Anger over AQA GCSE Higher Biology - any info?

[Abuelita]

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

hmmm... I think the paper sounded really silly tbh. Dd found it easy but not a good reflection of the work she had put in, but hey ho. I haven't heard anyone seriously complaining about it? Just a lot of teens being actually really funny on social media.

I think following the news is completely irrelevant for AQA Biology!

DD chipped in about how her geogphy teacher harps on at them to answer the actual question, that Miss takes perverse delight in writing red lines thru exam material that didn't answer the right question.

My history teacher used to do this with our essays, many years ago. Sir put his red pen through anything that didn't address the actual question, and wrote 'Relevance!' in the margin.

Perhaps teachers should write RTFQ on the board at the start of every revision session? That and the instructions at the head of the paper, which was also dinned into us.

(Any other Antonia Forest fans here? Thinking of the exams in Cricket Term.)

Nyama - well since the paper the other day included a question on stuff that has been reported in the news, and is often a subject of news attention, I'd disagree - however my point was more about other subjects - people who 'don't follow the news' are going to find they are at a disadvantage in some subjects at A level because they will have such a narrow world view. Or indeed no world view. But...whatever. Have it your way.

Harriet Vane Indeed! Traps for Heffalumps need to be avoided!

The question did not address "business issues" relating to an independent company but rather related to scientific research being done by an independent company. It was designed to make pupils think rather than churn and learn!

My view is that those pupils who manage to get A/A*s GCSE grades on the basis of their ability to put in the work and recall what they memorised are going to find it much harder to get through their A levels than those who are also capable of applying their knowledge.

I have heard of many excellent Year 11 pupils getting easy As who struggle to get Cs at A levels and I wonder whether it might because of this. Hopefully this paper will highlight the need to incorporate more lateral thinking in GCSE course work so that pupils are more prepared for A levels studying.

swingofthings exactly.

I think some students and parents seem to think that anyone who works hard enough should be able to get A*

My dd is y8 but her school keep talking about developing a 'skills based foundation on which to build knowledge' as that is going to be key to GCSEs, I guess this is the kind of thing they are talking about.

That's why I wondered about the mastery swing. I'm more familiar with primary than secondary so don't know how much the concept of 'mastery' has taken hold there. But it could be that the exam boards are catching on to it which might benefit those schools that don't prepare for exams by drilling past papers and trying to work out what will and won't come up.

"swingofthings* then schools should be teaching the students the skills to think laterally, because DD can't. She has had no practice at doing so. What she can do is demonstrate that she can not only regurgitate facts, but understand them.

I think you are over thinking the question and the type of learner who would have answered correctly
It had nothing to do with thinking laterally or listening to the news. It was a general knowledge question worth one mark.

I think some students and parents seem to think that anyone who works hard enough should be able to get A*

Let me fix that for you:

I think some students and parents think that everyone should get A* as of right, and any exam which everyone doesn't get top marks in is unfair.

Reading the question would be a huge start for some - I teach Maths - all our Yr 10's who have sat this exam last week are doing GCSE Statistics in 4 weeks time - we have covered medical experiments and having results verified as part of that course. I had students moaning at me yesterday about how biology was really hard and didn't like it when I asked why and pointed out we had covered that only the morning of their biology exam (by fluke!) - different subject so no lateral thinking applied.

The number of students who jump straight into the questions but don't read the first couple of lines which often have key info is worrying.

Re the C1 Maths paper and the Fraction they had to solve without a calculator - it was something so easy I would expect my middle set Yr 9's to be able to do it!