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!!!!!!

Red it is the top 20% of all candidates. All the top 20% will be taking the higher paper. It's pretty pear shaped at the moment, but not that pear shape that less than 20% of candidates will take the higher paper.

noble, could you let me know which topic was missed in the CPG revision guide please? DD has this book and is relying on it heavily for teaching herself the syllabus revision. She's also using the CGP 9-1 workbook alongside this, so I guess the same area will be missing there too.

Thanks Noble, DD is predicted a 7 but that may be a a little optimistic as she gets panic attacks so is less likely do herself justice.
So if G7+ is the top 20% sitting the exam, then if less students sit it, surely getting a good grade will be harder as there will be less students in the top 20% than in previous years? IE less than just the annual size of cohort swing.

why they missed Stem and Leaf diagrams and now I look back, the Peterson Capture-Recapture method (higher only). This would be for Edexcel because even though the exam boards are all supposed to be doing the same stuff, they're not

This was flagged up ages ago though so I would hope that they've reprinted by now.

Error why would there be fewer students taking the exam rather than just moving between tiers? Even if fewer kids do take the exam this year they compare cohorts to see how bright this cohort is to last year and adjust accordingly. They have said that roughly the same proportion will get a 7+ this year as got an A+ last year (which Edexcel said is about 20%) which means they can adjust it if necessary.

Anyway, if there are fewer students in the cohort, there should be fewer bright students to compete against for the top grades so it should all work out :)

Sorry it's been a long week (& it's only Wednesday!)
So for my benefit, say there are 100,000 in the cohort, and 40,000 take the Foundation paper and 60,000 take the Higher Paper.
Then Grade boundaries are worked out based on the 100,000 students, rather than (say) the top 20% of those taking the Higher paper?
Is that correct?

That's correct.

Yes that's right. So it doesn't matter about kids switching between foundation and higher at the lower end, that 20% at the top will remain the same 20,000 kids.

Thank you

Has anyone got results of latest mocks? My son got 150/240 - interested in what grade boundaries other schools would use for this mark

Was it higher or foundation, and which exam board?

Higher - edxecel

My son got 50/240 grade 4 he found the exam hard hopefully with extra work on new spec questions he can achieve a 5 or 6. All the pass papers he's been getting 70 marks on each paper....

Just caught up with this thread, what an utter mess

Our Maths department has said that the difficulty with the paper is not just the language used and how students have to work out what it actually means, but also that the problems rely on more than one type of maths to work them out. Trigonometry and algebra within the same question for example.

Just got to my laptop, my school would put 150/240 at around a 7 - usual caveats that this could be complete bollocks apply.

a local school put this as a 6. So it is definitely bollocks.

My ds school had told the children the estimate 30/80 on each paper is a 5

Has anyone been given any indications of possible grade boundaries on the foundation paper?

Hi 'educate' for the foundation paper it's alot harder to get a 5 it's 192/240 estimate no one's sure though it's just a prediction from our school

My DD got 46 out of 80 on the "hard" paper everyone was going on about and was told that she and a couple of others in the class were in the top 15% in the country. They were not given grades as they are meaningless at this point.

I have read this thread and feel so sad/worried for the dc in this cohort how can they do their best with this cluster f**k going on around them. My dd is in year 8 and I hope things will be sorted out by the time she sits her exams if she was in year 11 I would be so worried. Good luck to all this years cohort I hope they all achieve grades that reflect the effort that they have put in.

My ds did his second set of mocks for maths and this time he was 3 marks down from the 1st mocks still a -4 and he's been working so hard.
He finds the 3 papers hard because 50% are like physics type of question and there's not enough practice papers anywhere for him to practice on I've bought him revision cards the new style and he's got a tutor that comes once a week which there's only 7 sessions more and exams start.
I'm well stressed because if all this new mark scheme honestly the poor children.
Has any one any idea the best way to practice new style maths questions?

Happy. Cgp books have published some practice papers. Also, if you search on the tes resources site, some teachers have published their own versions of papers. Some of these may be free or you may have to pay a small amount for them.

Thanks 'educate' will look at that site and the teachers have gave my ds 3 papers today he will try doing them this week. The papers are out 80 marks.
My ds did a paper at home which his tutor gave him to do and then the tutor marked the paper he got 28/80 Which is an improvement hopefully he should go up with more practice it's just these papers are very hard compared to all the previous years of gcse maths my ds would have got an A if he did them because his target grades are a 7 for maths but now we all will be happy if he gets a 5.
Do u think it's too late to Improve from-4 to a 5?