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The return of the O Level.

827 replies

hermionestranger · 20/06/2012 23:46

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

OP posts:
claig · 25/06/2012 17:04

Labour was right to scrap coursework. What year did they do it? Was it when teh writing was on teh wall and the election was approaching, and when the public (and the Daily Mail) were calling for change?

BringBack1996 · 25/06/2012 17:10

Controlled Assessments were brought in in 2009 according to this article. Interestingly the article comments on Ofqual's disagreements with controlled assessment.

TheBigJessie · 25/06/2012 17:22

Didn't the Daily Mail get caught putting up an article with faked quotes, during the coverage of Amanda Knox's trial, though? Her appeal was successful, but the reporter on scene misunderstood the judge's opening words, and the DM put their prepared article up. Peppered with quoted reactions from the families involved?

claig · 25/06/2012 17:25

Brought in in 2009, and the election was in 2010.

claig · 25/06/2012 17:26

TheBigJessie, you may well be right, but were the quotes grammatically sound?

TheBigJessie · 25/06/2012 17:29

Their prepared article about an un -successful appeal that is, complete with quotes from the families, that had never been made.

Mind you, if any newspaper has the money for time-travelling in and out of parallel timelines, it would be the Daily Mail. Gotta give 'em the benefit of the doubt, eh?

noblegiraffe · 25/06/2012 17:34

The announcement about controlled assessments was made in 2007 with 2 years to implement - don't think the election conspiracy holds up! GCSE maths coursework was completely scrapped from Sept 2007.

TheBigJessie · 25/06/2012 17:36

Simplistic, and anodyne. I think that with that much planning, they should have done better!

noblegiraffe · 25/06/2012 17:36

The DM Amanda Knox story said:

"Amanda Knox looked stunned this evening after she dramatically lost her prison appeal against her murder conviction. ...

As Knox realized the enormity of what judge Hellman was saying she sank into her chair sobbing uncontrollably while her family and friends hugged each other in tears.

A few feet away Meredith's mother Arline, her sister Stephanie and brother Lyle, who had flown in especially for the verdict remained expressionless, staring straight ahead, glancing over just once at the distraught Knox family.

Prosecutors were delighted with the verdict and said that 'justice has been done' although they said on a 'human factor it was sad two young people would be spending years in jail'.

Following the verdict Knox and Sollecito were taken out of court escorted by prison guards and into a waiting van which took her back to her cell at Capanne jail near Perugia and him to Terni jail, 60 miles away.

Both will be put on a suicide watch for the next few days as psychological assessments are made on each of them but this is usual practice for long term prisoners."

All bollocks.

claig · 25/06/2012 17:36

Thanks, noblegiraffe. It is good to see that they belatedly came to their senses. Was Gove the Shadow Education Secretary at the time, and had they possibly learned from his speeches?

TheBigJessie · 25/06/2012 17:39

Anodyne? Sorry, that shouldn't have ended up in that post.

claig · 25/06/2012 17:39

noblegiraffe, it was not their finest hour, admittedly, but let he who has never made a mistake, cast the first stone.

noblegiraffe · 25/06/2012 17:42

Nice try claig Grin

This Telegraph article from 13 June 2007 discusses the introduction of controlled assessments. Gove didn't become Shadow Education Secretary till 2nd July 2007.

figroll · 25/06/2012 17:48

Wow - there is someone who actually believes the Daily Mail is gospel - has to be one of the trashiest newspapers around.

TheBigJessie · 25/06/2012 17:48

Oh, I've made mistakes, but I don't think I've ever been deceitful and dishonest on such a scale!

claig · 25/06/2012 17:50

'GSCE coursework scrapped to stop cheating'

Hats off to New Labour for taking action on the recommendations of the report that said this. But what is truly staggering is how this policy had been allowed in the first place? Could no one foresee that cheating was a possibility? I feel Gove would have realised that without needing to read any reports.

claig · 25/06/2012 17:52

'there is someone who actually believes the Daily Mail is gospel'

Please don't undervalue the Daily Mail.

figroll · 25/06/2012 17:55

Why - are you the editor?

claig · 25/06/2012 17:58

I should be so lucky.

BringBack1996 · 25/06/2012 17:59

"Could no one foresee that cheating was a possibility? I feel Gove would have realised that without needing to read any reports."

Coursework was brought in in 1988 (along with GCSEs) under Thatcher, so I don't think it was New Labour's responsibility to make changes before cracks in the system started to appear in the mid 00's.

Xenia · 25/06/2012 18:02

Extracts from an O-level maths paper from 1985 from the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate

1 Calculate the exact value of

i) 4 - 1.67

ii) 0.4 x 3.5

3 (a) Express 486mm in cm, giving your answer correct to the nearest cm.

(b) Express 5.126 correct to two significant figures.

  1. a) Calculate the total time required for 5 journeys each of 1 hour 34 minutes.

b) (i) A marathon race started at 11.55 and one of he runners reached the finish at 15.37. Calculate the time taken by this runner.

ii) Another runner took 25min for the first 8km. If he continued to run at the same steady speed, calculate the time taken for the next 12km.

  1. Solve the simultaneous equations:

3x - 4y = 25

4x - 5y = 32

x =

y =

  1. All of the pupils in a class have four choices in their study of languages.

They may study French only,

or French and German,

or French and Latin,

or all three of these languages.

Draw a clearly labelled Venn diagram to illustrate this information.

  1. a)A rectangular courtyard 17m long by 9¼m wide is to be covered by square paving slabs each of side ½m. Calculate the number of paving slabs which will be required.

b) A different area to be paved needs 390 slabs. Given that one-third of these cost £1.20 each and the remainder cost £1.40 each, calculate the total cost of the slabs.

  1. i) On a packet of lettuce seeds it is stated that 85% should produce seedlings. Find the number of seedlings which would be expected from a packet containing 800 seeds.

ii) (a) A market gardener sows 25000 tomato seeds. Given that 21500 produce seedlings, calculate the percentage which did not produce seedlings.

b) In one season he sold 130 tonnes of tomatoes, which was 4% more than he had expected. Calculate the number of tonnes he had expected to sell.
Extracts from the Edexcel maths GCSE from 6 June 2011 (Foundation paper, no calculator). This is one of four papers

  1. (a) Write the number 1345 in words.

(b) Write the number twelve thousand seven hundred and fifty in figures.

(c) Write the number 4670 to the nearest hundred.

  1. Simone and Barry use this rule to work out their pay.

Pay = £6.20 × number of hours worked

Simone works for 4 hours.

(a) Work out her pay.

£ ..................................

Barry's pay is £15.50

(b) How many hours did he work?

................................. hours

  1. Amy buys 50 computers.

She pays £160 for each computer.

Amy is going to sell some of the computers.

She wants to get at least 35% more than she paid for all the computers.

She is going to sell each computer for £400

Work out the smallest number of computers Amy needs to sell.

  1. Some students went to the cinema.

Each student watched film A or film B or film C.

Three eighths of the students watched film A.

40% of the students watched film B.

What fraction of the students watched film C?

Extracts from the Edexcel GCSE maths paper 6 June 2011 (Higher paper, no calculator)

  1. h= 5t²+ 2

(a) (i) Work out the value of h when t= ?2

.....................................

(ii) Work out a value of t when h= 47

.....................................

(b) 1 n < 4

n is an integer.

Write down all the possible values of n.

  1. Each exterior angle of a regular polygon is 30°.

Work out the number of sides of the polygon.

  1. The nth term of a number sequence is given by 3n+ 1

(a) Work out the first two terms of the number sequence.

................................................

Here are the first four terms of another number sequence.

1 5 9 13

(b) Find, in terms of n, an expression for the nth term of this number sequence.

  1. (a) Expand x(x+ 2)

(b) Expand and simplify (x+ 3)(x? 4)

(c) Factorise completely 2y²? 4y

(d) Factorise x²? 9

  1. Solve the simultaneous equations

4x+y=10

2x? 3y=19

x=

y=

claig · 25/06/2012 18:02

Wow, that is interesting, BringBack1996. The Tories did make some big mistakes and it was not Labour's fault.

TheBigJessie · 25/06/2012 18:02

It's a newspaper caught faking news. How often has it published pre-written stories before, but not been caught?

GSCEstudent96 · 25/06/2012 18:09

In all honesty, that O level paper posted by xenia doesn't look very hard. Did the O level not do trigonometry, probability etc?

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