Maths GCSE

[mrsdanrose]

Hi my ds is currently doing his GCSEs. He has always struggled with maths and trying to get a level 4 pass grade is hard for him.

I am doing a lot of revision bits with him at home and yesterday he did a practice paper.

He scored 56% which is much better than his mock but I was wondering what grade that would be? (2,3,4,5 etc)

You need to check previous grade boundaries for the equivalent board/paper, although they vary each year. Is it Foundation level?

You can find all the maths GCSE grade boundaries here for the different exam boards. There is a box you can tick to show the percentage. https://mathsbot.com/gcse/boundaries
The most common exam board for maths is Edexcel. Last year a grade 4 was 61% for the Foundation paper.

If you Google "exam board, foundation maths Year grade boundaries" you should be able to find out.

The boundary shifts year by year, paper by paper, and board by board.

You also need to be careful with the 2021/2022 grade boundaries. Because grades in 2020 were higher due to the exams being cancelled, the grades awarded in 2021 and 2022 were more generous, to bring things gradually back down to normal level rather than have a huge difference between the 2020 cohort and the following ones. So you should assume that 2021 grade boundaries, especially, are lower than they would have been in a normal year.

Many thanks!

Last year that would have been a 3 on AQA, 66% needed for a 4 across the two papers. It is worth bearing in mind that he may find one of the papers (calculator or non-calculator) significantly harder than the other, so if possible, it is best to try and calculate a grade from two papers done together.

You can find 2023 grade boundaries for AQA here: https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/over/stat_pdf/AQA-GCSE-GDE-BDY-JUN-2023.PDF

It sounds like he is improving, which is great, so keep up the practice because there is loads of time to improve before the summer! Does he understand the importance of trying to get Maths now?

2020/21 grade boundaries are only from autumn resits, which are a very different cohort of students to those who sit the summer exams (slightly different in 20/21 as they included a lot of home schooled etc children too), and as you say, 2022 grade boundaries were more generous.

2019 and 2023 grade boundaries are likely to be the most reliable.

@Postapocalypticcowgirl

He is getting better but I am not sure if he has the mathematical comprehension skills/fluency to achieve a pass grade especially as the exam room will throw him massively.

He knows it's important but when he's spent his whole life struggling he becomes passive to protect himself from disappointment.

I would be so chuffed if he managed it. The years of painful math homework will feel so triumphant

He is obviously trying, and going in the right direction, which is all you can ask!

It looks like he needs to find about another 10% from somewhere- practice will help with this!

Is there a specific issue with the exam room, and is there anything that would help e.g. specific seating? Maths isn't usually the first exam, so perhaps by the time it gets to maths, it will be a bit more familiar to him?

Is he doing Foundation or higher Level? That makes a big difference with a 56% result.

@Postapocalypticcowgirl He doesn't work well under pressure. The way he responds to stress is to withdraw/become passive etc.

Definitely going to keep revising each day. 10% feels achievable. His teacher at school is so supportive as well.

He has a holiday planned with his dad after all of his exams so he has something to look forward to afterwards which I hope will help.

Didn't realise maths was a later exam - this could definitely help with his nerves.

@11plusdoneanddusted

Foundation paper. He wouldn't be able to answer the higher questions.

Dc's school use Corbett maths, here is the youtube channel which may be another revision tool for him https://www.youtube.com/@corbettmaths/playlists

I have linked the playlists as I don't know which exam board he is doing but it has the exam board and the foundation paper stuff.

Dc's school use a matrix meaning they have detailed feedback on what each child got right on a paper, a partial correct answer ie correct method but mistake in working out and then completely wrong. It is a grid colour coded for each question with green, amber, red blocks. This then linked to specific Corbett maths videos explaining the concept and some example questions for the child to try. That meant they were focusing on each child's weak areas rather than doing stuff they know. I am not sure how realistic this is for your son's school but you could ask. And this was a state school and outstanding.

That makes sense, I wondered if there was something which could be done in the exam room to help e.g. specific seating, but it sounds like not?

10% extra is totally achievable between now and May. Very very normal to go up a grade between Spring Mocks and the Summer. Keep telling him this- it will help so much if he believes he can do it!

There's 3 maths papers- one non-calculator and two calculator. Regardless of exam board, they'll be on 16th May, 3rd June, 10th June. If he's doing science or English Lit, he'll have the first papers of those before maths. RE is normally the first exam in the hall for most students.

You can find exam time tables on the exam board websites.

If you can, the matrix that a pp mentioned is so useful. Take each topic for the exam, and grade it green (understand this, no problem), Amber (get the basics, struggle when it's a wordy question), red (hard stuff, can't understand the technicals let alone apply it to a question).

Then practice the heck out of the Amber stuff, with wordy exam style questions. It'll be easier to pick up marks turning some of the Amber to green, than trying to get red to green, so effectively no point trying. I know it sounds bad, but he just needs that grade 4. This is advise from my daughter's remedial maths tutor.

He will be allowed highlighters, so if he doesn't already, encourage him to highlight the relevant numbers in a wordy question.

@WhatsitWiggle thank you! I'll take a look at it.

@Postapocalypticcowgirl ah 16th May is his birthday. Poor boy!! Thanks for the dates. Really useful. He had some more mocks in Jan so we shall see how he does.