The return of the O Level.

[hermionestranger]

Leaked reports suggest that the government is to scrap the GCSE from 2015, 2013 option takers will be the last year to take them.

I'm sorry it's the mail bug they were first on my twitter feed. I 'm on my phone so can't link properly.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2162369/Return-O-Level-Gove-shake-biggest-revolution-education-30-years.html

I would also like to know how the 8 marks are awarded and for what.

noble it makes me angry too, the press just perpetuate the myth that GSCEs are easy. I believed this crap until my dc started to do them.

No one disputes that teh children work hard and teh teachers work hard and that there is more systematic revision and cramming and more pressure to achieve good grades with teh advent of league tables and all the rest. But, what about the actual standard of the content? Have the politicians ensured that it is easier so that they could trumpet rising levels attaining As and A*s?
Have they applied some smoke and mirrors?

claig I'm sure that with a bit of digging you could find out. I probably should know but I don't off hand. Generally the higher exam will have two or three articles from broadsheet newspapers or similar sources that you have to read, analyse and compare the use of language and presentational devices. The foundation paper obviously has sources with lower word counts and simpler vocab.

Mark scheme also available on AQA site.

'Write the number 1345 in words.'

Don't know if it's already been mentioned, but that would be one of the first questions on the foundation paper. Not exactly a good example of GCSE maths!

This is the non calculator paper we sat last year - store.aqa.org.uk/qual/newgcse/pdf/AQA-43602H-W-QP-JUN11.PDF

"Noble That question has no right to appear anywhere on any secondary school examination, whether that be Yr 7 tests, or GCSEs. It's an absolute mockery."

I see, LeQueen. You would rather that the less able and those with SEN were simply ignored rather than able to demonstrate what they can do.

Note that the question appears on the same paper asking whether 184km/h is faster than 120mph (no conversions given) or asking to expand a quadratic, or asking the mass of a prism where only the cross section, length and density are given. Not that you would know that from the selection printed in the Guardian.

The 'O' level simulatneous equation is
3x - 4y = 25

4x - 5y = 32

The GCSE higher level one is

4x+y=10

2x? 3y=19

I think the GCSE one is easier, since for one method of solution you already practically have x in terms of y and for multiplication the GCSE values are also easier

"what about the actual standard of the content? Have the politicians ensured that it is easier so that they could trumpet rising levels attaining As and A*s?"

This is my point. I don't think that that the content is any easier, certainly in English. And as far as I can see no one is trumpeting the levels of students attaining top grades; in fact it's the opposite and politicians and the bastards Daily Wail appear to be saying that these students don't deserve their A*s.

GCSEStudent's paper is a much better one and the questions are more difficult

Yes it has LeQueen, there is enormous amounts of evidence that the average IQ has gone up noticeably over the last 30 years, to the extent that people with the average IQ of the generation who fought WWII would now probably be considered to have learning disabilities.

kernow, I think that is unfair on the Daily Mail. They are only shining their usual spotlight of truth. We are really talking about New Labour politicians when it comes to trumpeting.

Lequeen what's wrong with the style of the exam?

claig, with simultaneous equations the technique to do both of your examples is the same, so how can one be harder? For both you have to do exactly the same thing, they just have different numbers.

'there is enormous amounts of evidence that the average IQ has gone up noticeably over the last 30 years'

Then why isn't that reflected in the New Labour front bench?

Oh yes, I've read similar studies about IQ rising (not that it is the perfect judge of academic ability). But isn't it down to the Flynn effect and the fact that we're just better at doing tests?

"Is that meant to be harder "

FFS. Of course it is harder to recall and use the conversion between miles and km and thus compare two speeds without the use of a calculator.

Your patronising sneers at the questions aimed at students less able than you are really starting to grate.

The average IQ hasn't gone up enough fully to explain the rise in grades, no, and there's some evidence that the rise has plateaued in this country over the last decade or so, but your statement that it hasn't gone up at all in the last 30/300 years is wildly inaccurate.

at labour front bench. But I think the same applies to all politicians really...

No, if you didn't know the technique of cancellation, you could use straight substitution and in the GCSE they have conveniently near enough provided you with x in terms of y.