New Maths GCSE is properly hard isn't it?

Yes IGCSE has differentiation on it.
GCSE does not.

I don't recall differentiation being part of my Maths GCSE but factoring quadratics and fucking trigonometry definitely were (mid 90s). I couldn't do it now though. Just the thought of trying makes me a bit tense. I found Maths hard and had to work very hard to get a B.

One of the gcse maths papers last year had something like 18percent to get a grade 4. The paper has to stretch up to grade 9 level.

Such a great way to turn many people off maths altogether. We already have an issue with people, especially young girls, thinking they can't do maths. And this continues into adulthood. So what do we do? Create a maths exam that is so much more difficult that a grade c - you know, an average/OK grade that shouldn't be dismissed or treated as bad in any way - is a fraction of the marks, and those students are left facing a paper where they can't answer more than 2/3 of the paper.

So of course they feel disheartened and as if they can't do maths. And the problems continue at an even greater rate!

If we wanted to test the very top end it would have been better to have had an extension paper for the 8/9 level, or a three tier system. But would the Government listen?? No. They'd rather we have a whole load of teenagers who now think they are rubbish at maths.

You think that's bad, try the Further Maths course. I revised 1 yr of university calculus 2 yrs ago so am not useless. But DD has to work thru the FM syllabus almost entirely independently & soon she will hit stuff I can't just quickly puzzle out. May have to heave the calculus book out to have a clue.

I have a mental block about trig. Luckily DD finds it easy .

Edexcel igcse does have some calculus - I printed off Calculus 1,2 and 3 past paper practice questions from the Save My Exams website for ds1 last year. I can see that he struggled with some of the questions but he was only Year 10.

iGCSE has calculus in it. Normal GCSE has questions such as “given a curve, estimate the gradient by drawing tangent and calculate the gradient of that line” or “given a curve, estimate the area under the curve by splitting it into trapeziums”. Most of it are inaccessible to the majority of kids. It is a lot harder than before. Also there is no low or high grade topic as any topics can be set a very difficult question on. I remember struggling for a minute or so with a starting question in one of the Edexcel papers last summer. However, I don’t think it was as difficult as it was made out by the media or the teacher who took the paper and carried on doing it even when the kids had left the exam hall.

It is a lot harder. I sat a maths GCSE a few years ago in an evening class. I got an A and could easily answer the whole paper getting 100% on some parts. My eldest daughter also got an A and was the same. My year 11 now is getting many questions she cannot answer and still coming out of mocks with high grades. Consequently she thinks she isn't good at maths. We are finding the same on some other GCSEs.

Noble thanks for clearing that up, I'd seen differentiation mentioned a number of times and I definitely know that DS hasn't done it and due to sit GCSE maths this summer........although it would actually of been one of the few things I could of helped him with I loved differentiation wasn't so keen on integration!

I too have looked at it and was shocked at how hard it was.

I did factorisation of quadratic equations at gcse in 1992. It seems things got easier in maths at some point after that (some topics in A level single maths went to further maths) and now things are changing again I suppose.

Will see what year 9 DS and year 7 DD think of it all I suppose.

Noble I thought calculus was on the Edexcel igcse syllabus, but I could be wrong.

It was definitely on the O Level syllabus I did-I remember because I could never do it!

its hard.
I'm taking it this year in a one year course (messed up at school)
the pace is relentless and I some of it is completely new to me. Although I did O level in early 80's, some of its familiar (quadratics eg) some completely new (the area under the graph mentions above, surds), lots of things we will not even have a chance to cover

They just increase in difficulty throughout the paper.
ofqual.blog.gov.uk/2017/11/03/gcse-maths-grade-boundaries/

DS3 isn't doing any differentiation at GCSE either. Edexcel board. Surds, functions, quadratic equations, and a little bit of set theory, definitely. Back in my O level days, surds were A level and we did a bit of velocity and acceleration at O level, but the new GCSE looks a lot like my O level did. I think 65% or thereabouts was an A grade. The grade boundaries weren't publicised but only a set % (~10%?) of those taking O levels got an A grade.

You what?

Differentiation isn’t on the new GCSE. They might have to find an estimate of the gradient of a curve by constructing a tangent, and estimate the area under a curve, but they won’t be expected to do calculus.

I've not seen a higher paper. Ds, 13, (yr 9) was given a link to a predicted foundation paper for this year to do on the snow day. He got a 5!

I was thinking it looked hard - maybe I should be slightly more gushing about his abilities as teachers say he's good at maths

I differentiation at GCSE 10+ years ago but I think I did an iGCSE

I feel for teachers who are pushed to give targets and predictions.
It's good if they can but they shouldn't be expected to.
I found it strange at first, with no NC levels for KS3, having been through it twice before but it doesn't make a difference to the outcome.
I think teachers who are able to give an indication on the predicted lower grades, are brill It's good to know a struggling child will reach a level 4.

I agree. My DS has gone right off Maths and Science after this year and he is/was planning to do Maths and Further Maths next year for A level.

What syllabus does differentiation at GCSE?

my dd is in year 10 and is always beating herself up about maths - I agree it does seem very hard now... On some topics (maths and sciences generally) she is taking the view that she passes and she'll never have to do physics again Thats not to say that she's slacking off in them but that her life won't be determined by whether she gets a 6 or an 8 in physics GSCE (poor physics I've picked on them for the purposes of this post!)

My dd Y9 has the GCSE and Science Books.
I showed them to my 2 ds's who took theirs 7 and 10 years ago, they thought both were the old AS level.