GCSE results are upon us

[Remotew]

Anyone else suffering from the jitters? DD has been for a couple of days now and now me. Coping strategies welcome.

I was partly kidding about taking different subjects, dust - I do like your can-do attitude though.

forehead - why is the one style of question easier than the other? If it's because the old-style questions require you to memorize the poem, well, isn't it possible that there are better things to test that rote memory?

Tidybush - How do you explain the fact that employers find it almost impossible to find suitable candidates , despite the fact that some of these candidates achieved grade
A's and B's in GCSE and A Levels?
This is because the standard of the exams have dropped, which is why some public schools have dropped the A Level exams.

I'm not a naysayer. I'm just genuinely wondering how much longer they can keep going up and up.

LRD, the old style exams do not ask you to memorize the poem. The poem is an unseen poem , and a student would be expected to comment on the structure, language, theme etc of a poem that they had NOT studied. The current GCSE exams allows a student to have access to the poems up to two years BEFORE the exam. The student will have an idea of the type of questions to expect and with very little work could pass the exam.

But, as I said, so did my O level paper.

forehead I am an employer and whilst there are some people with poor literacy and numeracy skills the majority present themselves very well. I think that to say that employers find it almost impossible to find suitable candidates is rather a sweeping statement tbh. If that was the case then hardly anybody under the age of 25 would be in work .

I'm more concerned about the number of adults (aged 35+) that I support on a regular basis whose skills are less than those expected of an 11 year old.

LittleRedDragon - haha, well I'd still prefer if he chose different ones.

"A student taking an English GCSE would be provided with an anthology of poetry and would then be asked questions based on those poems. A student taking an 'O' Level exam or old style GCSE would be provided with an unseen poem and then would be given 45 minutes to discuss the poem."
Maybe on your exam board, but not all. With WJEC we get an unseen poem. Besides, who says the old way was easier. I prefer it to the anthology. I had to memorize 15 poems for Welsh Literature, and I definitely found the unseen poem in Eng Lit an easier question.

Well I'm finally back here ,ds is over the moon;he got 4 A*s,5 As and a B ,we are so proud of him,off to celebrate now!

Well done to everyone's DC however the system seems to have gone mad. I got 1 x A, 2 x B & 3 x C (and 1 x grade 1 CSE) in 1976 and that was considered respectable. I went on to get a 2.2 (also considered respectable) in my B.Sc Hons........................

PixieOnaLeaf

Get You, who's posh then

Very Well Done to the little Pixie!

forehead - as an examiner can you give some advice on a re marking? DS got 3 As, 6 As and a B in a subject he was predicted A in. He was one point off getting the A. We know a remark can result in the mark going down as well as up.

Well done everyone's DCs!

DS1 got 1xA*, 4xBs & 5xCs. We are pleased & a little relieved as he didn't exactly over exert himself.

Oh, btw, one of the Bs was in English ( his worst subject ) so all the effort he put into his coursework paid off.

well done everyone - DS got 7xAs 3xBs 2xC and 1 D - very pleased as the D was Drama and he knew he had messed up - the Cs were in extra subjects only started in Feb after taking 3 science subjects early (all As)
So 13 in all!! very proud mum

Calvi, since your ds was only one mark away from achieving an A then you may want to request a re-mark( if it is important that he achieve an A grade). There is a risk that the marks may go down, but they generally tend to up.

on that note we may do the same then as ds was one mark off in biology and 3 marks off in physics. is 3 marks too far off to risk a remark?

hi everyone im back from my long holiday.
I got 9 A*, 2 A's, very happy indeed :)
Of to college to persue my dream as an author.

Thanks for explaining forehead - and dust for clarifying it's not always done that way.

At university level, unseens aren't considered 'harder' than seen poems, just different, so I got confused. Guess it might be a bit different if the questions are very predictable though.

Oh great to know that my O'level English grade B would now be a GCSE grade A or even A*.

I too have read my DD's essays and exclaimed! did you really write this as I am astounded at the quality of her writing and even now she only got a grade A. The only thing that lets her down is her spelling because she is undiagonised dyslexic.

70% have got 5 grade A*-C's which is a good basic standard that our state schools have been striving for and have reached not because exams have got easier.

Also the level of students who have obtained high points is and always has been the top 5%. No matter what the press have you believe.

Well done to all those brilliant children!!

My niece got 2 x A* , 2 x A , 4 x B and 2 x C and I am hugely chuffed for her!!!!

DD1 got 3 c,s ;4 b's;1 a* (e in history though).

We are so very pleased because this is the child that I took to the docs for ADD due to her inability to organise etc etc.

No help from the docs, but all credit to her school who kept her on track and who kept her focussed.

DD1 deserves praise from us ,but I wont forget all the efforts the teachers made ,particularly in maths .

Thank you teachers everywhere!

My niece got 10 A* and 1 A. So proud of her!!!

I'm still confused about the grades. Where do distinctions fit in? Are they higher than A or are they just given in certain subjects? Have heard of someone getting distinction. What does that mean?

BTEC have pass, merit, distinction and this year distinction. It depends on which BTEC, the BTEC First Cert counts for 2 GCSEs roughly equivalent to 2x A, A, B, C.