Maths and RS GCSE today

[eveningqueen456]

Anybody have any idea what the maths and RS GCSE's were like today? I have figured out they must have been hard as my son has come home really stressed out and is refusing to speak about them. Apparently he left a 15 marker question out !!!!

My DS thought maths was OK, better than he had expected. He has also just told me he has found it online this evening with all answers so has worked out roughly how he has done from that! His is Edexcel Higher paper.

DS did AQA and was quite happy with it. Edexcel is known to be a tougher paper. Two years ago one question was practically impossible to answer.

I need to ask my sister who is a maths teacher how today went, I think she said in the past that their higher paper is Edexcel, but for foundation they do AQA. I'm not sure what sets she has though.

Quite amusing that a pp is trying to tell the maths teacher how papers are marked.

If someone only provided final answers without showing any working out, they would only achieve the modern equivalent to grade C

No, if someone only provided final answers without showing any working out they would get full marks on most questions.

Full marks for correct answers will mainly be about addressing the possibility of being able to work out the answer in a way that's not mentioned in the marking scheme. These questions still require the working out to get to the final answer.

Again, no.

If a question is e.g. about booking a holiday, paying a deposit and then paying the rest in monthly instalments and the question is how much is each instalment, worth 3 marks, then they will get 3 marks for the correct answer even if they did all the calculations on their calculator and wrote nothing down but the answer. The assumption is that if they got the correct answer, they did a correct method, they just didn't write it down.

Noble is absolutely correct on how the mark scheme is applied. In the majority of questions you can get full marks with only the answer written down.
Which is a massive relief for me as some of my brightest pupils do almost everything in their heads and I'm having a very hard time training them to write down their methods. I'm not in any way concerned about them only getting a 4, although I'm slightly worried they might miss out on the 9 just because they've made a couple of mental arithmetic errors.

My son is a weirdo maths geek who likes the non-calculator paper. I am an accountant who can’t imagine anything worse. He thought it was ok.

I didn’t ask him about RS, as the school force them to do it and essay writing isn’t his thing.

We are spoilt as my mum used to teach Chemistry and is helping my son with revision. Which is a massive help as DS isn’t a natural scientist.

My pupils did AQA and thought it was ok. I've got one class doing higher and also spoke to a few doing foundation. They were all relatively positive about it.

Yes mine too. Left a lot 💔

What board? I'm hearing AQA was ok. Edexcel/Pearson really tough.

Disillusioned kid here, too.

Your example is of the one or two mark questions that don't require the working out. How can full marks be given to the questions that are designed to require working out?

Do you think the exam boards are not interested in assessing the thinking processes behind the answers? How can the exam boards distinguish people who can explain their thinking processes from those who can't if they allow full marks to be gained from almost every answer without showing an explanation of the answer?

Same here - DD is also very annoyed with herself but she says lots of her friends did the same and for her paper it was only 4 marks but very frustrating to have missed them. They won’t do that again I guess.

When maths coursework was scrapped it was decided that the GCSE exams needed to incorporate an element of demonstrating mathematical thinking into the exam to account for the lack of coursework. These were called 'Quality of Written Communication' questions and were marked by a star on the exam paper, where pupils had to show they could communicate mathematically.

When the Gove reforms to GCSE came in, the QWC questions were scrapped. Now there are questions were they might be asked to show detailed reasoning, but on Foundation (if we're talking about a grade 4) then these will be where you could just guess the correct answer (e.g. which holiday is cheaper, which packet of toilet roll is better value for money) so you won't get the marks for just saying 'Holiday A' or 'The 8 pack of toilet roll'. On an angles question they might ask you for some angle rules to go with your answer.

The question below is worth four marks. It does not say show your working.

I've also attached the mark scheme. If they write 19 on the answer line and nothing else, they get 4 marks.

They are not interested in assessing the thinking process.

At higher, they'll be interested in constructing proofs but there certainly wouldn't be enough of those questions to drop you to a 4.

@noblegiraffe what were your thoughts on the edexcel higher today? Did you think it was any more difficult than usual?

I thought a lot of it was pretty straightforward. The last few questions were nasty but they are meant to be. There weren’t any questions like the overlapping circles one from a couple of years ago that was just mad.

@noblegiraffe So what grade would be achievable without the working out?

The foundation paper is mostly irrelevant on this issue because the maximum grade possible is 5, which is still equivalent to grade C.

How many questions like the one you give can you find on the higher paper? There are always exceptions, but the higher mark questions are given more marks for a good reason - they want to see you demonstrate more understanding than just a final answer.

My sister pretty much said the same, a mix of questions but there was some toughies.

DS said maths (AQA higher) was easy, which worries me as it's one of his worst subjects and relies on the calculator papers to get him a pass. RS was 'meh' apparently. What he did say was there were 7 questions and you were meant to answer 4 but a lot of his friends didn't read that. Again, not sure how factual that is, he's amazing and obviously I think very smart but exams are not his strong point (he isn't NT).
After English lit and history meltdowns I've told him to stop giving exams a post mortem, it's done, don't pick over the bones now as there's nothing to be gained from it. Chemistry and geography tomorrow, I think he'll sleep all weekend!

Likewise, ds did IGCSE Edexcel higher spec A today 😫 not a strong subject and the topics he finds easier weren't on the paper. Hopefully will be on paper 2 instead! Are you home edders too?

Noble is correct, most questions where a correct answer is shown gets full marks with a cursory glance at working to check not from incorrect methods. Last yrs paper 1 edexcel only 1 question which got zero marks if no method was shown and it stated clearly you must show your methods.
Something like sim equations where it says solve algebraically would get zero marks if trial and improvements used or possibly Special case 1 mark. A marks represent accuracy not answer.
It also works the other way where if they show methods but make a silly error they could get 3 of the 4 marks which is why I encourage students to show methods.

@Sureitwillbegrand Noblegiraffe is right about most questions not being marked with a requirement to show the working out. What I'm saying is that the questions needed to get above grade C will require working out in one way or another despite it not saying so in the question.

You might have to do some working out but there’s no requirement to write it down. You can just stick numbers in your calculator. Correct answer only is still full marks.

@noblegiraffe That's not what I see on the exam papers. There are questions that you could get away with writing the final answer; these being the easier questions. The harder questions require an answer that describes multiple steps, which is working out.

DS needs a 7. He didn't finish the paper as he ran out of time. He also found most of it easy until the final 4 questions which he didn't understand.
I just hope the next two are better.

Not home edders - but DS is at an indie for SEN - and for the last three maths mocks he's panicked badly and had to sit outside to calm down, so I'm just glad he stayed in for the real one. He is really good at maths, that's the irony...

DS definitely seems to have panicked. He got 4 of the last 5 wrong but going over them with the teacher he says he knew the answers and they weren't that difficult. This is the only one he's really concerned about because he wants to do further math at A level.
Hopefully he stays calm for the next four.