Y11 2023-24 thread 4

I do wish that schools would look at teaching the Functional skills exams for both maths and English.

The point of that course being that you have functional maths/Engish for everyday life.
It would mean that students who struggle could do a course more aimed at real life skills. A functional skills level 2 is considered to be the same as a GCSE pass.

I think it would relieve the pressure enormously for those who are borderline, and stop them sitting in an exam where half the paper is too hard for them

I agree. My DS is in the same position. Higher far too difficult and foundation a bit too easy, to the point he has a habit of second guessing the really low grade questions. My DH did A Level maths a million years ago. He said gcse maths is like year 1 of his A Level maths. Why is it necessary to have that level of maths as standard? Especially when you effectively can't access any further levels of education and are severaly restricted on jobs if you can't get it, when you could be perfectly competent in everyday maths?

Ds another who said the two weird questions on Edexcel were the only ones he struggled with, otherwise he’s happy.

Doing a bit of Chemistry for tomorrow then full focus on Geography. He has to do well in Paper 3 but his teacher hasn’t actually given them any concrete guidance on techniques for it 🙄

Wrt friendship groups, he’s never been one for going out much. Has a lovely girlfriend in the same year at the local girls’ grammar so sees her a lot and Summer weekends are for playing cricket at a local club with his older brothers 😁

In his year there’s a very definite ‘party set’ but he’s never shown any interest, even though he’s had a few invites. Makes life a lot easier!

Exactly the same here! Ds said it was good except he struggled a bit on the last question. He is not a grade 9 student. More like a 6 with hard work.
I was worried he got the foundation paper too.

My DS also claimed it was good. There was a question on density that confused him but apart from that was ok. 🤞

Foundation edexcel here.... DS said it was easy. Always a double edged sword that response!!! But at least he's come out happy!

@BlackBean2023 Yes, I agree that three tiers could be revisited now that there are more grades available under the numerical grading scheme.

But surely there could be:

Higher - Grade 6-9
Intermediate - Grade 4-7
Foundation - Grade 1 -5

?

Another one who got lost on the last Edexcel higher questions but apart from them it was ok

@Waspie and @JessyCarr my DS was the same he panicked after paper on so spent most of Sunday revising Maths with a little break for Spanish. Not heard anything he has Spanish this afternoon which I know he is dreading will most likely be a Gcse he fails only had 2 or 3 in the mocks.

Yep totally agree there should be an intermediate paper for Maths. I have discussed this before with my DS. He was in higher set Maths for all of secondary until February Mocks when he just didn't put the work in and school moved him to Foundation. We were both fairly pleased but I do think it's been an easy ride for him since then and under his capabilities whereas Higher was a bit beyond him and would have involved huge efforts from him.

Intermediate was merged with Foundation because, in order to have three tiers, the grades available in the Foundation tier all had to be “fail” grades (old letter grades E-G). Obviously nobody wanted to sit an exam they were guaranteed to fail!

NB I know there isn’t really any such thing as a fail in GCSE but all stats were compiled around the notion that a C was the lowest “pass” grade.

Totally this!

Well apparently AQA maths higher went brilliantly, which seems very unlikely, but at least its done now!

DS found Edexcel Higher paper 3 easier than 1 and 2 (which he found fairly high) but for some reason he always does better in paper 3. However he did say the last 2 questions were super hard and he couldn't finish them. Maths is an A level choice and he is predicted 8 so fingers crossed.

AQA higher paper here, we got the message that's she felt it went well, then the next message was that she found out she got something wrong in a 5 marker but she's hoping she will get some marks still. I've told her to move on, she has another exam this afternoon (imedia) and then two tomorrow too. This next 30 hours will be the toughest part of the whole GCSE period but tomorrow night we just have one more to go 🎉

Oh I hope she is right, first time I've seen DS actively nervous about a paper and I can't contact him as he's still in school (no phones allowed) for his Spanish writing this afternoon. I'm praying he's done OK.

Won’t hear from DD til pick up at 4.30pm. She has 3 exams today maths, Spanish and Creative Imedia

Anyone heard how Edexcel foundation was?

Good point @JessyCarr - it did for DS too. He did a lot more revision for P2 and 3 than he probably would have done if P1 had gone well.

In a way I think it was good for DD that Edexcel Higher Paper 1 was harder than expected. It has certainly upped the workrate for Papers 2 and 3.

I agree that there should be an intermediate paper. It's such a cliff edge decision at the moment. Why/when did intermediate get dropped, does anyone know?

DD happy with Edexcel Higher Maths 3. She didn’t get the last proof (hexagon/circle) so has written off that 4-marker but was otherwise pleased with how she did.

Not heard from DD yet and now I am panicking. Maths is her fav paper, but can make lots of silly mistakes :(

June 2019 a grade 4 was 52, last year a grade 4 was 47, so thats why I don’t think they will drop??? I really hope I’m wrong. They’ve been climbing back.
DS thinks it went ok but I so wish we had just done the foundation now

DS Edexcel higher thought it was mainly ok but last question / last couple of questions were awful. He is predicted at 8 but thinks likely to have got lot lower. Just hope he passes. He is not doing maths A Level and I think GCSE is his mathematical limit.