To think GCSEs are ridiculously hard?

135 replies

donpanicme · 12/01/2023 11:17

DD did pretty mediocre in her mocks and has asked me to help her revise. We’ve been working through the sciences and geography and OMG it’s so hard. There’s so much to learn in each subject for a start and it’s actually pretty complicated stuff like ions, relative atomic mass, mitosis. Honestly, I don’t know how she’s going to get though it all and remember it in order to do well. How on earth do kids do it?

OP posts:

goldfootball · 15/01/2023 13:52

@red4321 I was going to come on and say about geography! I used to support in GCSE geography lessons and the amount of content they are expected to know - especially remembering details of several case studies, only one or two of which would come up in the exam - was huge. The geography teacher said at no point in his geography education, including degree, was he expected to learn that much by heart.

goldfootball · 15/01/2023 13:55

Also, I wasn’t able to verify this, but a very experienced science teacher and exam marker said he’d been to a conference where they’d worked out that to get 9s across triple science you needed to learn more new vocabulary than you would need to get a 9 in MFL. I can believe it!

dew141 · 15/01/2023 14:07

golffootball I agree, geography is very heavy on content. I only realised half-way through (so too late!) my son's GCSEs that kids are often discouraged from taking both geography and history for that reason.

LlynTegid · 15/01/2023 14:20

Perhaps someone could give us a link to some past papers. All the evidence reported in the media over the last few years and things such as the pass rate suggest the opposite.

Oakbeam · 15/01/2023 14:21

The geography teacher said at no point in his geography education, including degree, was he expected to learn that much by heart.

University exams tend to test a student’s ability to apply knowledge, not their memory. Hence open book exams and data books being provided which list common equations etc.

goldfootball · 15/01/2023 14:41

@Oakbeam i know - which is why it’s strange that we expect gcse students to remember so much.

dew141 · 15/01/2023 15:23

LlynTegid · 15/01/2023 14:20

Perhaps someone could give us a link to some past papers. All the evidence reported in the media over the last few years and things such as the pass rate suggest the opposite.

They're all available online on the AQA, CIE and Edexcel websites.

But if you want a suggestion, have a go at the Edexcel iGCSE French listening exams..

qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-international-gcses/international-gcse-french-2017.coursematerials.html#%2FfilterQuery=category:Pearson-UK:Category%2FExam-materials

Unmarriedhousewife · 15/01/2023 19:14

Well we are teaching Yr 6 things in English that I didn't see until A level.

My dd did awful in her English mock. Macbeth specifically. So many quotes to learn and understand.

VickyEadieofThigh · 15/01/2023 19:19

Seeline · 12/01/2023 11:27

Content-wise most of what my DCs did didn't seem much different from my O levels 40 years ago.
In many ways things seem easier in that they have easy access to past papers, formal mark schemes etc. Also loads of guidance on how to actually answer questions - what sort of things answer should contain and how to structure them etc. The first past paper I saw was my mocks. Mark schemes were never mentioned.
Things like MFLs seem easier too - set topics, pre-prepared Q and As for orals etc. We just had to have a random conversation on any topic (s) - could have been on anything.
Maths seems to contain less as well.

All of this.

timetorefresh · 15/01/2023 20:29

If you've got the money I'd recommend mygcsescience for the science side. Has everything you need revision wise

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