GCSE Math exam today

[HaudYerWheeshtYaWeeBellend]

How did your child get on today?

DC sat paper 1 today (edexcel), came home and said he failed, he only answered 11 of the 17 questions and even then he was only confident he answered 3/4 of them accurately.

He said 4 of his classmates were crying, 1 had a full panic attack where he had to be removed and some just sat with their hands in their heads.

I can't find a GCSE support thread this year, hence me starting this post.

Well I won’t tell DD that…

Same with O Levels in the mid 80s. Oxford and Cambridge Board (apparently the most difficult and favoured by elite schools), University of London Board (basically done by all schools in London) and Joint Northern Board

The pressure in school is immense. Especially with some of the new behaviour policies being so strict and difficult for Nd kids and anxious kids.

My DC sat the Edexcel iGCSE higher maths paper yesterday. They’re a natural mathematician and grade 9 student. They said it was the hardest paper they have ever sat. Felt they did it justice and feeling positive about it, but think they “only” got an 8 on it.

Hoping for a better paper 2 as they need a grade 9 to study further maths at A-level.

Spoke to DS and he said that they’d been given tracing paper but he didn’t need it. He had time to check his paper and found a couple of silly errors but then spoke to friends and has probably dropped one mark on another error he didn’t pick up on. He’s v good at maths so was annoyed about that - I’ve told him to stop dissecting the papers afterwards 😬

He doesn’t have tik tok (AFAIK!) so hopefully doesn’t know that the paper and exams are on there but I would imagine others will tell him.

It all just sounds horrendous, is it because GCSE’s have got harder or that there’s more pressure these days? Honestly fills me with dread for dd starting yr 10 next year, she’s sen and v high anxiety around tests and pressure of any kind

@DrRuthGallowayI came across an online tutor for GCSE English the other day on Instagram, think she was called the exam whisperer. I was looking at her content thinking it must be aimed at dc going for the highest grades 8-9, but reading these current GCSE threads I’m now thinking this is the new norm and expected standard!? It seems a world away from when I did mine in the late 90’s, no creativity and everything is so formulaic and prescribed, you must tick the right boxes and answer exactly how the exam board wants you to in a very set scripted way. It seems there’s not as much chance to shine as an individual for subjects like English.

Dd is yr 9 and ND, high anxiety specifically around tests and pressure and is already worrying herself sick about starting yr 10 in Sept. Until this school year and choosing her options, I hadn’t thought about GCSE’s since I finished them myself, why did Gove change everything?

To get into sixth form you are generally looking at grade 6 or above depending on the school.

Interestingly an examiners' report on iGCSE English Literature stated that the PEED format was restricting some students' ability to write in a scholarly way and that therefore they wouldn't enforce it if the student was otherwise making valid points and substantiating them with reference to the text.

I'm not sure if the same applies to History though. I personally think the approach can come across as slightly "clumsy", but it seems to be what some Boards want.

@Orangesandlemons77 I think many sixth forms only require a 5 in English Language unless you're opting for specific A levels.

All ours stipulate 42 "points" in your top 8 GCSEs so effectively 2 x grade 6 and 6 x Grade 5

Please tell your son not to panic. The same thing happened to my DC. She thought she did terrible in one of her maths papers but managed to pull extra marks from the other two and she got Grade 5 in the end.

Firstly sorry to hear your son found the paper hard - the only thing is can do now is forget about it, do not stress and just concentrate on his other exams and his other maths papers. Definitely stay away from the Tik tok thing as it may knock their confidence if they find out they haven't done so well - like I said too late to do anything for papers that have been sat, concentrate on the ones left.
My son did the Edexcel Maths yesterday and the History today as well. He is also Higher papers and he told me that he was very pleased with the Maths paper, he is feeling very confident about it.

Good luck to your son for the other exams.

@RatherBeOnVacationgrade 9 expectation for further maths A level seems strange given that further maths tends not to be a popular course. DS2 needed 8 but was still a small class.

It’s the difficulty rather than the popularity.

I wouldn’t spit on Gove if he was burning . He has a lot to answer for - and his slimy way of wriggling out of it and making himself out to be wonderful make me seethe.

Hope your kids all get the grades they expected.

I still have nightmares about my university finals - I would hate to visit that kind of stress on a young person

Yes I understand that and DS2 actually got level 9 in maths at 14 but still found further maths tricky even though his A level normal maths teacher was saying he was a natural and should consider maths at Oxbridge. He coasted A level maths and got an A with minimal revision but only managed A in further maths with lots of revision. Likewise some ‘only’ got 8 at 16 but A further maths. Not only those with 9 do well in further maths as a different skill set is required.

forgot that star = bold. A star in normal maths. A in further maths. Some who did no further maths prior to A level and only got 8 in normal maths got A star in further maths.

My DD has acute anxiety around tests too – we spoke to the school SENCO and asked for access arrangements because of it. She is currently taking her GCSEs in a small room and has breaks if she wants them and also gets prompts (she gets so agitated she forgets to read the questions properly or misses entire pages out and the prompts lift her out of her anxiety to make her check her work). Ask for a meeting now to set the ball rolling.

Oh yes: soooo very, very prescribed.

It starts even in nursery - all the art work looking identical and comments in reports about “ not following the example.” In art!!!!? Preschooler art moreover!

@PocketSand A grade 9 requirement to study further maths comes from one of the “big name” London day schools my DC is hoping to go to for sixth form.

They can stay at their current school if they “only” get an 8 and do further maths but it’s a hard requirement at the other place. Current maths teacher says he has no concerns that they wouldn’t be able to cope doing further maths and actually said he’d be quite upset if they didn’t take it.

I guess the new place wants to protect their stellar A-level results as far as possible.