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!!!!!!

Just wondering at some of the low raw scores. Is it because the Ed Excel mock is harder because it hasn't been taught as per the spec, or is it that schools have been marking mega-conservatively.

Btw, are all questions wordier than questions of old.

You know when at KS2 last year loads of kids failed to meet the expected standards because they were expected to fit a whole new primary curriculum into a year and learn about all this grammar stuff that they hadn't needed to know before in a few months?

It's like that.

Just read the Ed Excel GCSE (9-1) Mathematics Mock Exam Report. Certainly, interesting reviewing the performance on questions, Appendix 2. I realise I may need to push my children to intensively practise questions for the non calculator papers

Portico please can you post a link to the report?

Sorry. I can't. A maths teacher friend showed me teacher access site called exam wizard, which he has prescribed access to. I glanced the Report there. Sorry, I cannot post link as I do not have access to it.

Ah, at least that explains why I can't find it! You mentioned non-calc paper so that's a useful tip, thank you

The info on non calculator rang true as my children try to use calculator where possible. It was suggested that students practise non calculator questions in readiness for the exam.

Noblegiraffe, I had a look at the Oct 2016 mock papers and the Spring 2017 ones. My jaw dropped, and has stayed that way since. The problem solving questions, and certainly the non calculator papers were sobering,

I've stayed mainly down the Foundation end this year which has been bad enough. My main exposure to Higher was last year when I looked at all the sample assessment materials in horror, and promptly moved my C-grade group who had been doing higher down to Foundation. Totally the right move!

Noble you are right. The oct 2016 mocks examiner report suggested those achieving less than ten marks in each higher test paper would be best served in the Foundation paper. Hindsight would be great if the govt gave the exam boards and schools 2 more years to prepare.

Noble, not sure if I asked this before. But, which textbook do you favour for Ed Excel. My kid's school uses My Maths, I have Pearson at home,and the CGP Textbook. I don't like CGP revision guides but the textbook is a great tome.

We've not bought any textbooks because they were all useless, and in some cases worse than useless. I've not seen the CGP one though.

And now we can't afford textbooks...

CGP. You can view sample pages here:
www.cgpbooks.co.uk/Parent/books-gcse-maths-new.books_edexcel_maths_textbook?range=new

I rather like the Corbett Maths revision cards - they have a QR code to take you to videos and practice questions.

Re the new exams - they are soooooo wordy!! Many of our lower set students are finding them inaccessible due to the volume of reading and the amount of wading through you need to do to understand what they are asking! They just don't have the resilience to cope with them.

The recent mocks I felt were pretty time pressured!

Thanks portico that section actually looks all right. You're right about the size though, totally impractical. They need to split them into Foundtion, Intermediate and Higher really.

Corbettmaths has some textbook questions on his website too which are pretty good. Unfortunately they don't cover all topics yet, especially new higher topics because obviously it's a massive job to write them all. God knows where he gets the time.

This has potential

bland.in/edexcel_9-1.html

Ollycat, my kids are like that. Mine are bad readers. I try to get the, to underline key verbs in the question. I also try to teach them the Ed Excel command words.

Sorry noble, try this too. If I get the URL wrong, I think it's St Albans School, even though it might say Suffolk Maths

www.suffolkmaths.co.uk

www.suffolkmaths.co.uk/pages/SoW/1StudentKS3-4%20Revision.htm

portico do they qualify for readers? It can make a huge difference to a students processing.

As you say highlighting key words helps as does writing a question mark next to the bit which is the actual question rather then waffle. Also knowing times tables, formula inside out and back to front so that they don't waste time on this sort of stuff.

Hi Ollycat.

Apologies, I am not sure I understood you, when you stated:

"portico do they qualify for readers? It can make a huge difference to a students processing."

Depending on many things students can qualify for access arrangements- e.g. Extra time, a person to read the paper to them, reading out loud, a scribe etc.

Oh, I see Ollycat. My boys are lazy readers. They are at super-selective grammar school, and so can read. They are just petulant, and see one thing in the question and run with it. Hence, why I make them do CIE O Level Maths papers, which can be wordy.

I'm finding that learners who have done L2 functional skills are coping better with the wordy questions.

Pestilentialone, I agree with you. Younger son worked through L2 Functional Skills CGP Maths/English books - when he was preparing for 11+ plus exam, prior to start of Y6.

Tbh, it is only because I bought an iPad two years ago that my reading has improved. I will read anything, and very easy to automatically find the meanings of unfamiliar words. If only my boys would do the same, instead of playing games or watching tacky YouTube videos.

Reading one article a day on the Guardian or Independent would suffice,

Dd's tutor is an Edexcel examiner. He is amazed at some of the last mock questions saying about one that he has never seen one like that before . They are being called in for training soon.