Year 11 - 2024/2025 - In the thick of it!

[QueenMabby]

New thread. Sorry. Forgot to start it - I hope everyone finds this!

I’ve been lurking but not commenting so far.

I’ve just spoke to my daughter about the Edexcel higher Maths paper. She found it easy, but very different from past papers they’ve done, with fewer questions and lots of topics not on it.

She had to ask for tracing paper and then they handed it out to everyone. Should tracing paper not have been with the paper or is it normal to have to ask?

I’m really sorry for those children who found it difficult today but perhaps they have done better than they think. There are 2 more papers so all is not lost anyway. I know they have to be tested but I really hate the way it all comes down to a few hours exam for each subject. A bad paper or them not feeling well is all it takes.

I can’t wait for exam season to be over! We are 5 down, 16 to go. There are so many!

@ExamStuff mjne had to ask as well which she was quite irritated by

in fact your DDs assessment is almost the same as mine

I’m not sure. My daughter said it was the ‘easiest way’ to do the question, but by saying that, I’m presuming that it was doable without, just harder?

I think my daughter was annoyed at having to ask and interrupt her thinking as well and that’s why she’s made a point of telling me she had to ask.

My daughter said that using tracing paper was ‘the easiest’ way to do the question, so all I can think is that they didn’t give it out as standard as it possibly wasn’t ‘needed’ just that it was easier with it??? Just glad it’s over.

Not all private schools do iGCSEs. Ours doesn’t, and I don’t know of any locally that do. Bog standard GCSEs for us.

One of the colleges near us asks for 7x7s if they want to take 4 A levels, the one mine is going to it is 5x7s for 4 levels or 4x5s for 3 ( though with requirements for individual subjects too).

The school I invigilate at had the tracing paper out on all desks. I didn’t particularly notice many using it though!

I am not allowed to look at the paper but the question involved shapes and squares and axis so transformations??? . I think it just makes it easier. I can see it traumatising people if it’s handed out but they can’t see where to use it. The front says you can use tracing paper so they know they can use it.

Just asked and it was to do with shape rotation and the point of origin that you could answer without but tracing it made it easier

Our school requires a minimum of 2x7 and 4x6 (to include both English and Maths). However, there are subject specific requirements and maths and all sciences require a minimum of a 7.

DD2 did higher Edexcel maths. She is only working at a low grade 5, but school insist on higher papers. She said it was a good paper, better than expected. Easier than mocks.

Yikes! My DS would have failed to get in on the English part! However he’s gone on to be predicted 3A* at alevel so not all bad. The state schools round here are 5x5 but you need higher grades for some subjects.

What's the consensus with the Maths AQA higher paper? Harder or easier than expected?

DD says it was considerably harder than the mocks.

I won't find out about Aqa F until dd gets home

My ds did maths AQA higher, but he's been mute since he got home (so I dont know what that means!!)

Mine said worst one she's ever seen and much harder than mocks.

New to this thread but here to see what the maths was like - DD (AQA higher) said it was awful and nothing like the past papers. She's been working so hard, I'll be gutted if this paper ruins it for her.

Interesting that similar is being said about edexcel though.

Thanks.

So at least 2 exam boards so far reportedly much harder than expected.

Poor kids. Let's hope the other papers are a bit more reasonable.

Not heard from DD about her Edexcel Higher Maths yet. She needs a good grade to do the A level.

English language and Geography she was happy with but I got home from work on Tuesday, asked how biology went and she burst into tears. It's an A level choice so more important to her than the others. She said the morning booster session had thrown her mindset so she went into the exam and didn't feel like it was her actual GCSE, just another practice paper, so she took longer than usual and didn't have time to review her answers. Thankfully her older sister was able to reassure her this was a normal way to feel.

My son was really thrown by the Edexcel Higher Maths paper.

The lack of variety of questions meant that if you didn’t understand the first part, it was difficult/impossible to answer the subsequent sections, so you’re looking at a 5 or 6 point question thinking “I can’t get any points for this one.”

Such a shame because he’s been working so hard for it and usually built his confidence in the early section of the exam with the 1 & 2 point questions, but there were barely any of those 🤷‍♀️

Hardest paper so far, my DS said. (Edexcel higher) When I asked him about tracing paper, he looked very suspicious like I was spying on him. I said "mumsnet" and he rolled his eyes.

I was wondering if the easy/hard thing depended on expected grades. My DS is 6/7 territory and is hoping to have got a 6 on that. Clearly very different if you are hoping for a 9 and got stuck on a few.

Worth reminding the dc that (for most) there are 2 more papers to pick up marks on

My DS did edexcel higher maths today but won’t know about it till later. He announced to me last night that Edexcel was the hardest board. Will be interesting to hear what he thought as planning to do maths/FM at a-level. History and business tomorrow and thankfully week over. Was glad he had a bit of a breather with no exams yesterday.

I'd heard that Aqa had the highest grade boundiaries...

DS did the edexcel higher maths today and said it was pretty good which is normally as good as it gets . Bit of a relief as he has been pretty negative about biology and geography.over the last couple of days . Needs an 8 to do Further Maths , 7 to do a level . He was white as a sheet when I picked him up so I think it was a challenging paper . He’s another kid that’s prone to silly mistakes and normally does better with a calculator . Now revising history for tomorrow

DD luckily has an unconditional offer to stay on to sixth form at her school, this is based on past performance but otherwise I think they ask for 6 x 6. To do maths, fm and physics (which DD is doing, plus DT) she has to get 7 or above in maths and physics.

A friend of hers has already said that she’s mentally said goodbye to a lot of grade 9’s. However, it’s so hard to know, as you won’t ever know the grade boundaries until afterwards.