GCSE Physics AQA - Today

[Glitterbiscuits]

Did anyone else's DC come home and say topics such as nuclear were on the exam today even they were on the official AQA 'not assessed' list?

I thought that geography question was incredibly unfair - it was not covered at school and, as you say, it’s quite a complicated topic.

My DC came home very thrown by a couple of questions on the higher triple science (physics) paper today - a couple of items that were on the 'not assessed' list.
It is a real pity the the children need to be lawyers in order to interpret the advanced information and if they get it wrong it is tough luck, they should have been better at cross-referencing the contract!!

DS took Aqa paper today.
He said they asked science teacher who said while some topics shouldn't come up she didn't think anything was wrong with the paper. So who knows!

Poor DS, I didn't really believe him on the 'impossible' Maths question and then it made the papers. Same again today!!

Doesn't it just mean the grade boundary goes down a bit since everyone was in the same boat. Surely it won't mean lower grades.

Just had a long chat with my DS. It sounds as though there was some confusion about what the list of excluded topics meant in practice. So (his eg) if 'atoms & isotopes' is listed as excluded it doesn't mean that there will be no questions on atoms anywhere. Sounds very open to exactly the confusion we are seeing tomorrow... He is more cross about topics he thinks should have been listed as areas of major focus but were not.

Not tomorrow - today!

Doesn't it just mean the grade boundary goes down a bit since everyone was in the same boat. Surely it won't mean lower grades.

Yep. The exam boards have been given a % of students who are to be given each grade. Though it will advantage students who either revised everything “just in case” or simply remember things (like circuit symbols) quite easily.

Yep my son said this 😔

Dd said it was OK...

WIWIKAU is full of posts about these exams. I feel so sorry for our kids. They've been through hell already.

My Dd came home upset too, she's read some people think that AQA managed to mix up the foundation and higher advanced information, because the higher paper fits with the foundation advanced info and vice versa, don't know if this is true or not.

She's extra irritated as she'd already been complaining she wished they'd just kept the whole syllabus in to save confusion.

Lost my reply!

Basically DS said the same. Think I will encourage him to read through the AI for paper 2. It’s actually more stress than not having it. Luckily DSs school started GCSEs in Summer term before for the first so they’ve actually managed to get through everything.

Also re Geography I was talking to DS about food supply and Brexit came up and he said don’t worry that’s not on the syllabus so no point talking about it!!

She deserves extra marks 👏 and maybe an internship at the guardian

For the circuits question on the Higher triple paper specifically, it's difficult to understand how they can justify including it in the paper. The advanced info had topics that were a major focus, and those which would NOT be assessed. Everything could be assessed. It seems some students misunderstood that, and just revised the topics that definitely would be assessed. However, circuits was listed as a topic that would not be assessed, so how it can then be on the exam paper, I don't know. I do think it's a cock up, I don't think it's a misunderstanding of the Advanced info. What was the point in the Advanced info if questions on the paper contradict it?

Sorry, that ahould have read *everything ELSE could be assessed". Of something is listed as "not assessed", it shouldn't be assessed.

OP there's just been an email to schools - re: the question on circuits, AQA is giving full marks to all pupils so no one is disadvantaged.

I'm an EO and it's just landed in my inbox.

Just seen the email on Reddit but I wasn't sure if it was legit

Yes all awarded 9 marks

Yippee!

Totally legit. It's on my work PC and email.

Legit 😊

It’s a good outcome, but honestly it’s infuriating! When exam boards take a really hard line with minor student mistakes, and disqualify their papers, and then they go and make major errors like this, seemingly with impunity. It just doesn’t seem fair.

That’s a basic outcome.

I am still thinking of the PP who was an invigilator yesterday and saw and sensed the distress amongst all the candidates even though she didn’t know what had happened at the time. It has to be one of the hardest GCSEs for many and that distress would have likely destabilised them enough to underperform on the other content.