GSCE exam questions weirdly worded ?

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Does anyone else feel that exam questions are often worded so strangely that some able students miss marks. My dd possibly has adhd and takes things very literally. It’s become very obvious since I’m helping her with revision that she often misses marks because the questions are very strangely worded. For example looking over past papers for food and nutrition this week there was a question “ what does an organic farmer need to sell produce”. She was going along the line of shops etc totally missing the point of what organic farming means. She knows everything to do with organic produce ie no antibiotics, no pesticides etc but totally missed the point. If the question said explain what is organic farming she would have written a full mark answer. Maybe it’s just my daughter but I’ve seen some teachers online making fun of AQA weird wording of science questions so am I the only one?

I think students are expected to be able to make reasonable inferences based on context. A science exam is not going to have questions about needing to have a shop or a website in order to sell products. Sounds like she gave a business studies answer to a science question.

Assuming your daughter hasn't sat her exams already, this is something you can work on at home. It's also worth raising with her teachers so they can give her some reminders about considering context before she writes her answers.

A few years ago I had to get a qualification so I could act as a Language Modifier in order to support students by making the questions in exams more accessible to them. Now the exam boards say that the language of the exams is fully modified. However it is difficult to anticipate how an individual. student will interpret a question. The subject teacher should prepare the student as much as possible to let them know what type of answer is expected to different questions.

Sorry I’m not sure I made it clear @HauntedRavioli … it was a food and nutrition question I mentioned as an example.But she does the same for Science too. She had a chemistry exam this week and she said the question Why do companies use the abbreviation LCA ( life cycle assessment)? She thought it meant why use the abbreviation! Why use the word “abbreviation” ? Why not say why do companies use LCA?

I completely agree with you based on those two examples. The latter in particular, the question is about the abbreviation - that’s the only way it makes grammatical sense! It’s especially bad for autistic students and those who do not have English as a first language

My point still stands. She gave a business studies answer to a food and nutrition question. A food and nutrition exam is obviously going to want her to answer the question in a way that relates to food and nutrition!

What year is your daughter in? If she hasn't taken her exams yet, she needs some intervention to help her with her exam technique. That is, essentially, what mock exams are for. She won't be the only kid who misinterpreted the question.

IME, no matter how the question is worded, somebody will manage to misinterpret it, just because we all have different thought processes. This paper has has revealed where your daughters academic weakness lies, and fixing that is probably going to be more productive than hoping that the wording changes before she takes the exam for real.

My children are older and younger so no skin in the game, but I absolutely agree that both of the examples you’ve given are poorly written. I don’t think she has an academic weakness and neither question is measuring ability or intelligence. I hope that markers can apply some common sense around plausible correct answers as it’s a bit shoddy.

Teacher and examiner here.

They are worded in a specific way as part of the assessment criteria. It is annoying some paper more than others.

the best way to solve this is to go to the exam board website and have a look at the past papers and mark schemes and examiners reports and work out for yourself what you need to be successful. I am sure they will have done this at school but it never hurts to do it again. It also depends on the ability of the student. A student targeted grade 3 or 4 and below will often have difficulty decoding the questions. Except in English language where there are the same questions each year but a different extract. Preparation and practice in English is the key here.

disclaimer: may have made typos. I am not proof reading this post. I am a teacher. Sorry if my poor typing offends.

If I had read your post correctly I saw you found this when you were reading past paper…

I agree with you and your daughter. These questions are terribly worded. I have noticed the same. I believe the general decline in literacy means that sadly many teachers and those writing the questions cannot write coherently and precisely. The only advice I have is to reensure your daughter that yes, sometimes they are not worded the right way, but as others have suggested to understand that the wording may be off and infer what they most likely meant given the subject and the content. Hopefully, it only affects a few questions. I often see it in Maths and Science especially because those subject teachers may be good at STEM but not at writing or expressing themselves.

I remember I lost a mark on a university science exam for the same reason, and it made the difference between a First and an 2:1 unfortunately. They asked how does the correlation between two variables changes if x happens, and I said that the actual true correlation in nature would not change, but that mathematically the correlation coefficient would increase. But they only accepted "the correlation increases" as a correct answer. So I feel your pain :-). I do 11+ Maths tutoring now and I do often come across questions that are confusingly worded. Wishing your daughter good luck!

Just to add that what may seem obvious may not appear so to the pupil, particulaly those with ASD. I had one pupil anwer a question in a French exam along the lines of 'write a paragraph about what you do on the weekends' by writing a paragraph in English. The question did not specify write a paragraph in French (altough it was obvious to me from the context). This is where coaching the pupil in what the examiner expects to see is so important

I do hear what you are saying, having ND DC myself. However for both the current Edexcel and AQA specs and also the legacy spec (from 2018 onwards) both in the rubric on the front of the paper and on the question itself, students are clearly told to write in the target language.

(On the legacy spec the question is in TL but all the same it’s specified).

Maybe you mean an internally set exam tho rather than GCSE.

It was a mock exam but it goes to show how what appears obvious may not be so to others. However the setting of exam questions has improved considerably. It was ridiculous that such a role as Language Modifier existed. The questions should have been written clearly in the first place for all pupils.

Yes, that’s ridiculously worded. Very bad English.