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 DS said he had time to check some of his answers with his (FM) calculator to reassure himself that he hadn't made any silly mistakes. I don't know if these were calculations that someone with a 'lesser' calculator could have done or not (I didn't ask), but I do know he said there were a few questions in the paper that he approached in a FM way, instead of the single maths way. Having plurality of approaches available (or the ability to double-check using another approach/a better calculator) does seem like an advantage.

I haven't seen this paper yet -- would love to get my hands on it...I think that while the exams are not strictly marked on a curve, the examiners do adjust grades if the paper is perceived as particularly difficult. In the past, I've had students come out of difficult papers feeling that they had done very badly on those papers, but they ended up with decent grades.

I've never seen a question that was only accessible to students who did further maths. It would be a very bad precedent if that has happened here.

I disagree with the statement that proofs are things that should be memorised -- in my own view, the opposite is the case: proving things should be taught as a skill.

Perhaps for this reason, I thought the question about sums of squares was challenging, but actually quite a good question - it tests understanding of ideas and techniques rather than memory.

I agree that some of the calculators are now so powerful that they have completely destroyed the point of certain questions in the statistics part of the paper -- and people with the more powerful calculators do have an advantage, which is absurd.

My daughter is in year 10 so wasn’t sitting but she said the same and had heard that it was a really tough paper

@jaysr are you a teenager? Don't use sexist, ageist, and classist insults.

"Otherwise stop being a karen."

A sexist, ageist, and classist insult.

DS has a few friends doing a level maths (DS does economics but quite a few economics students also do maths) and they were all despondent coming out. Some of those are very able, some have a B as their aspirational grade, but they all said it was very difficult.

Snowflakes. A petition because the paper was too hard! Unbelievable!!

This generation needs to grow up and grow a pair. All the little diddums want an A. Well, bad luck. Life's like that. Suck it up.

Just over 100 years ago people younger than 18 were dying in the trenches. 70 years ago teenagers were getting married because of a pregnancy. 17 year old boys/ men were providing for a family.

This first bit of hardship and today's kids crumble. They think the world owes them a living. No wonder they're unemployable.

For what it's worth - they will probably get the grades they need to get where they want to go. If they have to go through clearing, it's not the end of the world.

My son did this paper yesterday and said it was fine. All is still not fine though, because one of his further maths papers went so badly last week that he won't talk about it at all. His insurance choice is barely different from his firm choice, so it's all quite stressful.

What a horrible thing to say. I have no skin in this game and think it’s awful for the teens. Today’s DC may not be “dying in the trenches” but they will be the first generation to have worst life chances than the one that came before.
A bit of empathy doesn’t cost anything.

I believe that some of the you tubers who run channels on revision, register to sit the exam too so they can give feedback (I don't know if this is true) but that is how I understand they are able to comment on the content straight after.

100% agree with this, quite a nasty take.

I think the trolls from the petition have moved to this thread.

It’s really stressful when an exam is a nightmare, but remember the grade boundaries can be moved accordingly.

Grade boundaries will be moved.
Still a horrible experience.

So last year the edexcel maths paper 2 was a shitshow. There will be threads on it. Turns out there was an accessible paper (larger print) that was as expected. But the normal paper 2 had horrible questions on. Edexcel issued a statement saying this was as planned… Everyone was upset. My son was in tears. He was banking on the a to get into uni. He got his a. He thinks he got more marks than he answered. But they will get moderated and grade boundaries adjusted. Don’t give up yet! Hopefully paper 2 will be more mainstream this year.

So everyone saying that grade boundaries will be adjusted - yes I agree. BUT that doesn't solve the problem. My dd explained this to me! If you have some top students who can access all the questions, but then also quite a lot of students who can't do anything with quite a lot of questions, then you won't get a nice normal curve over the marks - but could instead get two peaks (people getting high marks more or less as expected, but then lots of people getting low-ish marks instead of average marks). Then they can move the grade boundaries, but they will have to reflect quite small changes in marks (someone who gets a C might have a really similar mark to someone who gets a B - because for both students there were a load of questions they did nothing on). Moving the grade boundaries is good and necessary of course, but it doesn't undo the inaccessibility of the paper.

Rather unpleasant post which lacks any empathy or understanding of the stress and pressure placed on students.

It is inappropriate to compare an exam with being a soldier- how ridiculous.

Why bother to post something so unkind.

There were a lot of distressed candidates at my DS's school. Some of the most upset are those with offers requiring an A grade, which was supposedly achievable. These students now seem to think they will be going through clearing. The whole things has been a knock to their confidence and instead of calmly continuing to revise for the rest of their exams they are panicking.

Every year there's a maths GCSE or A-level paper that goes onto SM with pupils claiming that it's unfair and far too hard.

Yet every year the boundaries go up and the percentage getting each grade stays the same.

The graphs underneath are the years 2019, 2022-2025 Edexcel A-level maths.

I suspect that there's a lot of jumping on the bandwagon hoping that someone will listen and lower the boundaries.
There's also a lot of people out there, including teachers, who don't seem to understand how the boundaries work, which is worrying.

My son said it was hard. Probably harder than the 2019 paper. Get the impression that many like him thought it would be similar to 2023-2025.

He doesn't seem too bothered said first 6 six questions were ok and then got more difficult after that.

As he said if most found it hard then grade boundaries are likely to be reduced.

DS sat the paper and said it was hard but doable, however he's also a FM student so maybe that helped a bit? He said that the format was quite unusual and he needed to be more creative with his answers than usual as opposed to relying on having seen the questions before on past papers. He didn't have to use further math content though. He thinks that the exam board is just trying to get the grade boundaries down a bit to be able to differentiate between those that are good at maths and those that are exceptional. Apparently the physics papers this year were also harder than normal. I am sure it will all come out in the wash when they set the boundaries. When they go to university you only need 70 percent to get a first and you have to get used to the fact that not being able to do a fairly large part of an exam paper doesn't mean you are doing badly.

My DD doesn’t do FM but used her calculator to check a few things (just in response to a couple of comments up thread about only being able to check with a FM calc). She found it challenging but oddly quite liked it but she totally ran out of time and thinks she dropped at least 30 marks. She needs at least an A so a good performance on the next two papers is critical. Her friend, who was on track for a comfortable B found it inaccessible and thinks they got a U. I also had a DD taking maths last year so remember the Edexcel paper 2 controversy. I remember that DD getting home, looking oddly shaken after an exam that should have been a walk in the park (she’s doing maths at a top uni now). Come on Edexcel, sort yourselves out.