Do you think you would pass all your GCSE exams if you re-sat them now?

[dogsandbudgey]

thread inspired by bumping into a school friend I haven’t seen in 20 + years who I was shock to learn went to uni and has done very well for herself, she wasn’t a stand out student by any means so I was admittedly shocked but her success. I didn’t do very well at school, had good common sense but just not particularly academic and very lazy and of course just wanted to party with my friends at the time. I’m now in a fairly wellish paid job but some times I wonder if I went all out and studied hard would I get good grades if I resat them or am I just academically inept lol

I can probably remember under half the dates and very few of the names for history; couldn't tell you if the lead up to WWII was Ruhr then Rhineland or the other way round.

TBF this was me when I actually took A level history. I managed to get a decent pass without mentioning any dates or military campaigns! (Very, very lucky with the questions)

Hahahaha! Didn't pass a single one the first time around

I’m fairly sure it was all exams for most subjects when I did them in the mid 90s. Maybe some coursework for the more practical subjects, but other than that it was just exams.

I’m not sure what period GCSE coursework was common.

I also did an IT GCSE which I reckon I’d do better at now than I did then.

If you took a current paper, or the one you sat at the time? None of the programs covered in my GCSE even exist now, and all the programming languages have changed too.

Same here. I did arts subjects and O levels were much more demanding. All by exam and with lengthy essays expected (my kids GCSEs had much shorter questions).

If I could revise and knew what the actual syllabus was had access to past papers (both these things seemed to be state secrets in my days of O levels 🙄) then yes.
There is so much more support these days.

I did 9 O'levels back in the 80's. My daughter is studying towards 9 GCSE's through online schools and tutors. I also teach her, and I have looked at the past papers for all her subjects. For those subjects I sat, there is no way GCSE is as difficult as O'level. I have noticed the biggest disparity in science and maths. With a bit of revision, I could pass GCSE. I would need to refresh knowledge and certain techniques, such as certain maths equations. This is not to suggest that kids doing GCSE nowadays shouldn't be applauded for academic achievement, but it is easier to do well at GCSE compared to O'level because it taps into a different wider skill set (amongst other things).

Don't think I'd pass Latin. French probably, but not a good grade. Maths probably. English yes. English Lit, I can probably remember enough of Macbeth and Far from the Madding Crowd to give it a fair shot. Art & Design was all coursework and I've not done much art lately, so no. History probably if it was the same syllabus, though not at an A (I went on to get a degree in history.) Chemistry probably not, though oddly, I was thinking about valency and ions the other day, so i reckon I'd probably get there with a bit of revision.

I have done Spanish and German as an adult, and I think like French, probably but not as well. I was looking through a Welsh as a 2nd language GCSE revision guide recently and it looked quite easy, but I'm currently studying at Uwch level St evening classes.

If I have some time to revise, to take them in May/June, probably.

But I've got an exam next Friday, which is a resit, and I need to do some serious cramming for that over the next week, so GCSEs will have to wait.

(I'm 53 and still taking exams...)

I wouldn't pass A-levels without a lot more work - and that's not just studying. I would need to build up my hand muscles to last through a 3 hour essay exam these days. I don't think I could physically do it now.

I’ve just had a look at last year’s GCSE paper and I don’t see why I wouldn’t pass that just fine.

Yes coursework is rare now.
Most of my best work was coursework. I did some amazing maths ones. Really proud of those.
They wouldn't count towards the final grade now 🙁

How is your life now?

I did well but not progressed in work

No, because they are a test of memory and I am neurodivergent. Left school undiagnosed and without exams.
Did a foundation year, degree and masters later and got first/distinction in social policy and education. Very few exams were involved.
The content needed for exams at school are crazy. I have two boys who aced them with minimal effort due to their memory and one who is like me and scraped them.

I was the 4th year group to do GCSEs (summer 91).
It did vary depending on the different exam boards but with my subjects...
English - 100% coursework, no exam.
Maths - 50% Coursework, 50% exam.
Humanities - Different module every half term which finished with a small exam and all those grades added up to get a final grade.
Science - Modules (like with humanities) plus a final exam - all the module exams plus final exam grades added together.
French - 100% exam
Religious Studies - 100% exam.
My worse grades were in French and RS 😂

Oh, interesting.

History, Maths and the sciences were all definitely 100% final exam for me. I think music had a coursework element but only for composition; the rest was final exam. Definitely nothing modular.

Yes because I would study more and actually would understand the subjects more. For my gcses I don’t think I knew what was going on. Managed to get to uni but really should have got better grades.

With the learning, yes - my graduation for my level 7 post grad diploma is next month so I’ve proven I can still do academic work, even in my 40s.

At the time I took them (I took 11 in the early 90s, mostly all exam no coursework), I remember arguing that all the actual content could actually easily be learned in sixth months, rather than two years.

Some of my GCSEs I could easily pass well now with little effort other than a quick scoot through the topics and content over a few days or so (Eng lit, Eng Lang, French, History, RE). Others I’d need maybe 3-4 weeks just to review and relearn the material comfortably (Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Music). Finally, the ones I would have to go back through in a lot of detail are Maths and Spanish, both of which I would need a good 3 months plus to relearn, I reckon. Even though I did maths A-level!

I’m an academic, so my skills in terms of absorbing and synthesising academic material very quickly are much better than when I was fifteen, and I use those skills every day, plus I can write much better and more quickly. I think those skills would easily compensate for the lack of youthful mental energy teenagers have. I also keep my French up to date to beyond GCSE level, so I don’t think I’d have a problem with that.

In the sciences I’d need more time to re-learn the content, even though I did some science A-levels. In music I could do the music appreciation parts no problem, and I could sing for the performance element no problem, but I have forgotten most of my music theory and composition so I’d need a bit of time to re-learn those!

I have let my Spanish get very rusty so I would need 3/4 months crash course in that. And I would need to really go through all the maths again from key stage 3 upwards, to be honest. 😆

I expect I wouldn't do too badly on a current one. But a resit of the original might stump me. The odd bit of BASIC has stuck, but I haven't the foggiest how the formatting used to work in WordStar or WordPerfect. And my typing speed without autocorrect or the ability to go back and fix errors has probably dropped significantly.

I'd be fine with Eng Lang and Lit and French. I'd fail the rest. But I did pretty badly first time round, so wouldn't expect much anyway! :)

I wouldn't have passed them in the first place without revision, so no.

If I revised as much as I did then, then I expect I would still pass them.

I'd need to study (except for English Language, which I teach) but then yeah, I think so.

Interesting to think back on now DD is in secondary.
i flew through my GCSEs without really deserving to for the lack of effort I put in, I worked part time from the age of 13.
Then as I did well in my GCSEs I stayed on for A-levels - got 4 while working 2 part time jobs as well.

i was very lucky though somehow and I have a successful career- I don’t know how I got through everything really: I now don’t press homework on DD12 although I really should I suppose, she has taken more from her Dad than from me in that respect. Doesn’t mean she won’t succeed in her chosen field though.

With no revision I think I’d pass maths, English language, French, and probably history.

Would fail science and English lit, and I reckon my other languages would be borderline.

Just gone back to the op, I’m not sure if I could get the grades I did back then with no study or revision - who could?!

I've no idea.
I guess I'd adapt my "learning" to suit the tests.
And find a tutor who knew what is required.