GCSE math wanting to do Alevel math's, dd now panicking, help.

[lexcat]

Dd who was always said to get an A-A* in maths till the grade change. Loves maths and has won a place in local 6th form to study Alevel maths and further math (plus physics and biology). Has even thought she might like to study maths at uni.
DD felt 1st Gcse paper went fine, lost a little of the confidents with the second paper by the 3rd paper she has lost all confidents. Now is stressed out that she's going to fail maths and her dreams of going to her chosen 6th form have got as she'll not get the grades.
This is hard coming from a child who has always shined in and has always had a passion for maths.

Sadly I don't think she will be the only one. I suspect that some of the pupils who in past years would have gone on to do Maths A-level will be put off by the new GCSE. I have a friend who is a Maths teacher and he said that the new papers have questions that seem deliberately designed to catch students out.
Hopefully your DD will get the grades she needs to do the A-levels she wants to study.

I am under the impression (I'm sure other posters will correct me if this is wrong) that the grades for the 9-1 GCSEs are decided based on how other students have done, so even if she feels that she has done badly, she may still get a good grade, depending on how everyone else did.

NobleGiraffe (MNer who is a maths teacher) has a whole thread going about what's wrong with the 2017 GCSE, including about how the 2017 exam is putting math-talented kids off of math. NG is more or less furious about it.

I know I will tell DD that the test is made impossibly hard to punish teachers for doing good a job teaching to the old style test. Which is more or less why the change to much harder GCSEs.

If you find NG's thread, she talks about how the grade boundaries are going to be such that the relatively most able kids will get good grades, eventually. Tell your DD not to despair until she's seen her actual marks in August.

Saying that, I have met a lot of last years A grade GCSE maths students who have really struggled with A level

It's great that she loves maths and wants to study maths and further maths. It's highly unlikely that a talented mathematician would suddenly fail maths GCSE after years of doing well. The proportion of students who will get a 7 or above is fixed at about the top 20% and as she usually performs in that top 20%, the grade boundaries will be set to ensure she gets the grades that she should be getting.

Underconfidence is a real issue in girls, they tend to underestimate their performance relative to their peers compared to boys, and can think they've done badly when receiving a good score - they need to be shown how well they've done before they believe it.

She needs to hold on till results day when she will find out how well she has actually done. I hope she does continue with her plan of maths and further maths, I'm sure she will get the grades she needs.

But questions designed to "catch you out" will be part of A'level too.

no point in speculating. Children are often very poor judges of how they have done in exams. Wait until the results come out, then work with what you have got

DS did GCSE last year so I can't comment on the new one, however when I was marking papers for him, the mark scheme indicated that you were looking to find ways to GIVE students marks, not penalise them.

Plus the UMS system meant that you could still get an A or even A* having got quite a few wrong 'answers'.

Your DD might be very pleasantly surprised on results day.

Saying that, I have met a lot of last years A grade GCSE maths students who have really struggled with A level

DD got A* in both Maths and FM at GCSE. Decided to attend a 6th form this year along with a few other A grade pupils. All of them have found the AS this year very or relatively easy.

However, their friends who have gone to the local college instead have found it very tough, which indicates an issue with teaching the curriculum. I would have thought that although still very important, teaching wouldn't have such an impact on AS results, but maybe it does.

no point in speculating. Children are often very poor judges of how they have done in exams. Wait until the results come out, then work with what you have got

This is exactly what I was going to say.

swingofthings my experience tutoring A level maths is that the school they're at doesn't make much difference when moving up to A level. It's just a really big jump.

Noble, is there anything aspiring A level mathematicians should be doing from now until sept in prep for A levels? Asking on behalf of DS, who asked me to ask.

Not Noble but you could take a look at:

MEI bridging tests to get an idea of gaps before AS maths http://mei.org.uk/bridgingtestss__

Also CGP Head Start to AS Maths https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1841469939/ref=pdd_awsimm14_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=6Q65C5VEYPVVA1HN1AV0&dpPl=1&dpID=414F5QQCFPL

We have maths despair here, too, following the FM paper on Monday: 'several' of questions not completed . From DC who has always got good grades and revised like a demon.

Underconfidence is a real issue in girls, they tend to underestimate their performance relative to their peers compared to boys, and can think they've done badly when receiving a good score - they need to be shown how well they've done before they believe it.

^This.

I taught at a girls' school which had a partnership arrangement with the boys' school. It worked well - the girls already had their GCSE results before they started mixed classes and since they often had better grades than the boys it boosted their confidence no end.

And brilliant that she wants to do physics as well. (Retired physics teacher here.)

Maths teachers found the Edexcel paper hard and I know a couple who had a go at doing one of the questions and it took them 15/20 mins. Even the brightest child isn't going to answer 20 hard questions in 90. The grade boundaries are sure to be low.

What does she need to get into her chosen Sixth Form? By the way, I know a girl who got mainly Bs in her GCSEs, including a B in Maths, she went on to get a First Class Honours Degree in Maths and in four years of works, she's been headhunted twice by rival firms. Tell you DD to hang in there. Even if she doesn't get the grades required, the school may find quite a lot of others won't. Also, if she can go back and show she's passionate and willing to really try her best, that goes a long way.

ifonly4,

I find it very surprising that a maths teacher would take 20 minutes to do one of the questions, then they must have been having an off day or something.

This could have been written about my DD. She wants to do do physics and Maths A levels and is convinced that she is not going to be able to do this now due to the maths. She found paper and 3 hard but 2 do-able. Her school says she needs an 8 or a 7 (plus an additional maths test) to do A level maths ! , which is really worry me !

The Frendo, yes, it did take them this long to do one of the maths questions, DD's teacher did it as well as a neighbour who teachers at at different school. There was something on the internet at the time about a teacher who'd had a go as well and it had taken him 20 mins just after they sat the second paper.

My ds in this situation as well. What perplexes me is the different grade requirements to do maths at different schools, assuming that they are all teaching the same A level in the same time frame. Our school asks Level 7 (previously A), whereas down the road an arguably better school (on the basis of their overall entry criteria) asks a level 6. Any thoughts? I would also be interested to know whether all schools retest their maths A level students before they start.

Symbols - i agree i would be very interested to know what other schools have stipulated for gcse maths grades to do A level and whether this changes once the grade boundaries come out. Its such an unknown at the moment.