GCSEs 2012 support thread

[Kez100]

Here we go........hold on tight!

My DD is in Yr10 and has taken 10 GCSE modules, one a complete GCSE and has CA's in Chem Biology and English thrown into the mix. DD can't wait till August if only to see in her very tired grumpy words " what I'll bloody have to resit!" I'm hoping nothing because she has worked her socks off since April. DD's main worry is English Language, she now wishes her teacher had put her in for the Foundation paper as she thinks English has gone so badly. She also thinks if she had got a C on Foundation she wouldn't feel so pressurised if she then attempted a resit at Higher level. I'm now going to forget about exams till sometime in August!

Well at least for today's rehearsal for the concert they have been given specific times throughout the day to come out of lessons rather than using up the whole day. DS is getting really tired though and has already had one night this week when he went to bed at 7.30pm. It will be a miracle if he gets through it all without having to resit anything.

DS didn't like the English Language paper he did magnetadreamer he said everyone else came out saying it was easy but he didn't agree. He has good CA marks so hopefully that will balance it out.

It's a bit off topic but I've been looking at some of these threads about the proposed change back to O level style examining and am getting pretty narked at all of the posters saying GCSEs are not worth the paper they're written on and that they are too easy! Now I'm feeling pretty hormonal at the moment but even so, it's really getting me down that all the work of our DC will not be acknowledged because people thing the exams themselves are dumbed down and easy :(

I knwo it is annoying but the posters saying that are ignorant. The children can only sit what they are given. What, if you like, our generation give them! If it is anybody's fault, it is not the children's but our generation.

Whatever the exam results they cannot take away from our children what they know and what they have learned skills wise - the content they have been taiught as well as to be organised, to work hard, to have social skills.

I've sat with my daughter and helped her with Chemistry at foundation level (albeit aiming for a C). It is worth the paper it is written on! Of course, there is always harder stuff it could include (probably mean she would get a D then) and if that is what they think is right and proper, fine, but the current content IS worthy. It IS Chemistry and it is soemthing you need to learn - it is not common sense or general knowledge.

I think 2016 will have it much worse being right bang smack in a new, harder, regime at the same time as the Teachers not knowing the score. Big changes mean children don't know where they stand and I reckon it will be a right mess if he brings it is so quickly. 2012 class have four years on this group and will, hopefully, be in work or at Uni and their lives have moved far away from GCSEs by then.

Gove is an idiot though, bringing in so much change, so fast. I am an employer and I want stability. I know I need a B Grade Maths candidate for the jobs I offer. That used to be a C. So long as Gove makes sure that children who can achieve a B grade today are the same as those who get one tomorrow, I am happy. Even if 95% get B's, I don't care, - so long as it is the same level of attainment as last year, that's all I need as an employer.

Uni entrance are in education and they generally rank peers so it doesn;t matter too much to them (however much they say it does). Emplyers though are in a different boat - we have to rank all ages and so we need grading to become stable and fairly applied to attainment across all years

DS is my third to do GCSEs BringBack1996 and I certainly realise how much work goes into them over the two years. Balancing 10/11 subjects with all the modules and CAs is not easy particularly if you have a disorganised child (DS). You can take an individual paper out of context and say oh my 7 year old could do this but that would bear no resemblance to the actual experience of taking the exam.

I think that some of the O levels I took were much easier than today's GCSEs - English language was a turn up do a comprehension and write a story type of exam.

Webwiz / Magenta - was that AQA Eng Lang higher paper by any chance?

DD sat that one, went in confident as good CA file. Came out worried, mainly due to longer question(s) in second section.

Agree, O'level Eng lang (1977) much easier. Maths was harder thoguh.

Expect it will be a nightmare for those that will be caught up the few years of transition. My 2 girls are 6 school years apart, so won;t be affected. Although I expect there will be more to worry about for DD2 in 2017 to 2019.

Yes it was the AQA higher paper for English Lang circular DS went in confident as well but isn't sure how it went.

Language definitely harder now. I was borderline and needed English to get onto the Diploma I took, so my parents double entered me.

I sat the CSE and then, as O level was a bit different, after sitting the CSE I had six hours of extra lessons to learn how to precis and do comprehension and I learned 10 big words to get into the creative writing (soporific was one!)

I got a CSE Grade 2 English Language and a Grade 'A' O level. No way could a D Grade candidate turn that around in six weeks nowadays.

I tool my O-levels back in 1977 - the so-called Golden Age of academic standards according to all the right-wing media. I have been constantly astonished by the rigour of some of DS's GCSEs compared to our exams back then. DS has to analyse and discuss primary and scondary sources in History for example - we didn't even do this for A-level ! . I'm doing a history degree in History at the moment and have only just learned how to do this!

It was all chalk and talk back then - teacher talked at us and wrote important dates on the blackboard while we listened (in COMPLETE silence) and took notes which were then spewed out verbatim during the exams. Rote learning pure and simple - cramming in oodles of "facts" for 2 years with very little analysis or debate. And this was one of those grammar schools which everyone seems to think were so wonderful.

DSs had a bit of a "moment" when he got back after his last exam on Tuesday - it didn't go very well . We tried to reassure him that it didn't really matter, but he got quite tearful and depressed saying there was nothing to look forward to - that AS exams would be even worse, it was impossible to get into Uni without 3 As at A level, and there were no jobs for graduates anyway. It makes me SO angry to hear our youngsters denigrated and belittled by pepole sneering at their academic achievements.

That should be "degree in History" obviously

Webwiz - It's certainly seems to have DD's teacher in a panic. They are all being rushed into doing extra CA's to help if they are on the cusp of two grades. Unfortunately for DD, the one she has just got back is below all her others.

Apparantly, it is not possible to re-take just the paper, as the CA's will have expired and need to be taken again. Guess that comes from starting them in yr9.

Hopefully, if it was exceptionally difficult, the grade boundaries will drop.

Kex - I think the issue with the CSE / O'level divide was that it was generally much harder to get a Grade 1 CSE than a C Grade O'level. The courses were totally different. So once in the CSE stream, very difficult to progress to A'levels. But with GCSE's being the same courses for Foundation and Higher, it makes it too easy for the teachers to force Foundation on some that are capable of more, for nothing but league table benefit. There are teachers at DD's school that regulary threaten their groups with Foundation if they don;t consistently get at least a B in their tests.

Agree that a D grade English candidate would have problems making that kind of progress in 6 weeks. It has taken my DD the whole of yr10 to get from a C (eoyr9 level 5a) to an A/B borderline (A in CA's and mock but target is B) in Eng Lang. And that's with 10 hours 1 to 1 tuition, and weekly sessions at a study centre.

circular Those of us with DC just finishing Year 11 have had two years of the dreaded CAs.
Some were more demanding than the GCSE exam itself. I recall DS sat a 4 hour paper on Mice and Men in the first half term of year 10. Not sorry to see the back of them.

LapsedPacifist I did O levels in 1974. I have to say that the Maths was infinitely easier then as was the English Language, Geography and much of the science. French was much more rigorous, we had to speak and understand the language and Eng Lit - well we didn't have the books in the exam for one thing.

DS is lucky then circular they have done all the English Language CAs in year 10 and so he can resit the paper in Jan if he needs to.

DS is doing a last Physics read through and then back to school for the concert. The french teacher has put back the CA by a week as there is too much is going so that's a help. Was chatting to some year 10 mums this afternoon and everyone was about the work load.

No books in the exam for WJEC English Lit now, Secret.

Year 10 workload is intense (as is year 11, forewarned is forearmed!). This class just finishing, class of 2012, were the first to go through it with CAs and assessment just hasn't stopped. My daughter was lucky in that she worked very hard in year 10 and in year 11 they felt those CAs couldn't be improved on, so she didn't have to redo any. And her workload has been intense - it can only be so much worse with resitting CAs too. They are a lot of preparation and planning as well as the actual multi-hour controlled writing session.

Squirrels - Sounds like there's a lot to look forward to next year then!
Was the four hour Mice & Men CA for Lit?

Webwiz - Not sure I understand how it works with the CA"s. Do they expire after a year? DD seems to think if she wants to resit the paper, she will need to do them ALL again, that doesnt sound quite right, as most were done in yr10.

I don't know how the CA's work but I assume if they took them in year 10 then they are valid until the end if year 11. The problems come with ones which are taken in year 9 or if the qualification is "cashed in" ie taken as finished.

I know DS will be offered a Jan resit if he has gone off track in the exam as I spoke to his teacher about it.

DS has been told he can't resit any of the science papers he is doing this summer but I assumed that was a school thing to get them to focus rather than an exam board one.

Circular - No the 4 hour M+M was for English language believe it or not. They had to write 3000 words IIRC and had never done anything like it before. They then did controlled assessments in English roughly every half term and sat the GCSE paper in June of Year 10.
Some of them did resits on the CAs and the exam although DS didn't. He got an A and it was clear that he was never going to improve enough for an A*. He hated English even before all this. It was endless and relentless.
Then there were the CAs in French........

Not forgetting the fact that the teachers seem to have a knack for making their CAs clash with those of other subjects! DS once had german, english lit and physics in a week with history the week after. Hopefully next year the teachers will have settled into it, although of course by the time they have the exams will probably have changed again!

Squirrels - Stange what ends up in language these days. DD did To Kill a Mocking Bird for CA's which I clearly remember doing for Lit O'Level. Dread to think what their Lit CA's will be like.....

BringBack1996 - Ahh clashes. I'm sure DD's French CA had to be rescheduled this week as clashed with Maths mock and/or science CA preparation. And some bright spark put a lunchtime DofE meeting in the middle of it all. Next week will be fun when the concert rehearsals start clashing with the remaining science CA's.

Webwiz - What's the science exam board? Ours is OCR and I'm sure that resits are possible, even encouraged, Although really hope DD doesn't need to do any as they will detract from the next module.

Kez - DD's Geog group have been given the option to leave all their CA's to yr11. ie. just do some of the research now, but start yr11 with an empty file. Not sure whether that's better or not.

Circular - the papers were WJEC.

Magenta - are you and Webwiz the same person or am I getting confused on who I've asked what?

I also did my O' levels in the Golden Age. What a myth that Golden Age is! For example I did one Shakespeare, one poet and one book for O' level English Lit. DD did many more texts and authors and was examined with extended essays (controlled assessments) as well as end of course exams. She was most certainly not allowed to bring her texts in. As other posters have said all you needed to do was cram and memorise.

The science subjects today as well are tested in much greater depth and over a much greater breadth of skill, than the so called Gold Standard O' levels. I agree that MFL are not as difficult nowadays, but then again I never really needed to know the dozens of irregular verbs I learned for French and greater emphasis on practical communication skills is welcome.

All our kids have had a really hard 2 or 3 years getting through these blasted exams, and anyone who says they are easy deserves a punch in the face. I feel desperately sorry for DD2 who will suffer the worst effects of the system changing over.

circular magenta has a DD in year 10 and I have a DS but they seem to be doing the same exam board for a lot of their exams so we are both giving the same answers

DS is doing OCR for science and I did a face when he said no resits but hopefully it won't come to that. He thought Biology and Chemistry were ok and seems prepared for physics tomorrow.