"part" of gcse english yr8

[lloydjam]

Hello

My DD has told me that she is doing part of a GCSE in english in the next month or so and that this is just a "pass" or a "fail". I have no idea what this is and how this counts towards her GCSE. Can anyone out there enlighten me ? Im from the old school of "O" levels and find all these "parts" of exams a bit confusing ! She is in year 8.

thank you !

The only thing I can think of that is pass/fail is the functional skills test. It comes in two levels - level 1 is a qualification that is worth the equivalent of half a low grade (D-G) GCSE and level 2 is with half a GCSE at grade C or above. The three elements (reading, writing, speaking and listening) are tested separately so she may be having a go at one of the papers. They are pretty easy and of a suitable level for a bright year 8 pupil.

Of course, it may just be that the teacher is talking a task up to motivate the class so it may along the lines of 'I've got a GCSE resource left in the cupboard from last year and I'm darn well going to use it up - it'll do for year 8.'

I thought yr8 and lower, were all going back to linear exams, i.e. course work and paper at the end of yr11?

Functional Skills sounds about right though. The up side of the functional skills exam, is you can do it again and again until you get a pass!

Thank you both - yes I think it sounds like the functional skills .