Edexcel maths A level today

[Maray1967]

Anyone else’s 18 year old had a bad time with Edexcel Maths today?

Mine says it was horrifically hard. I’ve said all the usual stuff about trying not to dwell on it and focusing on the next exam, but it might be helpful if he’s not alone!! He didn’t hang around long after school but says it looked like everyone thought it was hard.

Yes, my DD and all her friends said it was horrific. She's generally pretty strong in maths but there were a number of questions she couldn't answer and she got really distracted by how badly she was doing and found it hard to focus in the exam. Let's hope it's reflected in the grade boundaries.

I'm not on reddit but am told there's a lot of chat on there about how hard it was. I wonder if, because so many people do the Maths + Further Maths combo now, they up the ante each year to keep everyone on their toes?!

Thank you. Although I’m sorry she had a bad experience with it as well!
Mine was hoping for an A which his teachers says he’s perfectly capable of getting - but this has shaken him. He doesn’t have any more this week which is fortunate.
Yes, if most students have struggled with it then I would the grade boundaries will reflect that.

Thank you; that is an interesting thought.
Mine doesn’t do further maths but quite a few of his friends are.

Mine said worst paper ever sat!

Mine said it was the hardest paper ever. Really not happy. Needs an A and is now doubting this can happen 😥

My son sat this and said one of his further maths papers was easier than it! Apparently there is a lot of chat about it on tiktok and a petition on change.org

https://c.org/P77z2xPZjG

Here's the petition, get them to sign it/sign on their behalf! This unfairness ruin people's futures.

🤣🤣🤣
Have you read the comments on the petition? Nobody will take that seriously! I was shocked there was the f-word on a petition about education. Most of the rest were way too intense or just taking the mickey, plus parents getting involved 🙄

The paper was not unfair. It was difficult, but it was not unfair.

My dd found it v hard too! She wrote up a question for us (DH and me) to try...
A2 + B2 = C2
Prove (by contradiction) that it can't be the case that both A and B are odd numbers....
(Hope fellow maths fans enjoy...!).
I did it... but it took me QUITE a while... no WAY I would have done it under timed conditions!!

The '2's should be superscripts... A squared etc.

@badger2005 , I assume A, B and C are all integer?

edit: I’ll have to ask DH in the morning - he’s much better at Matgs than I am.
I’ve looked at a list of Pythagorean triples up to 300 and none of them works, so I can’t be doing the question the right way.
I agree, not the usual standard of question for a proof by contradiction.

Maths, not Matgs. 😉

@JuneBringsTulipsLiliesRoses So sorry - yes, I missed out some crucial things! A, B and C are all positive natural numbers. I think that's the other assumption you need! Plus (though I don't think you need this) it also said that you can assume that if X squared is even then so is X...

I'm not sure I agree with that. My understanding is that papers are supposed to be accessible, meaning that students of different abilities are able to access enough of the paper to be able to successfully demonstrate their relative ability. From what I understand, the structure of many of the questions meant that middling ability students were effectively locked out from a significant proportion of the paper.

DS is very confident in exams and predicted an A star in FM, but found the paper today extremely challenging and didn't manage to finish it, which has never happened to him before.

I haven’t seen the paper so I can’t comment on its difficulty, but I’m surprised that Edexcel has done this, because as a business they want to increase the number of candidates taking their papers rather than choosing the other exam boards.

Yes, if the paper was harder than usual the grade boundaries will be lower, but if students can’t access later parts of each question because they can’t do the first part then the exam they are unfairly disadvantaged.
A typical part a) will say “Show that….” so that all students can use that result in the rest of the question, whether or not they could do the first part.

I’ve done the question algebraically in not many lines, but I don’t like my solution. 😕

Same here. Ds has come home from his physics and design tech exams, happy and optimistic, but today he didn't want to talk about it. Says he's going to his reserve university.

@badger2005 wrote: Plus (though I don't think you need this) it also said that you can assume that if X squared is even then so is X...

Ah, I was forgetting that.
If you can assume that then using a standard method gives a short solution.

Not with this example then, but if only then strongest candidates can do the first part of several questions, and the result from that is needed for the rest of each question, then average and weaker candidates are disadvantaged.
It’s dispiriting and distracting for them if they can’t do question after question when they are used to having some success with their first few questions they try in practice papers.

The petition refers to comments by teachers and tutors. This year JCQ introduced a ruling that papers cannot be distributed for 24 hours after the official finish time of the exam, so 2.30pm on 4th June. Additionally, Pearson Edexcel have taken out an injunction against any one who leaks their papers before said distribution time.

This is interesting and helpful information, but I’m not quite sure what it means. Does “distributing a paper” mean publishing it in full, or would it cover writing out a single question or part-question from a paper?

I’m old, and so am used to papers not being published (anywhere) online for a year so when schools use them as their official “mock” students haven’t seen the questions before.

I appreciate those days are gone.

My daughter is a capable mathematician getting comfortable A stars in the past papers and she’s inconsolable after that paper. Found it unexpectedly hard, not helped by another nearby student audibly sobbing.

Somewhat beautifully, I did this question with my classes a few weeks ago - I hope they remember it.

i did it in the specific context of Pythagoras (which is my username) but I showed them the algebraic proof.

I think it means that, since exam papers have to remain out of circulation for 24 hours after the paper is sat, how would teachers and tutors have had access to the paper to be able to comment on its level of difficulty? They shouldn’t be able to set eyes on it until this afternoon 🤔