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Secondary education

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Original poster

A2 maths - what do your kids think of C4 paper

20 replies

lazymumofteenagesons · 05/05/2010 12:21

Anyone elses DC doing this paper in June or done it previously. We seem pretty close to exam time for me to be happy about how hard DS1 is finding this paper. Is this the norm? Do most students get the majority of their marks from the other papers and usually score lower on this one. I'm beginning to get a bit panicky that the practice papers are causing him so much trouble. BTW he has As in all the previous papers (c1,c2, S1 and M1) so its not as though he has struggled throughout. If any maths teachers could give me some insight I'd be grateful.

OP posts:
mummytime · 05/05/2010 12:24

Which exam board?

Original poster
lazymumofteenagesons · 05/05/2010 12:31

I think its OCR. There is also a second part of the paper which appears o be a sort of comprehension, although that is just time consuming rather than difficult.

OP posts:
FleurDelacour · 05/05/2010 13:08

We do Edexcel so the papers aren't quite the same but C4 is the hardest of the normal A level Edexcel papers (other than Further Maths obv) and students usually have this as their lowest score. Presumably he is doing C3 and C4. He needs to keep practising questions and asking his teachers for help. Wishing him the best of luck!

mnistooaddictive · 05/05/2010 13:17

C4 is the hardest module they do with some really conceptual sruff. Comprehension is also difficult as they can have anything thrown at them and it depends on how they grasp it on the day. It is normal for C4 grade to be one lower than other modules but it should not drag final grade down.

Original poster
lazymumofteenagesons · 05/05/2010 13:49

Yes he is doing C3 as well, but these papers are not causing him any grief. They are practising papers in lessons and out and the teacher is available for extra help session which he has been to. It could bring the overall grade down if he scores a low B in it i suppose. He is also retaking C1 just to try and maximise marks. I don't know if all these papers have the same weighting when it comes to calculating the end result.

OP posts:
webwiz · 05/05/2010 14:01

All the papers do have the same weighting that's why everyone resits C1 to get the overall marks up.

mnistooaddictive · 05/05/2010 14:42

If he has reasonable A grades on th other 5 modules then one B should still allow him an A as it is an average.

mnistooaddictive · 05/05/2010 14:43

Remenber the UMS scores are not percentages anare weighted. It is possible to get a UMS of 100 with a percenteage of 90ish.

Original poster
lazymumofteenagesons · 05/05/2010 15:09

I think the scores he has been given so far are percentages. They are not that high.One in the nineties the rest in low 80s. If he retakes c1 this will give him another in the 90s (hopefully) and lets pray for a high c3 score. What was the course work worth?

OP posts:
mnistooaddictive · 05/05/2010 17:02

I don't know that off the top off my head.

Milliways · 05/05/2010 20:56

DD took her A2s last year, and she was dreading the C4 and was in tears that night after the exam

When the results came out, she did get her A grade BUT the C4 result was only a C, so she was lucky that her other modules were high enough to carry her through, and that A*s hadn't been invented!

DS is 14, in Yr10, and they are working on C1 & 2 now at his school..

Original poster
lazymumofteenagesons · 06/05/2010 18:31

Milliways - her other modules must have been high As. I think DS1s teacher told him he is overcomplicating the questions, mostly when shown what they are actually asking him to do he can do it. Hopefully alot of practice will help as the questions on each paper are quite similar. They have been told to thoroughly learn the formulae as you need to have it at hand for the first part of C4 or you can't answer.
Does anyone know the grade boundaries are they A >80, B 70-80 and C 60-70 per cent.

OP posts:
mnistooelective · 06/05/2010 20:16

Those are the boundaries for the UMs score which is not the same as percentages. The UMs is a scaled score between 0 and 100 where 80 is an A, 70 a B etc but as I wrote above it is not the same as a percentage. Sometimes you only need a percentage of 90 to get a UMS of 100.

Original poster
lazymumofteenagesons · 09/06/2010 17:48

Well it was today and I am awaiting his return with baited breath.

OP posts:
Original poster
lazymumofteenagesons · 09/06/2010 19:14

Well he had been managing the practise papers without much of a problem by the end. But he has done the usual and got stuck on a couple of questions and spent far too long on them and therefore not finished the paper Aghhhhhh how many times do you tell them to leave it and go back to it at the end. He probably lost about 10 marks by not finishing.

Anyone else sat this today?

OP posts:
harridan50 · 23/06/2017 12:28

Yes daughter in tears cant talk about it and has to go back for another exam this pm, she needed an A

TheFrendo · 23/06/2017 12:40

harridan,

Hard papers mean lower grade boundaries. How did she do in her other papers? Remember core 4 is one of 6.

user1484040234 · 23/06/2017 13:27

My son also found this paper terrible, others too on the Year 13 thread here and university application thread in the Higher Education section. Your daughter is definitely not alone about this one!

user1484040234 · 23/06/2017 13:30

He did Edexcel

stonecircle · 23/06/2017 17:03

Zombie thread but DS says he couldn't do the last question on today's C4 and a lot of people struggled with the penultimate question.

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