New Maths GCSE - Urgent Call For Advice

[geasley]

My DD has just moved into Y10 and has been dropped from top set in Maths to middle, and told she is doing the new Foundation GCSE. She's had a couple of lessons in this set and is back doing long multiplication. She had an encouraging year in maths last year, consistently scoring B's (71% in pre-Christmas exams) - but had a worse result (59%) in summer exams. School is saying that with increased difficulty of new exams foundation tier would be a safer bet. She's v strong academically (particularly in similar subjects such as computing - 88% score - and is doing triple science award - where she also scored A's). Am anxious that doing the Foundation exam may adversely impact her chances at the top tier uni's - particularly if she chooses to take science based studies like computing, further. Any advice would be very welcome....have meeting with maths dept tomorrow.

Am anxious that doing the Foundation exam may adversely impact her chances at the top tier uni's - particularly if she chooses to take science based studies like computing

No-one knows the details yet, and noblegiraffe is the expert, but (a) historically the outcomes for people taking A Level maths from Foundation GCSE are appalling and that is unlikely to get better and (b) A Level maths is required for the majority of STEM courses in selective universities and the direction of travel is for that to become more, not less, the case. But people with a C at GCSE maths in Higher Tier equally have poor prospects at A Level, because (i) GCSE maths really shouldn't be hard if you're of A Level standard and (ii) it's possible to get a C at GCSE currently without studying the full syllabus or at least the full range of questions.

Someone who wants to do STEM at a selective university should be performing well at GCSE-standard maths without too much effort and if they aren't, the question of whether they get a C from the Foundation or the Higher tier is something of a second-order problem; the problem is the C, not the tier.

the problem is the C

To clarify that: schools that get decent numbers of pupils with decent grades at A2 tend to insist on an A at GCSE for maths A Level and and A* if you want to do Further Maths.

Some schools allow people to take A Level maths with a B at GCSE, but that tends to be (again, ng is the expert) the politics of the school overriding both the teachers and the data, and the outcomes for students with Bs are not great (didn't ng once say that the modal outcome for students with a B at GCSE was a U at AS, or am I mis-remembering?)

Being able to do A Level maths with a C at GCSE is unheard of.

How this will map to the new grades is an unknown, but whether 4/5 maps to B or C is slightly besides the point: students likely to get "top tier uni" STEM A Level grades will be doing A Level maths and getting an A or at the very least a B, and doing that with anything other than very good GCSE results is extremely difficult now. The new GCSE won't change the basic principle, which is if you can't easily get high grades at GCSE, A Level is going to be a stretch.

I'd be interested to know how the meeting with the maths department went.

Having just had a look at the entry requirements for computer science for various universities, the top ones require maths A-level (which would not be possible for the OP's DD on current predicted grade regardless of tier of entry). Others, like Birmingham don't require maths A-level, but require a B at maths GCSE. I suspect that they would want higher than a 5, which is a low B, so also out for the OP's DD.

I agree the major issue is that the OP's DD isn't currently headed for a good enough maths grade, regardless of tier of entry. If she is good at sciences, then perhaps hiring a tutor, or doing a lot of work at home would help get her maths up to the same level?

Others, like Birmingham don't require maths A-level, but require a B at maths GCSE.

And students arriving in courses that don't require A Level maths but where most applicants in fact have it usually have to do an A Level standard maths course as a compulsory part of the first year. Such courses have a high failure rate. If you couldn't cope with A Level maths, doing work of a similar standard at a much faster pace in a university environment is not a recipe for an easy life.

How did your meeting go op? Are things any clearer?

I emailed the head of maths today, no reply so far. Dd came home and said that they are reviewing the marks of children in set 3 in order to further sub-divide the group.

Also asked what else we can do at home to maximise dd learning. Not sure a tutor will work for us as not based in the UK.

We will see.