Why is GCSE maths so hard?!

[bonbonours]

My daughter has just started her GCSE course which she will be doing over three years (she's in year 9). Maths is not her strong point so she has been asking me to help her to understand and work through her homework tasks.

For background, I got an A at GCSE Maths about 25 years ago, and have a 2:1 degree so whilst by no means a genius, I am fairly well-educated and work in an education field (not maths).

I have been completely baffled by a lot of her maths work, and we have had to watch how-to videos together (as recommended by school) to understand how to do some of the work. It is things like indices, including fractional indices, equations including fractions and minus numbers, surds (literally never heard that word before yesterday) etc. It is all deeply theoretical, and with no practical application that I can see in real life.

Considering that GCSE Maths is a basic requirement of pretty much any job and higher education course, this is insane surely? I can understand requiring people to have a decent working knowledge of usable day to day maths, percentages, ratios, interest rates, budgets, weights and measures etc. But why does everyone, need to know all this in-depth theoretical stuff? My husband works in a finance department and also has no idea about most of this stuff and never has to use it in his job.

Also, I absolutely pity children whose parents are less educated than me, and who very likely would be even less able to help them with their homework.

I think it depends on what you think the GCSE is there for. I treat it as a "prepare all" for all students to ground them in Maths ready for any further study. Your dd may not do A level Maths, but others in the cohort will go on to use Maths at a high level.

I think there is an argument for two qualifications, a maths for life qualification and then a more "academic" Maths course for those who want to study it further. However this has pitfalls because students may limit their career options at 13/14.

Apply your argument to another subject, is there any reason why all students need to know about light refraction?.... How to interpret a war poem?.... How an oxbow lake is formed?

Also, everyone doesn't need to know all that stuff. Those doing the foundation course don't cover many of the topics you have listed. (Though there are many people, including me, who would argue that the foundation course is still too difficult and includes unnecessary topics). The higher course, however, prepares students for potential future study, and is suitable for stretching those who found the old course too easy.

It's much harder than "old" GCSE (there are things that used to be at A Level). I actually disagree that it's theoretical; I think most of the questions are framed as problem solving, which makes it sound harder.

(e.g. Find the total cost of buying fabric to cover a cylindrical cushion and a prism column - actual question from last November's GCSE. This is basically finding the surface area of a cylinder and a prism and then multiplying by the cost of the material, but it doesn't tell the students they have to do this. Whereas if the question was "find the surface area of a cylinder", it would be much easier!

I have a maths degree and a maths PG qualification but I still find it pretty hard. DS had 3 higher papers to do over half term (DH took one look and said "They look properly hard. Ask your mother"), and although I managed to work all the way through them, there were a lot of questions I had to stop and think and a couple where I had to look things up (including stuff I swear I have never done). Plus I don't know what method they are taught in schools so I suspect I confused things sometimes! I agree I have no idea how non-mathematical parents manage to support their children!

I'm so old I did O'level Maths with log tables and calculus and no calculators allowed. I scraped through. My dd is y8 so GCSE Maths should be "fun" . Thanks for the heads up, op.

I'm older than you and wouldn't say there's much difference now from when I took it and would say its a GCSE I've used more as has my DH. It does depend what field you work in. I'm surprised someone in finance doesn't find it useful, I worked in finance and certainly found it useful. Both my children find maths the easiest subject of all so think it depends on the child. The foundation course is quite a lot easier.

I do think a practical course on say money management might be useful so people know how to budget, how to pay bills, is a 10% off offer better than buy-one-get-one free though maths covers that one. I do always find it concerning the poor levels of maths in the general population and always thought it might be useful for a course to be available to parents as well.

Both mine love maths Bellinsurge so it is fun for some kids, I get maths talk 24/7. My kids are unusual though but they love the ukmt maths competition especially and maths is favourite subject for both. DS was trying to get triple maths instead of double maths for one day.

I'm same as bellinisurge with O'Level Maths. I think the first mistake you're making OP is in thinking you can help with year 9 Maths! get a tutor. Just so you know, i got a tutor earlier in the yr for DS1 who did A'level Maths, said tutor, is a recent graduate in Maths and has a PGCE Maths. He struggled to work our ds's Maths and when he finally solved it, he couldn't explain what method he used (DS said its not the method they are being taught). The tutor was very puzzled at a lot of the content and admitted he did those specific topics on his degree. He only graduated 3 yrs ago.

There's been a big change in the syllabus for Maths and unless you teach it at that level already and for many yrs will to keep up with the changes and methods will find it nigh impossible.

Get a tutor Op.

I hear you OP

I did manage to pass C&G L2 in numeracy skills about 5 years ago and it was one of my proudest moments ever. I never, ever thought I would be able to do maths.

My sis took GCSE maths at the same time as her DS. She worked really hard, she went to FE college, her son coached her, she did practice papers until they came out of her ears. DS passed with A* and DSis passed with a C. She was so disappointed.........

Some of those topics I am surprised they are covering already in year 9 -
fractional indices in particular I would have thought are best done a bit later, as a "return to topic" having worked on basic indices first. Surds I recall doing in year 10 (different education system, roughly similar content); I was rather surprised when my daughter did her maths GCSE that her teacher chose to leave surds out until the very end and just quickly cover them about a month before the exam. But that was a top set class and they are actually an easy topic if done when the other material has already been mastered.

If they are being given full GCSE papers at this stage they should expect to encounter lots of stuff they can't do yet; I've heard of this happening and think it is a pretty silly idea.

I totally agree OP. I think its ridiculous. There should be two Higher level maths exams, one for those who want to do maths a level and one who want to be extremely numerate in the real world.

I have been completely baffled by a lot of her maths work, and we have had to watch how-to videos together (as recommended by school) to understand how to do some of the work.

She shouldn’t be learning how to do fractional indices by watching videos at home with mum, she should be taught how to do them at school by her maths teacher. Homework should be revising this knowledge, not learning it from scratch.

Has she not done it at school and if not, why is she being set homework on stuff she hasn’t done?

Mine is struggling but luckily accessing help, varying anything between level 3 and 5 in tests and past exams.
They have a new HOD and he has various ways of getting through if one way doesn't work.
I can't thank him enough for the difference in mine, the attitude of I can do this, is here now.
I'm just hoping it isn't too late. A GCSE has been dropped to put in the extra time though, taking it down to just 7 GCSE's.
It's bloody hard if they aren't bright.

I have to say, the question asking the cost of fabric would have had me worried. Did they include a Sean allowance? What about the fact that you have to buy a set width, not just the exact area you need?

I may be overthinking this.

I have to agree. We desperately need two levels of Maths - we need a numeracy/practical GCSE and a separate theoretical/engineering GCSE.

I'd suggest that the able mathematicians do the numeracy/practical one early (maybe end year 9) and then go onto the more advanced one at end year 11. Those who struggle can simply spend longer getting to grips with the numeracy/practical one and take it at end year 11 as now.

I've always thought it absolutely crazy to try to teach algebra/trig etc to kids who havn't got the skillset in basic maths/numeracy. You can't even begin to get far in algebra without knowing your tables & prime numbers for example.

And yes, Surds were something new for me too and I likewise had A level maths from the 80's and had never heard of it and can't see that more than a fraction of 1% of the population would ever need it.

Not needing something is true about just about every subject though? I've never needed to read and analyse a Shakespeare play since I left school (and I would quite happily have not studied Shakespeare there :) ). I have found maths useful for problem solving skills (so the way of thinking rather than the actual maths) and I've used my school French on holidays. Otherwise learning to read and write has been useful, but I've never felt the need to write a passage about a wintery day.

Have you got a CGP guide? I th9nk they are very helpful.
Get the KS3 one as well as Foundation/Higher maths

ps As noble mentioned on another thread, GCSE maths is really an 12 year course. What she does this year should be being built on her current level of maths.

I agree OP the new curriculum is really challenging. I have also recently discovered Surds with Y8 DS I find difficult is the the issue of the gap between the GCSE foundation and higher paper for average ability students. In order to get level 5 in foundation paper you have to get quite a high percentage of questions correct whereas to get a 5 on the higher paper needs a lot less marks but is obviously much harder aiming to stretch the most able. Many aiming for a 5 stand a better chance of taking the higher paper but also are unlikely to be able to answer many of the questions. How dispiriting is it to sit a paper where you cannot attempt much of the paper but still stand a better chance of passing than a paper where you can answer more.

My DD is y10 and is borderline Foundation/Higher. She is in a 'crossover' set where some will eventually do Higher and others Foundation.

It seems to be that it is going to be very much teacher skill at knowing who to enter for which tier. A pupil who 'crumbles' easily could get very down-heartened with 4.5 hrs of papers they can only attempt 30% of.

Whereas a pupil prone to silly mistakes might do better on a higher paper with more time per question and not having to rush.

I'm doing up to grade 6 with DD at home (occasionally straying higher on topics she 'gets'), and I'll be guided by her teacher nearer the time.

OP - don't help your DD if you can't, as you'll only make her think it is hard. She shouldn't be doing fractional indices before she has got the hang of the whole numbers.

Re 'real life' - it depends what you go on to do as a job really.

The approach at DC's school is that they only enter students for the higher paper if they think they are likely to get a 6 or higher. They will enter students aiming for a 5, for the foundation paper.
Interesting that your school has a different approach Teen.

Is there any past papers for the 'harder' GCSE examples?

I'm not confident helping mine, and can't anyway.
But the advice I gave her was to use Bitesize, and youtube when her teacher wasn't available. Both can have good explanations when checking answers.
What I have learned from this teacher is that anyone who can help should, even friends. They may be able to get the point across, where others fail. as currently Y11, teachers and ourselves are happy for any help, after grasping at straws for so long.

@RedskyToNight DCs school have shown past results whereby a smaller percentage of students gain a 5 on the foundation than do on the higher so they enter those capable of 5 and above for the higher paper. Of course there is a risk with this and it also depends on the student.