Pronouns in maths exams

[OhWhatFuckeryIsThisNow]

I scribe for GCSEs. Today was aqa maths, calculator paper. Now maths textbooks and exams have long done diverse names in the examples, eg, Sarah and Rashid are making cakes...Dafydd is planting a garden, Safira is buying rope. You get the drift. This year though I’ve noticed that gender neutral has been introduced. So Kai is making a cake, they use 50 grams of sugar. One could say that making the questions genderless is ok, and maybe so if it was consistent. So there was they their, he him and she her. A few of my fellow sribers said that their candidates were confused by the wording of the questions (especially the they/theirs, the kids thought there were more than one person being talked about). I was talking about it with the maths teachers later and all of them said why can’t it be Student A, student B? And especially why cant the exam board be consistent?

I suspect I’m going to regret responding but it matters to get as much clarity as possible and to just test what that particular exam is focussed on as far as possible.

So yes,

OP, the only logical conclusion is that your colleagues are lying, given that there is apparently zero chance of 'they' and 'theirs' being used in any ambiguous sense.

And it lost half my post…
Basically just saying that yes there is still definitely the possibility of confusion with
“Petra will receive one fifth share of an inheritance of £250. How much will they receive?'” It could be read as being asked what the remaining share of multiple people was e.g the £200 which Petra the individual hasn’t received. Even if the correct answer is then put down, it will still have take some candidates extra time to process that out and decide which option.

OP - please do mention it if you can, it’s important even if it only affects one person.

Am so glad you raised this OP. My teen DD complained to me after the previous paper and said that she found it v confusing. To quote @suggestionsplease1 she is a "normal" GCSE student who is not overly confident in Maths. She said the use of "they" threw her off and she had to keep rereading the question to check that she hadn't misinterpreted it. I am now minded to put in a complaint to the exam board.

Not all teens have swallowed all this bullshit btw @suggestionsplease1 - some can see it for exactly what it is - compelled speech. My DD has given up talking in large friendship groups as she can't keep up with which pronouns some of her contemporaries are using (as they seem to change them every week).

BTW @suggestionsplease1 - I also have a background in SEN and can only say that my sympathies go out to all those poor kids that you work with if your attitudes on this thread are indicative of your empathy.

English is not my first language - the use of 'they' here would make me doubt if the question refers to Petra (ie the 1/5 already mentioned), or to the 'other people' who will receive the remaining 4/5 of the inheritance.

I'm so sick of the nonsense!

You say your DD is familiar with a wide range of pronouns use, so why did she get thrown with the use of "they" ?

'Petra will receive one fifth share of an inheritance of £250. How much will they receive?'
Is that confusing?

Yes, because after Petra has received her £50 we don't know how many people the £200 remainder is to be divided among or how.

@suggestionsplease1 - because "they" is a plural and refers to more than one person. Or at least it does in the,English language that is spoken in the UK!!!!

Can't believe that I am having to explain this - this is where all this nonsense has brought us!!! Unbef*inglievable!!!!

David has two spinners, spinner A and spinner B.

Each spinner can only land on blue or green.

The probability that spinner A will land on blue is 0.25.

The probability that spinner B will land on green is 0.8.

The probability tree diagram shows this information.

Tree diagrams gcse maths question

David spins spinner A and spinner B together.

They do this a number of times.

The number of times both spinners land on blue is 40.

Work out an estimate for the numbers of times both spinners land on green.

Which is the correct answer?

A) 800
B) 64
C) 128
D) 480

Does the pronoun use impact your calculation?

Is it d????

The exam papers will have been written so that there is no possible confusion over the number of characters referred to for calculations of answers.

LOL! No, in fact it’s very common that exam paper questions don’t quite make sense. Every year there are problems with errors and badly written questions in exam papers. It’s a rare exam when the invigilator doesn’t have a correction to announce 😂

Can we have some more examples of questions you imagine the OP is wrong about, suggestions? I feel you haven't covered them all.

(And in your second example, I would be thrown by the sentence "Tree diagrams gcse maths question". Not because I can't possibly understand what it means, but because its inclusion in a question does not seem relevant, and makes me question my understanding about what I am being told.)

suggestionsplease1

I sincerely hope you do not have anything to do with SN children because not only do your posts show a lack of knowledge of ND children , they are downright offensive.

They do this a number of times.

In that particular case no, but it's a clumsy sentence. It could be rewritten as "this is done a number of times." Although passive voices are supposedly less clear, this avoids the shock horror of talking about someone with a male name as he.

Who are the other people with the spinners?

Also:

Exam papers should reflect the common present English usage.

@suggestionsplease1 distinction between singular and plural pronouns is common present English usage. “They” might have become a fad amongst teenagers and on Twitter, but actually the exam is departing from this by using it as a singular pronoun. The singular “they” remains grammatically incorrect in written English usage (and I mark finals literature and history exams in an “elite” university, where we still treat it as a grammatical error, because it still is one. It is not yet standard correct English).

Times change, and the world catches up, who knew?

I am sure your 'elite' university had some questionable research, teaching, practices, customs and exam papers some centuries or decades ago. And not least in their attitudes to female students perhaps. Are you advocating that it persists in these now too?

You think that’s remotely the same as following basic written English grammar? What a category confusion.

Perhaps if we would only all lobby for the use of “innit” in student essays and The Times Style Guide, all our social injustices will be solved! Who would have thought it; so easy!

For any 14 or 15 year who isn't already aware of this usage (and there really can't be many of them left) it is a 2 minute explanation of how this might be used and it would have come up in preparation for exams and practice papers.

No it wouldn't, because this hasn't come up in papers before as far as I am aware and isn't on the maths syllabus.

Maths teacher here. Sorry haven't read the whole thread but wanted to comment that I have noticed that many of the qus in maths gcse exams are very traditional and involve numbers of boys / girls in year groups etc etc. I have noticed over the past few years that I don't feel comfortable repeatedly delivering such questions when there are so many students to who don't see themselves as boy or girl. The questions feel dated. So I may be alone in saying that I think it is a good thing. Would a misunderstanding of them/their really lead to a misunderstanding of the maths aspect of the question? Agree that students who have additional needs with language need as much support as they can get, but I think that the use of they / them pronouns could be included without this being a problem.

For example

Robyn buys a jacket in a sale.
The jacket has been reduced in price by 15%
They pay £21.25 for the jacket.

How much did the jacket cost originally?

I don't see how the use of a they pronoun causes any confusion about the question.
However, it acknowledges they existence of those who use they them pronouns. Many of whom are struggling with bullying and prejudice.

You seriously have GCSE students who don't know what genitalia they have?

When "they" is used to refer to a singular person is it conjugated with is or are? If the verb is plural, I can't see how it wouldn't create unnecessary confusion during an exam. I have stopped reading many things once I encounter "they" in reference to a person that wasn't readily clear as it's too much of a needless irritant, unfortunately that option isn't available to students

@MissyCooperismyShero you don't seem to have understood what I said in my post.

I said I have students who don't see themselves as boy or girl. Which I think is acceptable.

Wokerygonemad A has 3 apples
Wokerygonemad B has 12 oranges
Easy

Robyn buys a jacket in a sale.
The jacket has been reduced in price by 15%
They pay £21.25 for the jacket.

But here there is only one jacket, so although 'they' to my mind is awkward there is no confusion. Contrast that with the first question about the inheritance where it wasn't clear who they (the exam setters, plural) were asking about.

So what you are saying though appears to be that one subset of children - those with gender issues - have to be prioritised over other groups of children, those with special needs, English as not a first language, just those whose reading comprehension is not as good as their (plural) mathematical ability.

One solution would be for society to make up a new pronoun as I believe has been done in Sweden.