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!!!!!!

Some Edexcel higher marks from the latest round of mocks and the grades suggsted by the school - these aren't grade boundaries

81 - 5
86 - 5
101 - 6
105 - 6
115 - 6
141 - 7
219 - 9?

Can anyone tell me the percentage needed for a 9 in maths as my dds is predicted an 8 and is in year 10. (She has been an 8 since year 9). Her aspirational level is a 9. As she is really good at maths her lack of progress this year suggests the new GCSE must really be hard!

Re last comment I mean an aqa grading system

Can anyone tell me the percentage needed for a 9 in maths as my dds is predicted an 8 and is in year 10.

No! Have you missed the entire point of this and many other threads?! NOONE KNOWS WHAT THE GRADE BOUNDARIES WILL BE UNTIL AFTER RESULTS DAY!

I dont think this is true. Dd is predicted a 4/5 for maths and she really struggles its her weakest subjust and she got 18% on paper 1

I feel sorry for the students in the lower sets and I feel that the gap between high achievers and lower is going to widen. Seems ridiculous to expect the children in lower groups to sit the same paper as the top achievers. My gdd is a high achiever but even she is daunted by the new maths exam which includes some A level questions in the higher paper. Those who are a 3 will be taking the same paper so I hear which is totally beyond my comprehension. Higher paper is for a 3-9.

I do understand the thread and teachers do have an idea of what boundaries may be. I have always worked on the premise of 50% is a 5 60% is a 6 70% is an 7 80% is an 8 and 90% is a 9. In actual fact if you look on the exam sites you may get an idea. My method above has always worked out within 3% with results of assessment marks and teachers grades given for them in my gdd school.

Higher tier is grades 4 - 9 - so the same as the current higher tier sostenuto

Foundation goes up to grade 5 so I doubt any kid around the grade 3/4 borderline will be doing higher tier, and I bet most 4/5 borderline kids will also do foundation.

Higher paper is 4-9 with a discretionary grade 3 at the bottom as a safety net. Anyone working at a grade 3, and probably a lot of grade 4 kids should be sitting foundation. To enter them for higher would be madness.

sostenuto - you can work on that premise if you want - but noone knows!

The fact that the average score on the mocks was less than 20% should tell you that to get a grade 5 you'll probably need nowhere near 50%. In fact 50% could well be a 7.

You're guessing and teachers are guessing.

Yes I know it is a minefield at the moment with everyone guessing and stressing. It is going to be hard for those sitting the new exams this year, but I have heard they will be more lenient on them because of the changeover and confusion. Maybe one reason why a 4 is going to now be OK instead of a 5. I try to go on lots of sites to see if I can glean anymore info, but it is not easy.

Yes I know it is a minefield at the moment with everyone guessing and stressing. It is going to be hard for those sitting the new exams this year, but I have heard they will be more lenient on them because of the changeover and confusion. Maybe one reason why a 4 is going to now be OK instead of a 5. I try to go on lots of sites to see if I can glean anymore info, but it is not easy.

Not sure if aqa maths same as edxel I only know about aqa

I'm not sure how markers can be more lenient - at GCSE level maths is either right or wrong, workings out are either there or absent.

The percentage of kids getting grade 4+ will be the same as got grade C last year.

I don;t think there's any significant difference between the different boards.

Noble.. my DD is currently working at a 3 and is being put in for the higher. He school seem to think that its easier to get a better grade on the higher paper.

You need a higher percentage on the foundation paper. My son seems to know some of the harder topics better than the easier ones so has been entered for higher.

Sofa what raw marks did your DD get in her mocks? If she really is getting very low scores then the school is going against exam board advice to enter her for higher, she is risking getting a U.

Noble,

Is it correct the foundation GCSE paper will not cover Surds & Trigonometry?

Edexcel Foundation includes right angled triginometry and exact value of sin 30, cos, 30 etc. No surds.

TrigOnometry, of course!

Trig is on foundation (soh cah toa), surds aren't.

However they are supposed to know exact trig values which involve surds so lack of joined-up thinking.

How on earth can you teach exact trig without surds? That's crackers.

That's what we've all been wondering! Linking to Pythag and 'special triangles' helped somewhat, but this is something AS students struggle with!

I haven't the faintest idea what the rationale behind including exact trig values on Foundation is. It's totally bonkers, and anyone with any maths teaching experience should have spotted this instantly and removed it from the syllabus.

I know surds are on higher paper for aqa will ask gdd to ask her friends doing foundation if surds are likely to be on their papers.