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Original poster

Anger over AQA GCSE Higher Biology - any info?

90 replies

Abuelita · 18/05/2016 11:26

Twitter erupted yesterday after candidates taking AQA GCSE Unit 1 Higher Biology complained about the exam. One 15 year-old I spoke to said the paper didn't have much to do with biology and wasn't happy. Has anyone else been involved with the fallout?
www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2016/05/students-take-to-twitter-to-express-anger-about-gcse-biology-paper

OP posts:

TheFallenMadonna · 18/05/2016 21:37

Definitely. I always warn my students that there will be questions where their first reaction will be "she didn't teach us that". Deep breath, look for key words, work out what's going on!

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 18/05/2016 21:46

As an actual science skill that's really important too. Whether you finish your science education at GCSE or take it further.

mumsneedwine · 18/05/2016 21:46

Students need to look for the key words. Question about horse feet ? No, it was about evolution and natural selection. Drunk teenagers ? Interpret a graph and explain results. Independent company ? I asked some year 4s this today, explaining the context of a drug trial and every single one of them guessed it meant a company that had nothing to do with the trial. The paper had loads of biology in, and kids learn to apply their knowledge, not just regurgitate facts. Done now. Move on to next one.

lem73 · 18/05/2016 21:52

Ds had a moan that he doesn't know why he studied genetic engineering, the menstrual cycle etc when what he got asked about was drunk rats. I thought that he was just being a moaner until I read identical comments on twitter. He also realised last night that he answered the question about " independent company" wrongly and now he's worried,

elephantoverthehill · 18/05/2016 21:55

My slightly bemused tutor group discussed this paper with me this morning. Although they were surprised at some of the questions, all said that they could answer them, or attempt an answer. So I reckon that's a positive.

TheFallenMadonna · 18/05/2016 21:56

There is always stuff that doesn't get tested. It's a one hour paper. I'm still bitter at the lack of coordinate geometry on my A level Maths paper, and that was 27 years ago.

GinandJag · 18/05/2016 22:00

I thought it was a harder than average paper but the "outrage" questions were perfectly answerable using the information provided in the question.

mumsneedwine · 18/05/2016 22:03

Genetic engineering was on paper. The pesky mosquitoes were GM and there were lots of questions on how they were modified and why. One of my students got slightly confused as they only released male ones and when asked why he stated because they were all homosexual.
Tell kids to look for the key phrases and words. It's about decay and CO2 ? Great, I will tell you everything I know about the carbon cycle.

NicknameUsed · 18/05/2016 22:16

DD realised that the mosquito one was about genetic engineering. She said she didn't have a clue about an independent company, but when she told me what she wrote I said that it was correct.

Some posters seem to be missing my point about the ambiguity of this paper compared to past papers. DD has practised several past papers and was getting As and A*s on them so she clearly knows how to answer GCSE biology papers from the last three years. She said that the wording on yesterday's paper was confusing in parts.

Bolograph · 18/05/2016 22:21

DD has practised several past papers and was getting As and As on them so she clearly knows how to answer GCSE biology papers from the last three years*

Just because last year's paper took one slant doesn't mean that this year's won't. Past papers aren't part of the specification, and the exam board is perfectly entitled to alter the assessment (including the balance of sizes of questions, the rubric and anything else) so long as it stays within the specification. There was some ludicrous debate on MN last year about how that year's GCSE whatever had some 8 mark questions, when on the past papers the questions were either 6 or 10 marks (or something like that), and how were children supposed to prepare? How about "by learning the material on the syllabus?"

Bolograph · 18/05/2016 22:22

doesn't mean that this year's won't take a different approach.

SuburbanRhonda · 18/05/2016 22:28

As long as there's an opportunity for some posters to take a pop at 16-year-olds students it's all good

UhtredRagnorsson · 18/05/2016 22:39

The independent company thing was definitely on syllabus and taught. I think it was in revision guides too. DS wouldn't have known about it otherwise.

mumsneedwine · 18/05/2016 22:56

I have my own 16 year old who took this paper as well as being a teacher who has 3 classes who took it. So I have had parent and staff perspective and I've now seen the paper. It's really not that dissimilar to previous years and I think kids will have done better that they think. Twitter last night was really funny and I love teenagers when they get a cob on. That's why I work with them. I have not had a pop at anyone - just tried to get students to realise they must apply their knowledge. As I've taught them. But homosexual mosquitos and the many definitions of alcopos have given me a giggle today. I have yet to find a year 11 who knows what an alcopop is (I've had a lollipop made of booze and a can of coke with booze). I'm thinking AQA are stuck in the 90s.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 18/05/2016 22:57

I'm not sure the 16 year old students expected their twitter ramblings to be published in the DM any more than posters on here do when their thread gets published.

It may be possible that some schools are not preparing their pupils well enough if they are expecting the papers to look like previous ones. That isn't the fault of the board setting the exam though.

Nibledbyducks · 18/05/2016 23:30

DS2 sat the paper. He said that he'd told all his friends that gender thought it was unlikely that the menstrual cycle would be in the paper because it had been on the last 3 practice papers and that they should revise drugs and alcohol instead because there hadn't been any questions on that. He's now being very smug....

Nibledbyducks · 18/05/2016 23:34

Not sure where gender came from! Weird autocorrect!

PiqueABoo · 18/05/2016 23:49

a can of coke with booze). I'm thinking AQA are stuck in the 90s.

Well there was an 'alcola'. Like literally like.

Mosquitos are of course very erm.. buzzy because they've already engineered some real ones with 'gene drives' using CRISPR.

NicknameUsed · 19/05/2016 07:20

"The independent company thing was definitely on syllabus and taught. I think it was in revision guides too."

It was never taught at DD's school, and there is nothing in the CGP guide about independent companies testing drugs.

However, DD made an educated guess and gave the right answer.

UhtredRagnorsson · 19/05/2016 07:30

It's part of the how science works unit.

Bolograph · 19/05/2016 08:01

It was never taught at DD's school, and there is nothing in the CGP guide about independent companies testing drugs.

Page 7 of the AQA specification, "GCSE Biology for certification June 2014 onwards (version 1.1)"

"Evidence must be scrutinised for any potential bias of the experimenter, such as funding sources or allegiances."

Questions on exam papers, particularly those aimed at distinguishing the higher grades, won't just be recall of facts.

MedSchoolRat · 19/05/2016 08:20

DD had mention of bias in scientific reporting as part of her geography GCSE. Biology links to medicine & medicine is obsessed with hunting for bias in medical reports.

UhtredRagnorsson · 19/05/2016 08:51

Bolograph thank you. Since the other posters DC obviously didn't remember this point I don't see how they can say categorically it wasn't taught. Since my DS did remember, I can say it was taught. No way would my DS have imagined that. Though heaven knows there's enough in the news on almost a daily basis about medical ethics around testing and research that you'd think anyone would know (Wakefield has been back in the news again recently, for example).

If it helps the other poster to feel less bitter, I highly doubt DS managed to convey on paper that he knew what they were getting at since his dyslexia and othe SpLDs mean that he finds it almost impossible to articulate his thoughts adequately in writing. If it had been an oral exam he'd have been fine. Writing sentences? That make sense? Not so much. :(

UhtredRagnorsson · 19/05/2016 08:55

Also - Ben Goldacre. He gets a platform to bang on about this stuff every week, right? I mean - this was supposed to be explicitly taught and apparently it was covered in at least one of the many revision videos DS watched (I dunno about the CGP book, DS does have it but I suspect he's never even opened it, he finds it easier to remember stuff from videos since then he doesn't have the extra issue of putting effort in just to make the damn words stop jumping round - so he gets more done by watching and listening then by gritting his teeth and ploughing through the printed word) but even if it hadn't been, it's pretty basic general knowledge in the sort of 'science space', right?

TheTeaFairy · 19/05/2016 09:03

My DS who has not done a stroke of revision said the exam was easy - I am praying that native intelligence wins out

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