For all those despising Maths, it's getting easier!

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Just because you don't know the answers to the questions in the old test papers does not mean that they were any harder. The students then would have been taught how to solve those problems and answer those questions as we are taught now how to solve the problems and answer the questions in current papers. Someone who sat their GCSE's in 1970 might think that today's text papers area harder. It's all a matter of individual knowledge.
 
lozzick said:
Thats a load of BS^
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Afraid not, the exams are getting much easier.

As an aside, the BBC did an interesting experiment/show a few years where 16 year olds were given exam papers dating a few decades old. They were lead to believe that they were the equivalent O-level. Pretty much all the students failed the exams. The old exam papers were actually originally sat by 11 year olds and were just basic maths such as the profit/loss style in the OP. None of the students on the show had a grasp of basic multiplication/division or fractions and when you think about it these are the skills that are so helpful/often essential in everyday life! It's quite scary.
 
markyp23 said:
These are totally rubbish though. The BBC will have got the stupidest children they could imagine to do it and compared the results to the cleverst children from back in the day.
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I did separate that story from my comment regards exams getting easier for a reason! :D:D
 
sr4470 said:
Probably the level of material they're taught and at what age, not the exams themselves.
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I think it's because students at GCSE level are taught how to pass the exams and not much else. If you give them a question that doesn't match the 'style' they are used to they are not able to do it. Also I think calculators are used far to much in schools, my brother uses his for even simple stuff like 4x5 for example. I laughed at him for doing so but he said it was just in the habit of using it.
 
yak.h'cir said:
I think it's because students at GCSE level are taught how to pass the exams and not much else. If you give them a question that doesn't match the 'style' they are used to they are not able to do it. Also I think calculators are used far to much in schools, my brother uses his for even simple stuff like 4x5 for example. I laughed at him for doing so but he said it was just in the habit of using it.
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Well, I was helping a friend practice for an entrance test for Nursing at Kingston University about a month ago, and she had to do fairly complex percentage and fraction questions with no calculator allowed. Can't remember what specifics off the top of my head but I had trouble working it out on paper (then again, I didn't do Maths past GCSE level). This sort of style: What is 14% of 140503?, and there was a very tight time limit as well.
 
OK, since this thread has derailed from my initial post, I'll join the debate :rolleyes:

I think all UK students should start using abacuseses (abaci?)

I saw a documentary about these Asian students ranging from primary school through to high-school and higher education, and it was simply amazing.

They could easily do very complicated problems using an abacus, that would take us a few minutes to do in our heads, in a few seconds. The older students had miniture abacuseses that they switched with their thumbnails at lightning speed. And the advanced students didn't use an abacus at all, they just used "air-abacus" with their thumbs switching in the air randomly.

It's the way forward, everyone using air-abacus to do stupidly complicated maths problems in their heads.
 
sr4470 said:
Well, I was helping a friend practice for an entrance test for Nursing at Kingston University about a month ago, and she had to do fairly complex percentage and fraction questions with no calculator allowed. Can't remember what specifics off the top of my head but I had trouble working it out on paper (then again, I didn't do Maths past GCSE level). This sort of style: What is 14% of 140503?, and there was a very tight time limit as well.
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:) I'd say an entrance test to study nursing at university was slightly higher then GCSE level but it's good to know they get round to percentages eventually!
 
dbmzk1 said:
No, it's not.
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yes it is

you dont know how to do the stuff people did 30 years ago aswell as they could because you havent been taught it as much . its not a main part of your modules or curriculum

just like some of the stuff you do know wasnt a main part back then

noticed a similar sort of thing when doing engineering maths at uni. some of the foriegn students had obviously been taught differently and where ace at some of the things we where crap at and had only covered lightly at college. and vice versa
 
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"andy" said:
yes it is

you dont know how to do the stuff people did 30 years ago aswell as they could because you havent been taught it as much . its not a main part of your modules or curriculum

just like some of the stuff you do now wasnt a main part back

noticed a similar sort of thing when doing engineering maths at uni. some of the foriegn students had obviously been taught different and where ace at some of the things we where crap at and had only covered lightly at college. and vice versa
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I don't see how it negates the point that exams are getting easier. Especially with regards to maths. Students understanding and the coverage in exams of the fundamental basics of each subject has dropped significantly and we need to stop making up excuses and try and reverse the trend.

Even with A-levels these days you have several universities saying that they're not challenging enough to differentiate between the talented and average pupils so they're having to introduce their own tests.
 
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A-level maths hasn't changed much in 20 years apart from the recent module alterations where they changed what you do when to make things easier to take in at first (afaik)

My A-level maths teacher had been teaching AS/A2 maths for 20 years so he should know :p
 
Beansprout said:
A-level maths hasn't changed much in 20 years apart from the recent module alterations where they changed what you do when to make things easier to take in at first (afaik)

My A-level maths teacher had been teaching AS/A2 maths for 20 years so he should know :p
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Well that's good to know at least. I was under the impression after the shake up 6 years ago that the syllabus had taken a big hit.

Although I was flicking through google regards this and found the following which does suggest otherwise;
BBC said:
Sir Peter was recently unveiled by the government as the academic who would lead a review into primary maths - a centrepiece of the incoming prime minister's plans to raise school standards in England.

Top grades

But in an interview with a newspaper, Sir Peter suggested that in "absolute terms" the A-level exam was not as difficult as a generation ago - and that there had been a decline over a long period of time.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6900773.stm
 
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