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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

Year 11 mock GCSE Maths

50 replies

kilmuir · 17/12/2016 14:23

How did it go for your teenager? Our school have hinted that it was hard and much work needs to be done!

OP posts:

EllenJanethickerknickers · 19/12/2016 18:01

A 6 is worth a middle to high B and a 7 is worth an A, Draylon, so he's doing well. I did Macbeth for O level English Lit (back in the day...)

noblegiraffe · 19/12/2016 18:11

dd got 37-44-46 (127/240), which was graded as a 5

She needs to move to my school - we would have graded this as a 7 according to the grade boundaries we used! (Edexcel).

pointythings · 19/12/2016 18:33

Jeez, Noble - how would your school have graded DD1's 192/240?

It just goes to show that this year is going to be shit with nobody knowing what the grade boundaries will be. I really feel for the teachers having to support students through mocks with no real handle on what they are supposed to be doing in terms of grades and feedback.

BertrandRussell · 19/12/2016 18:35

"I may be wrong but I regard 7 as a high 'B' which is where I'd put DS academically in Maths"

Can I ask why you regard it as a high B when all the advice and guidance that's been issued says it's an A?

Laniakea · 19/12/2016 18:40

bloody hell noble

It's all a bloody nightmare imo.

noblegiraffe · 19/12/2016 18:42

pointy we would have had that as a high 8. Was this Edexcel?

Laniakea · 19/12/2016 18:43

oh & grade/number equivalencies.

DD's have said 7=A, 8=A, 9=super-duper A & they aren't predicting any for anything because in their opinion it is entirely down to what the private school decide to do wrt iGCSE/GCSE this year.

myyoyo · 19/12/2016 18:45

Does everyone do the same mock?

noblegiraffe · 19/12/2016 18:50

Everyone who is taking Edexcel would have taken the same mock as they put out a special secure mock paper. I assume the other exam boards will have done the same.

myyoyo · 19/12/2016 19:18

Why are schools giving different marks? Doesn't the exam board provide any grade boundaries for the mock?

noblegiraffe · 19/12/2016 19:19

No. No one knows what the grade boundaries will be so everyone is having to make them up.

Draylon · 19/12/2016 19:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

pointythings · 19/12/2016 19:52

Yep, Edexcel. DD thought it was a low 8. She feels she missed some easy marks.

Well, she has a second set of mocks in February so we will see what those bring. One thing is for sure, I'm going to make her take breaks and have some fun over Christmas. She's clearly on track and can afford (and needs) the rest.

MsAwesomeDragon · 19/12/2016 20:05

It sounds like my school and nobles school have picked similar grade boundaries. We looked at past cohorts and what proportion got each grade, then applied similar proportions to the current year 11s. So we normally get about 30-40 kids getting A/A* in the mocks so we chose grade boundaries that give 30 ish kids grades 7/8/9. Same thing for grades 4/5/6. My hod sorted out the grade boundaries since the exam board aren't giving anything away.

Loads of my pupils (set 2, aiming for grades 5/6/7 on higher paper) are 1/2/3 grades away from their targets. Some of this is down to laziness but for others it's the way the questions were phrased, exam technique, not having spent much class time on revision (because we've still got new topics to learn as there's more content). My overwhelming message to kids who are disappointed has been "don't dispair, we can work on this. Hard work, but we can improve on that grade". I suspect some of them will be revising maths over Christmas (probably not the ones who need it the most)

Notmuchtosay1 · 20/12/2016 08:41

Does anyone know what level they need in maths for A levels? My son has not yet had his mock results. They did them beginning of Dec. But not getting results till mid Jan. He's just bought all the application forms home to do A levels at his school 6th form. Most of the subjects he likes say he needs a B in maths. It doesn't mention the new levels. But he's only doing the foundation level. So he can't get a B equivalent. It's annoying as he's predicted a minimum of B in all other subjects apart from maths. It's a level 5.
I'm not sure whether a 5 counts as a c?

OhYouBadBadKitten · 20/12/2016 08:55

It will depend on the college Notmuch. Unfortunately they are as much in the dark as anyone else and if they set grade boundaries now, it's quite likely that they will miss their quota of students by some margin and have to rethink their offers in August.

I think the main message to kids if you are working hard and doing your best nil desperandum. It'll all come out in the wash. Let the teachers do the despairing on your behalf.

Sofabitch · 20/12/2016 09:03

My DD was predicted a B. She'd doing her mock the first day back, however they are also putting her in for the foundation paper now. (As they are almost everyone)

It's all a total mess. The colleges around her are setting the bar this yer at level 4 but university's are apparently saying level 5 will be the minimum expected grade. And if they get a 4 now...who in 2 years will remember that they were the first year.

Half of her year sat the old style GCSES last year in an attempt to avoid this. I've had to get a maths tutor something I vowed I'd never do. But she's a good student predicted As in everything else at a failing school. They just weren't teaching the maths well at all.

EllenJanethickerknickers · 20/12/2016 10:42

Notsomuch, foundation goes up to a level 5 which is between a high C and a low B equivalent. I would expect that sixth forms will ask for a grade 5 or 6 in maths to do science A level, a grade 6 or 7 to do maths A level.

errorofjudgement · 20/12/2016 17:34

Which A levels is your DS considering?

Violetcharlotte · 20/12/2016 18:14

Not good :( My sons school got them to resit a couple of weeks ago as everyone did much worse than expected. I'm not feeling hopeful about the outcome of the actual GCSEs and have redesigned myself to the fact he will be resitting it next year.

noblegiraffe · 20/12/2016 18:23

If everyone is doing much worse than expected in terms of raw scores, that means the grade boundaries will be on the floor. Everyone can't do worse than expected!

I am a bit worried about what seems to be old B grade candidates being taken from higher and put onto foundation, thus giving up their chance of a 6.

noblegiraffe · 20/12/2016 18:28

Most of the subjects he likes say he needs a B in maths. It doesn't mention the new levels.

Which is totally ridiculous, they know the new levels are coming! I would say that if they required a B in maths, then they would probably be expecting a 6 in the new levels, as a 5 would be a high C/low B. Also, they would probably be wary of students who only sat Foundation paper, even if they got a 5. However, that approach may not leave them with enough students for their courses so they might revise this once results actually come in.

franckiesmum · 03/01/2017 10:04

DD is in set 1 and predicted 9 and only got 29% on the first mock paper. She said she nearly burst into tears halfway through even though she'd revised really hard but much of the content hadn't been taught. With one exception, Nobody in the class got more than 40% but one girl got 76%. It will be interesting how the 2nd paper goes but all very worrying for her as she has set her heart on Maths and Further Maths at A'level.

errorofjudgement · 07/01/2017 10:33

It's heartbreaking when they work so hard but the results don't reflect it. I think the students need to remember that in most schools (certainly in DDs) there's still a fair chunk of the syllabus to learn, and so the results will improve. I hope the other papers went better.

Laniakea · 07/01/2017 13:13

Most of the subjects he likes say he needs a B in maths. It doesn't mention the new levels.

At dd's 6th form they are asking for a 5 to do A levels, a 6 for subjects that previously required a B (biology & chemistry) and a 7 do to physics. I'm not sure what the requirement is to do maths A level.

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