Grade 4 maths student - which tier of entry

[noblegiraffe]

Do you think it's reasonable to enter a student for the higher tier paper if they are aiming for a 4?

On the one hand, you only needed 17% to get a 4 on higher, leading to the perception (true or otherwise) that it's easier to achieve a 4 on higher.

BUT on the other hand, this means entering a student for a paper where the cumulative knowledge of 11 years of study is demonstrated in merely 41 marks out of 240 over 4.5 hours of exams.

Mathematically, it would be much better for them to sit Foundation where they have a much wider range of questions they can access and they will be expected to get over half of them right. (51% for a 4).

Better mathematical experience or possibly greater chance of passing?

The chief examiner for Edexcel says more students should be entered for Foundation looking at this summer's entries. Teachers on twitter are suggesting they will be entering more for Higher looking at the grade boundaries.

noblegiraffe you are my hero thankyou

Yes, I will do it. And I promise to report back with their response.

Just updating for noblegiraffe and a big thankyou for your help.

I have just had an email saying that after DD's maths review the grade remained unchanged. I really wasn't expecting it to change but glad the the review was done. No mention of me having to pay so the wording of my email worked

DD is now at college and does functional maths one morning a week - the tests are online and she can keep trying until she passes. She will not be resitting GSCE AQA higher paper - instead she will be doing Edexcel foundation next Summer. I have spoken to her course tutor and not achieving Maths GCSE grade 4 won't necessarily prevent her from progressing onto level 3 of her course next year as she (the tutor) has final say and a good student who worked hard would not be stopped from continuing her course which in DD's case is a good thing as she is a good girl but rubbish at maths she did however, request that I don't tell DD this as she still wants her to work hard at her maths - which of course I won't.

Absolute madness and possibly vanity, on the schools part!
Schoolls need to take 'gamemanship' out of the equation.Entering a weak mathematician (which I would class a predicted 4 student as) for a higher tier paper is absurd and cruel.Putting a stu8dent in for a paper the majority of which will be totally inaccessible is clearly not what the exam boards expected when designing the ststem..Not only is it a gamble on there being enough the students can answer, they also have to keep a col enough head trying to spot it and tackle it.

This may be a good place to mention that some schools are still double entering pupils for 2 boards in maths GCSEs ...

www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/exclusive-investigation-double-entry-maths-gcse-candidates

Notangelina sounds like her new college has a sensible approach to her maths, good to know it won't hold her back for next year and fingers crossed she makes it on a more sane tier of entry!

I'm also slightly pleased that the school suffered a financial penalty, however minimal, for its stupid decision.