This year's GCSE maths.....

[BertrandRussell]

My ds's maths teacher has just told me that the 7000 odd schools that did the new maths GCSE as mocks recently achieved a modal score of 11% for paper 1. 11% ? Surely not!!!!!!

😲 Bloody hell....

Is @noblegiraffe around to confirm/deny?

I was hoping she might be around.

The person who did best in ds's class got 26%........a lot got single figures.

But it's not a high attaining group.

Ds got a 3 just before Xmas, which must have been around that %. He's just done another which he said he found easier this time. He needs 4 for college

Am a secondary teacher, but not a maths teacher. Think I heard maths colleague saying our bottom set were getting 3s and 4s in maths. I teach languages, and am dreading next year when the numerical grades and harder exams come in, already!

I would say bottom sets getting 3s and 4s is pretty good in this context.

The 26 (or maybe it was 28?)% equated to a 6.

No, it wasn't 11%, that would be ridiculously low!

It was 11 marks. Each paper is out of 80, so more like 14% which is way better .

The median mark for higher was 65 out of 240.

Basically the exam analysis said that for the data they were sent, it was split about 40:60 foundation to higher, and from the results it should at least be the other way around if not even more in favour of foundation.

The results for the foundation paper were also pretty low - a median of 73/240 marks for a total of all three papers, so there is plenty of space on the foundation paper for a large influx of higher tier students.

This was for Edexcel.

Oh phew 14% - that's ok then... Gosh.

This is something that I have picked up as well and am surprised that it isn't being more widely discussed. The mock GCSE was very hard for middle achievers and below. My dd has been told by her maths teacher to 'lower her expectations'. It seems to me that they just haven't had time to build up to the standards now required.

That's worrying then as ds is set 2.

Actually, the abysmal results across the board should be reassuring rather than worrying. Roughly the top 70% of students will get a 4 or higher and the top 20% of students will get a 7 or higher regardless of how low that will make the grade boundaries.

To be in the top 20% of the higher paper just sat would require a mark of 104 out of 240. Obviously that doesn't mean that 104/240 in the summer would get a 7, there will be a mass exodus to Foundation and also students will have had months more learning and take the exam seriously so the marks will go up, but what it does mean is that even if you got under 50% in the mock, things are still looking hopeful for a top grade in the summer.

What's not helping him is they are constantly being told how much harder it is. It has completely undermined his confidence. But heyho, he just needs that 4.

If he's doing higher and he got 11% then it's no wonder his confidence is shot. Has anyone suggested he switch to foundation?

crickey. I knew the marks were low, but not that low. No wonder there is another set of mocks.

Noble, I hadn't thought of that. I will see what the next mock mark is. I don't have much faith in the maths department!

Sorry about the 11%/11 marks mix up- my mistake. I remember struggling with %ages when I was at school!

Ds said that a lot of people in his group found the wording of the questions really hard- when they looked over it later they said it wasn't the maths that was the problem. They didn't understand the question and panicked. Which seems to tie in with teachers not having been given enough time to get kids used to the new exams

Does this apply to both AQA and edexcel?

The wording of the questions has changed, the are fewer straightforward "solve this equation" type questions and more problem solving in context type questions, which everybody finds harder.

My class are all aiming for grades 5-7, and in the mock they were scoring between 30-110 out of 240 in the higher paper. I assume other schools are now in a similar position to mine, in that we have only just finished the actual content and are now beginning to focus on revision and exam technique. In previous years we'd have finished the content by Christmas at the latest and have had quite a few weeks of revision before the mock. We're moving anybody who is aiming for a 5 to the foundation paper, so I assume other schools will do similar.

I'm not actually too disappointed with the results from my class, although I know they are. Most of them are responding to the results by starting to do some independent revision, attending revision sessions after school, completing the practice papers I'm giving them more thoroughly, etc. Which IMO is a good thing and will lead to better results in the summer.

Yes, it feels like we are staring into the abyss with maths and eng, however if you are really interested I've copied a link

ofqual.blog.gov.uk/2017/02/03/grade-boundaries-the-problems-with-predictions/

www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/Images/298710-a-possible-formula-to-determine-the-percentage-of-candidates-who-should-receive-the-new-gcse-grade-9-in-each-subject.pdf

A summary of which is the same amount of kids will pass this year as every other year (roughly), some more muddle with the fact the grades sets are different but they are basically saying 'don't panic.' They will fix it after the test so the results show what they want. It is beyond appalling and anything that gets this out, onto social media/public awareness is a very good thing. If you can stomach reading this document, the level of contradiction is astounding....we have had grade inflation, we need a new system, the new system will follow the old system. Don't worry everything will stay the same, despite the only reasons for the change being the old system was wrong!!!

However for the kids going through this, it is utterly crap. No grade descriptors exists (e.g for grade 9), it's dog eat dog. Your kid simply has to do better than others. Even if this is marginal (hence the comment about 11 marks, 11% being critical).

If you read the final paragraph of the second document...

It might have been sensible if in fact this was thought through before the courses were designed, rather than an afterthought for the students, teachers and parents

Is the breakdown of the 7000 schools that did the mock anywhere? Ds says they were shown a graph. I'd be really interested to see it.

I thought was interesting. Particularly what he says about the disappearance of the "E" safety net

The person in my ds's class who got 26 marks got a 6. Which is just ridiculous.

Tiggy,, your test of resilience point is interesting. And I suspect means that lower ability, non academically inclined children are going to suffer disproportionately. As are schools with a high %age of children like that.

Dd2 got 55% in a mock IGCSE paper. She's in line for a 7. Is IGCSE easier??