GCSE Maths question

dowie · 6 Jun 2015 at 13:15

PhysicsMan94 said:
You know this, do you?

I know it is very likely, do you understand why?

PhysicsMan94 · 6 Jun 2015 at 13:21

dowie said:
I know it is very likely, do you understand why?

I'm sure you're going to give me a reason anyway, so please go on.

datalol-jack · 6 Jun 2015 at 13:23

Is everyone familiar with grading on a forced curve? Yes, it would be a gamble to point to any particular commenter and say that they've failed to grab a high A or A* in their GCSEs, but it has a high likelihood of being correct.

dowie · 6 Jun 2015 at 13:30

PhysicsMan94 said:
I'm sure you're going to give me a reason anyway, so please go on.

Well do you have any reason to assume that the sample of people commenting on the Daily Mail, Telegraph, Guardian articles differs significantly from the general population as a whole where only a minority of people historically have achieved an A or A* in that exam?

Maybe it is skewed slightly, no doubt we've also cut off the portion of people who don't even read etc.. but there are a whole bunch of comments on those articles and plenty of them even scoff at the question then proceed to give an incorrect solution.

PhysicsMan94 · 6 Jun 2015 at 13:37

dowie said:
Well do you have any reason to assume that the sample of people commenting on the Daily Mail, Telegraph, Guardian articles differs significantly from the general population as a whole where only a minority of people historically have achieved an A or A* in that exam?

Maybe it is skewed slightly, no doubt we've also cut off the portion of people who don't even read etc.. but there are a whole bunch of comments on those articles and plenty of them even scoff at the question then proceed to give an incorrect solution.

I can't comment at all on the overall mathematical abilities of a particular comment section of an article without having some data to refer to, which is why making the sweeping assumption that most people on this thread did not achieve an A/A* in GCSE Maths is, well, a bad assumption.

dowie · 6 Jun 2015 at 13:47

PhysicsMan94 said:
I can't comment at all on the overall mathematical abilities of a particular comment section of an article without having some data to refer to, which is why making the sweeping assumption that most people on this thread did not achieve an A/A* in GCSE Maths is, well, a bad assumption.

No one has made a sweeping assumption about the people on this thread.

I've made a fairly reasonable assumption about the adults laughing at it in general. Perhaps the alternative is the case - a large portion of the commentators on the Daily Mail etc.. got A* or A in GCSE maths, but I think that is unlikely.

datalol-jack · 6 Jun 2015 at 15:04

well it does improve beyond GCSE/A Level - plenty of maths modules at various universities will either allow notes or provide handbook books listing a bunch of formulas - the exam is then more a test of your understanding of the subject/ability to apply your knowledge

Exactly. In fact, one solution to this emotionally and intellectually dependant culture of general education would be to introduce brief (fewer but deeper questions), open-ended exam papers; open book and no time limit. I would allow resits - it's far more useful to have students that eventually 'get it' than a large chunk of the populous wondering five years down the line 'what's the point?'.

You gain more useful metrics from such exams: time taken to complete the paper, questions answered, strategies used (are the kids actually creative?), answers given, error-checking applied, depth of understanding; and the teachers would be free to choose to teach using a more Socratic method, at least some of the time, based on problem solving - the one thing, it seems, the system is consistently failing to teach the students.

I doubt it will happen in my lifetime, though. The opposition would be enormous, and thick, in more than one sense, textbook publishers like Pearson would be in uproar, looking after their bottom line. And don't forget the rather nasty confounding variable that is the problem of deprivation and the effect it has on education at all stages. Poverty in a wealthy, post-industrial country is the prime conundrum for the Education Secretary, regardless of political affiliation, and yet their remit is by definition almost wholly incapable of dealing with it. The buck is passed, reforms come in, money splash; but when exams come we all face-palm.

Yes, we can blame it all on useless youngsters and ****less parents, but does it really address our long-standing problems of low productivity, disengaged electorate (they were kids once too!) and unsatisfactory attainment, cultural and economic? Like a tinfoil-hat conspiracy - it's all connected, guys!

Edit:

Whatever filter muppetry stars out a perfectly appropriate synonym of irresponsible, deserves the gallows!

Gzero · 7 Jun 2015 at 03:38

dowie said:
well it does improve beyond GCSE/A Level - plenty of maths modules at various universities will either allow notes or provide handbook books listing a bunch of formulas - the exam is then more a test of your understanding of the subject/ability to apply your knowledge

You only got the most general formulas, usually on 1 or 2 A4 page(s).

Source: I too did a Maths degree. (Just don't ask me to do anything, I like solving my own problems, not yours.

)

adolf hamster · 7 Jun 2015 at 09:09

Gzero said:
You only got the most general formulas, usually on 1 or 2 A4 page(s).

Source: I too did a Maths degree. (Just don't ask me to do anything, I like solving my own problems, not yours. )

Same story in engineering, normally you get the forumla without context, so you still need to know what formulae apply to the question at hand, what each variable means and how to get them in a system of units that will give you What you're after.