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'd have to revise, but I couldn't possibly pass the GCSE's I did, because in 1976 I did O'Levels All exams. No coursework.

Maths
Biology
English Language
English Lit
History
Geography
French
German
Art

If I had time to revise a bit? I feel like a lot of subjects were wasted on me as a teenager with no life experience. I’d actually find them interesting now.

I think I’d only have a chance in the subjects I’ve gone on to use which is French and Spanish (which I didn’t even get to do at school). I’d be fine in essay based exams but science and maths would just be a no.

I am a very ancient Mumsnetter and totally agree with Rescue Me.....

From what l have seen.Most of the present day O Level papers are not on the same planet. In terms of
really using, testing and applying your brain and intelligence.

Questions don't seem to very rigourous.

Same goes 11 plus exams and even entrance exams for so called good, selective and Private schools.

And many former Direct Grant Grammar Schools.

This situation iha been common knowledge for years.

Yes no problem at all. I also think I’d achieve way higher grades too. I say that as I’ve home education my 2DDs (17&15) and the eldest has sat and passed hers this year …

I hope I'd pass English language, Maths and Science since I use all that pretty regularly in day to day life.
However I have no idea wtf a phonic is so maybe I wouldn't pass English!

Without revising I think I’d be unlikely to pass, definitely wouldn’t do as well as I did 40+ years ago. But I think it would only take a couple of week's work to get high marks in any of them except French.

I think a lot of people can, and do, do better coming back to education later OP. When I was 16 I imagined we were being tested on our cleverness. A Sorting system almost where the Ravenclaws are identified by their grades and go on to A levels and RG unis. Now, having seen a couple of children through with SEN & MH challenges, I think IQ helps but the sheer "doing it" is the biggest thing. It takes a load of "soft skills" that aren't always taught and come more naturally & earlier to some than to others. Or some at 16 simply lack motivation at that point in their lives. Loads of people don't reach their potential at 16 for a myriad reasons. They can still be full of potential. They still have routes to uni via access courses and/or foundation years, and people who take such routes and come back to education later can be really successful. Some will get firsts, some become academics. Access and foundation courses teach study skills as well as content, and people come to them when ready and motivated, not at some arbitrarily imposed timestamp in their lives. If you want it enough, you have a good shot. You're not defined by your GCSE results. But there is no point doing it if the motivation is still not there.

I know 2 vets who were told all through A levels that they didn't have high enough grades to get into vet school. Amazing what you can do with hard work and character. But you have to believe in yourself enough to try, and that is harder when your GCSE results are lower than you'd like and you have spent years subtley absorbing the message that your GCSE results will determine your life chances.

I'm not at all surprised that your friend has done well in life despite less than stellar GCSE results. Don't write yourself off.

I can pass maths quite easily and i have a degree in chemistry so will pass that too probably. I have a DS who's in year 12 and has got ADHD so needed a lot of help revising and a DD who's currently year 11, so know a lot about current curriculum so could probably pass most of them.

I did economics, geography and biology at A Level (and a master's in geography) so I hope I could pass those. I would probably manage to bluff my way through English Lit and Lang (as I did 10 years ago😂). But there is no way in hell could I pass chem, physics and maths, its a miracle I passed them once.

My MFL was German, and I doubt it - I went on a boat tour in Hamburg once with a German speaking tour guide, and I couldnt understand a thing

I’m answering this in pre-long covid mode as still haven’t got used to this enforced new me.

If I had to resit them without any revision, I’d probably fail them all. If I had to cram, I’d probably do better. My job meant I would often have to learn quite a lot on various subjects in a short timeframe.

Totally agree. I did O levels and we never saw past papers, marking schemes or even the syllabus. Actually, thinking back, I don't think we were given much guidance at all - and 'teaching' was often a set of notes dictated from the front. How I managed to get 7 O levels is nothing short of a miracle.

Having seen my DC through GCSEs this summer, I'd like to have another bash with knowing what I know now!

Maths has too many circles in it now judging by what DS and DD did but I should pass.

Do you mean like 2pir and pi r²? Those formulae are in my brain forever, whether I like it or not...

A while ago DH and I were sorting through a box of stuff from the attic. He very randomly asked me an interesting question about the character of Rochester from Jane Eyre. I said "Ooh, well ..." and started to answer him. He interrupted me to say 'that was apparently a question you answered in your Finals" - he'd found the old exam paper (English Lang & Lit degree)😄.

Yes, I think this is a particular issue with science. We did a separate O'level for each subject, whereas now it all seems to be lumped into the one GCSE. So there is no way they can study each syllabus in anything like as much depth as we did.

That's why I liked the modular system I did back in the early 90s.
It was done on a 6 week (half term) cycle doing either a biology, chemistry or physics subject for that module.
At the end of each module you took a final test and the grades from those added up towards your actual grade.
There was also a final "general knowledge" paper which also went towards the final grade.

No, it is 2 GCSE, or 3 separate. Back in the 80s I had to choose between physics&chemistry OR biology. (At expensive academic school). I think the combined or separate is much better.

Those who did O levels would now be top quarter or third and would be able to do 3 separate if they wanted.

I’d easily pass them all. That’s because I helped my kids extensively with their GCSE homework and revision recently.

No because I wouldn't be able to remember all the English Lit quotes off book (I think we were allowed books at GCSE when I did it) and I have completely forgotten any maths past primary level. And both languages I did. And all the details of the history.

I'd even fail English Language even thought I do a writing job professionally, seeing as Eng Lang is so weirdly prescriptive and specific and demands you write in a really bad, artificial way, from what I've seen.

I took my O levels in 1959, before the days of GCSE. I passed 9. I think I could repass them with a bit of revision and would actually do better in French, but Maths seems to have changed beyond all recognition. I would not pass the GCSE version.

My youngest did those at 7, but he wasn't quite GCSE ready at that point. Circle theorems spring to mind, and geometry questions generally.

I quite liked geometry, but it feels so far from relevant to many of today's children.

I'm in Scotland so sat a mix of Standard and Ordinary grades, then Highers. I could definitely still pass some of them straight away, and others with a quick recap. Not sure I'd want to though. I could probably now pass a couple that I didn't actually do at school too, based on DSs recent past papers.

The other problem with O Levels is that each exam board did things slightly differently. I went to a large Comp near Oxford so we did Oxford Board exams (could have been called Oxon and Cantab board, can’t remember). My BF at the time went to a small private school in Buckinghamshire where she did London board exams. In English Lit she could take her books into the exam which I was very put out about at the time. I understand there were a lot of question difficulty and marking inconsistencies across exam boards.

@Namechange4233 I’m not convinced the current GCSEs are easier. I think there was a point early on when they perhaps were (I’m told). My DC took GCSEs between 2015-2021 and I think they had a lot more to cover (such as case studies in Geography) which seemed to take up time. Whereas, as far as I can remember O Levels were an exam at the end of two years with not much diversion beforehand - fine if you’re someone who can retain two years worth of fairly dry study and regurgitate it in 2-2.5 hours but a disaster if that isn’t how your brain works.

It’s also true (or true in my school’s case) that my school taught no formal sentence structure, grammar or punctuation. I read a lot so probably picked it up but if I got any of that stuff right it was a happy accident and it didn’t prevent me from getting A grades in the two English exams. Perhaps with the same approach I’d bomb in GCSE English now. I then went to work for a Fleet Street editor and quickly learned out of sheer terror - he (a product of 1960s Grammar school) was shocked at what I didn’t know. I’m not sure what the answer is.

I got average grades at O level and got low grades at A level. At 43 I decided to change career and did a degree whilst working full time and bringing up 2 primary school aged children. I had no idea how I'd fare, not having studied for years, but am proud to say I came out with a first from a Russel group university. As regards GCSE's I could defintely pass the maths having coached both children through it, not sure about the rest.

There's a reason the GCSEs take two years of full time education to achieve as part of the continuation of years of learning leading up to them. I doubt most people would be able to simply sit the exams say 20 years on and do very well at them. I also don't think it matters how we did at school - or how we think others did at school - in the real world skills and knowledge are applied differently and some will thrive and others will just do okay.