GCSE maths and English - why so hard?

[Notcontent]

I am all for high academic standards. But it seems to me that the approach to maths and English at GCSE is a bit puzzling.

I think the issue with maths is that the exams are set at such a high level that only the most mathematically gifted students can do the hardest questions so you end up with very low grade boundaries. Targeting so many questions at such a high level can quite off putting to many students.

For English, both English literature and English language are really quite similar in that it’s all about analysis, which seems very narrow. It seems to suit people who can just waffle on in a meaningful way, under exam conditions, but really English is so much more than that…

[whenwillthemadnessend]

Dd did AQA and said last chunk questions really hard She hopes done enough to get above a 5 but let's hope next two papers kinder.

[PugInTheHouse]

DS did EDexcel IGCSE higher and said the first 15 questions were ok, the rest really hard (9 or 10 more) he said they last 9 or 10 are worth around 60%ish of the paper he thinks. He is predicted a 7 but the teacher has ensured they are all aware that this means them getting around 50% (it was 48% in Jan for edexcel apparently). If the teachers prepare them for this then it shouldn't be an issue, however I think English is different for the reasons mentioned in the OP.

I do think it's awful that so many have said the papers were so hard, presumably they have all done plenty of practice papers so for such a high number of pupils to say that it was really hard means the format can't be that similar. A friend said that the formula sheet for AQA wasn't even relevant to any of the questions?

[ShirleyJackson]

I teach English, and the Language Paper 1 is pretty fair.

Language Paper 2 is horrendous, though. Completely inaccessible for lower ability students, boring and irrelevant.

No wonder English A level uptake is at an all-time low. It’d turn anyone off.

[Lunaverde]

Another one here that found the Edexcel igcse hard ! Similarly to others who posted here she found the first half ok but the second half really hard! She was predicted an 8 and has worked really really hard for the past 12 months as she was desperate to get a 9…. But came out in tears and is now completely demoralised. How not to motivate her for the next one. I feel really sad for her after all the hours she spent working. And in all honesty I am a bit angry at Edexcel who seemingly didn’t really take into account the amount of school out kids missed !

[Watapalava]

Da is 6/7 at most and found aqa higher ok- much easier than other papers

she could answer everything

[Pieceofpurplesky]

The AQA English paper threw a curveball in its question one as it was different to any previous paper (they usually say things like list 4
Things about the cat but this one said list four things about the cat and the rest of it).

As for the picture. It seemed to be a picture of a Mexican Yurt. Now if you are from a pretty middle class background you may have been OK but my Year 11s have hardly ever left the town they live in. They had no clue what it was (it even still had the travel brochure logo on it).

I mark paper 2 so I hope it's better!

[boysarethebest]

My son did aqa higher today and said it was much easier than he expected. Said the calculations were not as hard as those they had been practicing

[Imsittinginthekitchensink]

DD did the Edexcel this morning. She said she got to q9 then really struggled and couldn't do much of the rest of the paper. She's predicted a 6/7 so everything crossed the next 2 papers are kinder.

[110APiccadilly]

@TeenPlusCat

I agree.
They really need to

• bring back a foundation tier for English Language that is more straightforward (& doesn't have 19th C text in paper 2)
• bring back intermediate tier for maths. then have 3 papers basic, intermediate & higher and you either sit basic+intermediate or intermediate+higher

Or they need to let lower ability pupils go straight to functional skills.
Or have 2 GCSEs for each a 'functional' GCSE and an 'academic' one. Like wales does for maths.

In Wales, almost all students now have to do both maths exams though, which is crazy. I actually thought they were onto a good idea with the two different exams, but there's very little point if you then make everyone sit both.

So good idea, but don't execute it like Wales has.

[pkim123]

@Notcontent

Yes, exactly. DD, who is excellent at maths (but not a genius), said it was really hard. I just don’t get it. I would fully expect some hard questions - but actually, the papers set up students to fail…

A close friend at OCR said that this year they made the exams more difficult because of all the grade inflation during the last two years. It was an attempt to reset expectations.

[noblegiraffe]

Doesn’t sound like the person at OCR knows what they are talking about. The advanced information has been provided to make exams easier and the grade boundaries will be set to address the issue of grade inflation (grades will be between 2020 and 2021 levels).

Nothing needed to be done about the difficulty level of the exams to change that.

[noblegiraffe]

Sorry, between 2019 and 2021 values.

[Badbadbunny]

The thing is that the ability spread is far too wide for a single exam (yes even with the two different levels). You need "hard" questions to separate those with the highest ability, i.e. to separate the 7, 8 and 9.

It's soul destroying to open an exam paper and see immediately that you can't do most of the questions. Even if you know the "pass" mark is only 30/40%, it's still off-putting and does nothing for your confidence.

We need separate subjects, i.e. something called like "numeracy" for basic life skills aimed at the lower half of the ability groups. Then leave the existing "maths" for the upper half. We can then apply more sensible "pass" rates, i.e. 50%, so that when you open the test paper, (whichever level), you've got a good chance of being able to do at least part of most of the questions.

I don't think the foundation level is easy enough and I don't think the higher level is hard enough. They should be a lot more different.

It's all about confidence. No one is going to feel confident if they open the paper and can't do much of it. That just leads to negative thoughts about the subject.

[Badbadbunny]

@noblegiraffe

Doesn’t sound like the person at OCR knows what they are talking about. The advanced information has been provided to make exams easier and the grade boundaries will be set to address the issue of grade inflation (grades will be between 2020 and 2021 levels).

Nothing needed to be done about the difficulty level of the exams to change that.

But it completely ignores to demotivational aspect of opening an exam paper and seeing question after question that you can't do. It's going to negatively impact on the bits you can do. Adjusting marking/grade boundaries after the event is a lazy way to "solve" the problem of the exam questions not being set at the right level in the first place.

[Rummikub]

@pkim123

A close friend at OCR said that this year they made the exams more difficult because of all the grade inflation during the last two years. It was an attempt to reset expectations.

That’s ridiculous if that’s what they’ve done.

Pupils have been really stressed and scared about their essentially first lot of public exams.

they want to encourage more people into maths not switch them off.

[Lemoncurd]

Mine did EdExcel yesterday, he found the mocks challenging to the extent that he had a panic attack in one of the papers and had to come home. I was pretty worried after that but yesterday's he was really happy with and felt was easier than practice papers.

[Bovrilly]

Anyone upset about the last question on edexcel yesterday, I just gave it to DH (Imperial physics grad) and he couldn't do it. So you are not alone and the grade boundaries will reflect that.

[Cokehead]

@boysarethebest

My son did aqa higher today and said it was much easier than he expected. Said the calculations were not as hard as those they had been practicing

DS said the same. Sounds like AQA was a lot easier than Edexcel for some reason.

[TeenPlusCat]

@Bovrilly

Anyone upset about the last question on edexcel yesterday, I just gave it to DH (Imperial physics grad) and he couldn't do it. So you are not alone and the grade boundaries will reflect that.

re last question on edexcel higher paper.
I am a maths graduate. Once I found the question online I was able to do it with a little thought.
I think it is a fair question as the last question on the paper, so aimed at grade 9 students. It didn't have any hard maths in it as such, just a bit of lateral thinking.
I mean, I'm not really convinced that grade 9 is even needed, but if you have it, you have to have some questions to differentiate who gets the 9s.

Reminds me of Hannah's Sweets the year DD1 did her GCSE 2015. That threw a lot of students as it was mid paper. DD1 was fine, she just missed it out. But actually there wasn't any hard maths in it, they just had to do algebra and probability in the same question.

[Bovrilly]

I agree, the difficult thing is spotting a path that will take you to the answer, the maths itself is not too bad. But just wanted everyone to know that it's not easy to spot the path! DS who is about to sit maths A level is currently puzzling over it too. My sister and I both figured it out and found slightly different paths.

I'd be interested to see the mark scheme, as anyone with time at the end of the exam might have tried all sorts of things, I wonder what will score marks and what won't.

[noblegiraffe]

But it completely ignores to demotivational aspect of opening an exam paper and seeing question after question that you can't do

The Y11s I've just taken to this higher exam were grade 5/6 borderline so we have done a lot of work around the demotivational aspect of opening an exam paper and seeing question after question you can't do. Same goes for my A-level students, actually - the A-level papers also aren't fit for purpose.

It's been drilled into them to concentrate on the questions up to the staples as they are fair game, anything after that is for 'bonus points'. I also teach them to 'grub for marks', as in 'here's a question I don't know how to do, but is there anything I can put down that might get some marks?' Work out an angle, an area, whatever.

This Y11 in my school and nationally have been badly affected by pandemic disruption. Not just the lockdowns, but by covid itself. In Y10 sometimes we had to amalgamate classes as so few were in. They were hit again by covid before November half term in Y11, and again in Jan. They've been off school a lot.

The idea that anyone at the exam boards thought that the papers needed to be made more difficult so that this cohort wouldn't perform too well is just ridiculous. More likely that there'd be panic that the grade boundaries would need to be in single figure percentages.

[MagicTurtle]

DS did EdExcel yesterday, he said the last question was very hard but there were lots of straightforward questions earlier in the paper. So for everyone who came out upset, it may be because that was the last thing they were trying to do so that's the thing that was at the top of their minds. They need a hard question to differentiate 7/8/9s.

[Fireflygal]

@MagicTurtle, There is some coverage in the news about that question. A few were able to answer it but it was very challenging.

[Bovrilly]

The other thing I thought about that Edexcel last question is that there's lots of maths in there that's really worth testing them on - areas of circle and triangle, trig and trig values, sectors and segments, surds, simplifying expressions, multiplying out brackets, fractions, equilateral triangles, maybe Pythagoras, depending on the method you use. But it was so tricky to see the first step that lots of people will have had no chance to demonstrate any of that. I think the best difficult questions have something approachable at the beginning and then get harder. Otherwise the exam board has not actually found out what they can do and meanwhile the kids themselves are demoralised.

[110APiccadilly]

Does anyone have a link to this last question? I have googled but can only find things about it. I'd really like to see it!