How will reduced GCSE content impact A’levels?

[blackbirdsing]

DD is sitting GCSES this year which are going to have reduced content and formula sheets which she’s obviously very pleased about. I’m wondering how this will effect the transition to A’levels. Will they be expecting this years cohort to do the normal A’level content? I do feel dd has gone a bit off track over the past couple of years and am worried about the impact this might have as I know A’levels are a bit step up from GCSE.

I don't know the answer, but I wonder ow the last couple of years will affect higher education students. I can't see universities dumbing down their degrees.

It will make the transition to A-level harder but obviously the A-level teachers will be aware of the situation. I have had to go slower this year with my year 12s and am aware that they haven't had as much formal testing or gained the revision skills of previous cohorts. The bonus is my year 13s have gained great typing skills from all the remote learning! It's unlikely the actual A-level content would be changed. I'd suggest speaking to the teachers of the planned A-level subjects well in advance and taking summer prep work seriously especially in Maths and the sciences.

I should add that DH, a university lecturer, has reported that students coming onto their courses are worse prepared than before.

I think it will make the transition harder too. I also think there may be more degree courses with added foundation years to get everyone up to the same place.

I’d not even thought of the impact on further education. I hate the thought of them struggling at university when they’re away from home.
I hadn’t really considered that this year 12 are going through similar. Anyone know how they are finding the transition?

I can only speak for my own experience but mental health issues have shot up, especially anxiety-related and there is still no clear plan for 2022 exams. The Covid testing, isolations and vaccinations haven't helped in time terms either.

My year 12 has been fine but his school ran the GCSEs last year as formal exams in practically the same way as normal. Some of his friends at other schools have struggled with subjects that build like maths and sciences.

My daughter took GCSEs last year. The college sent a lot of work to do over the summer holidays to bridge the gap of missed work. But that hasn’t been enough. She said every time they start a new topic in a level maths the teacher has to go over lots of the gcse work in a lot of detail. Which means not as much time for the new stuff. I imagine it’s very hard for the teachers.

Some of it will depend on the individual A levels. Possible gaps in knowledge for sciences and maths, but for something like history or RS where new topics are studied, possibly less of an impact.

My DD is Y13, and found A levels a huge step - mainly because her Y11 education stopped in March 2020 with the first lockdown!

My youngest is in year 12 doing science A levels. They were told that prior to starting in September that they needed to learn the entire gcse spec for baseline tests in the first week covering tge whole syllabus and that if minimum grades were not achieved in these tests they would have to retake them in order to be able to do tge A level.

My dc has found the transition ok (a levels are always a step up) - their school had sat full mocks pre Christmas and then did several rounds of gcse type exams - they sat more papers then if they had actually done GCSEs! I imagine for dc who had done more end of topic tests type exams it would be more of a step up.

I should add that DH, a university lecturer, has reported that students coming onto their courses are worse prepared than before.

Despite having better grades on average. It was inevitable.

Physics a level were always given formula sheets anyway so that won’t really matter (although if you can’t learn a few formulas you probably shouldn’t be doing a level physics) we haven’t yet been told what the reduced gcse content is so current year 11s should still be learning the full content shouldn’t they?