Y11 2023-24 thread 4

[Techno56]

New thread for GCSE survival 🙂

DD doing OCR higher Maths said is went really good but everyone found it really hard 😭😭😭so is now in a bit of a state…

@Panic71 Why not?

If an exam is extra hard they have two options, keep the % getting 4s, 7s the same, or lower the boundaries.
I can't believe they would want a sudden drop in % 4s and 7s, so won't they have to change the boundaries if marks are lower across the board? They will be aiming for 2019 percentages.

I think because they aren’t back to pre covid raw scores yet - but I seriously hope I’m wrong 🫣🫣🫣🫣

dd has just texted me (well,OK, I texted her to ask, she never voluntarily gives up anything about exams!!)

she is a maths person, predicted a grade 8
AQA higher paper 3 was 'weirdly easy' and they all came out saying the same thing. So looks like fairly straightforward decent paper.

I do understand the concept but this only works in the context of the grade boundaries.

An unnecessarily hard exam has a profound impact on that young person's confidence around a subject forever.

This is my understanding too (from what I've read, I'm not a teacher).

DS is very happy with Math P3 Edexcel Higher. He's home now and enthusiastically going through the proving > Pi on the hexagon/circle/hexagon/circle question with DP. He's convinced he has got low 70's on the paper as a whole. He's very upbeat but is kicking himself over his perceived failure in paper 1.

@BlackBean2023 An unnecessarily hard exam has a profound impact on that young person's confidence around a subject forever.

I definitely agree with that.
I think it is a shame they got rid of the intermediate paper for maths.
I think there should be 3 papers of increasing hardness and you only do 2.

DS Edexcel higher thought it was mainly ok but last question / last couple of questions were awful. He is predicted at 8 but thinks likely to have got lot lower. Just hope he passes. He is not doing maths A Level and I think GCSE is his mathematical limit.

June 2019 a grade 4 was 52, last year a grade 4 was 47, so thats why I don’t think they will drop??? I really hope I’m wrong. They’ve been climbing back.
DS thinks it went ok but I so wish we had just done the foundation now

Not heard from DD yet and now I am panicking. Maths is her fav paper, but can make lots of silly mistakes :(

DD happy with Edexcel Higher Maths 3. She didn’t get the last proof (hexagon/circle) so has written off that 4-marker but was otherwise pleased with how she did.

I agree that there should be an intermediate paper. It's such a cliff edge decision at the moment. Why/when did intermediate get dropped, does anyone know?

In a way I think it was good for DD that Edexcel Higher Paper 1 was harder than expected. It has certainly upped the workrate for Papers 2 and 3.

Good point @JessyCarr - it did for DS too. He did a lot more revision for P2 and 3 than he probably would have done if P1 had gone well.

Won’t hear from DD til pick up at 4.30pm. She has 3 exams today maths, Spanish and Creative Imedia

Anyone heard how Edexcel foundation was?

Oh I hope she is right, first time I've seen DS actively nervous about a paper and I can't contact him as he's still in school (no phones allowed) for his Spanish writing this afternoon. I'm praying he's done OK.

AQA higher paper here, we got the message that's she felt it went well, then the next message was that she found out she got something wrong in a 5 marker but she's hoping she will get some marks still. I've told her to move on, she has another exam this afternoon (imedia) and then two tomorrow too. This next 30 hours will be the toughest part of the whole GCSE period but tomorrow night we just have one more to go 🎉

DS found Edexcel Higher paper 3 easier than 1 and 2 (which he found fairly high) but for some reason he always does better in paper 3. However he did say the last 2 questions were super hard and he couldn't finish them. Maths is an A level choice and he is predicted 8 so fingers crossed.

Well apparently AQA maths higher went brilliantly, which seems very unlikely, but at least its done now!

Totally this!

Intermediate was merged with Foundation because, in order to have three tiers, the grades available in the Foundation tier all had to be “fail” grades (old letter grades E-G). Obviously nobody wanted to sit an exam they were guaranteed to fail!

NB I know there isn’t really any such thing as a fail in GCSE but all stats were compiled around the notion that a C was the lowest “pass” grade.

Yep totally agree there should be an intermediate paper for Maths. I have discussed this before with my DS. He was in higher set Maths for all of secondary until February Mocks when he just didn't put the work in and school moved him to Foundation. We were both fairly pleased but I do think it's been an easy ride for him since then and under his capabilities whereas Higher was a bit beyond him and would have involved huge efforts from him.

@Waspie and @JessyCarr my DS was the same he panicked after paper on so spent most of Sunday revising Maths with a little break for Spanish. Not heard anything he has Spanish this afternoon which I know he is dreading will most likely be a Gcse he fails only had 2 or 3 in the mocks.

Another one who got lost on the last Edexcel higher questions but apart from them it was ok

But surely there could be:

Higher - Grade 6-9
Intermediate - Grade 4-7
Foundation - Grade 1 -5

?