exam at the end? Either would be a disaster.
We know that students who sit AS early don't do well and usually have to resit to get the grades that they should be achieving. If they are not staying onto the same school sixth form, having sat exams early creates issues with whatever sixth form they go to, especially if different exam boards are involved.
If they do just 'study' maths with no exam at the end, then in a stressful year, maths will inevitably become a doss lesson which could well put off students from taking A-level.

The ideal option for those sitting early (apart from not sitting early!) would be to go on to take a bridging qualification like AQA Further Maths GCSE, but I don't know if you can sit these in Wales?

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