Motivation for GCSE's

[Ben Cole]

It's not bad parenting at all.

It's parents that can see the bigger picture and the consequences of various courses of action.

Generally in life you get rewarded for working hard and achieving goals. Certainly in my case and perhaps this case the child is not motivated enough and has no concept of the consequences of lack of achievement...having been provided for all their life.

This is just a way of making a reward easy to perceive when in fact the real rewards will be reaped over the coming decades.

 

[LordSplodge]

Well I hope I don't grow up to be like you.

He has a point. You're responsible for you own destiny. Sounds like you need a kick up the backside.

Motivate yourself or fail. Your choice.

 

[Energize]

Get a B in English and try for an A in Maths as they're the usual GCSE subjects Unis look out for, the rest are all complete doss subjects and you easily be able to get Cs or higher in them.

Chemistry is a doss subject?

English is less credible than many other GCSE subjects because it doesn't reflect the ability to read and write well, you can have a great vocabulary, perfect spelling and grammar, be very articulate, but because you can't analyse poetry or write a good story you get a mediocre grade, whereas if you can come up with some dross about Romeo and Juliet you can get a great grade.

 

[OpenToSuggestions]

OP: Get motivated or in 5 years time you will probably be in an embarrassing job (or unemployed) with terrible pay and awful prospects i.e. Mcjob.

I thought I knew better and did naff all for my GCSEs. I got 2 As, 5 Bs, 2 Cs, but then did the same with Alevels and was even closer to failing.
Then I got kicked out of University due to failing my resits.

I think you will only learn after you have already cocked it up I am afraid .
I sure as hell learnt, but I did it the hard way due my own 'cba with that I will just play BF2' attitude.

 

[Moothead2]

Chemistry is a doss subject?

English is less credible than many other GCSE subjects because it doesn't reflect the ability to read and write well, you can have a great vocabulary, perfect spelling and grammar, be very articulate, but because you can't analyse poetry or write a good story you get a mediocre grade, whereas if you can come up with some dross about Romeo and Juliet you can get a great grade.

Apologies, I completely forgot about the Sciences . I completely agree with your points on English too, but it's a subject that gets more credability than it should and so a decent grade in that will likely help in the future.

 

[realBabelfish]

If you don't work hard now, through your a levels and into University, then the job opportunities are very much limited and you will regret it for the rest of your life. I aren't saying that you might not get lucky, but you won't regret getting good GCSEs.

If you want a better life, then get good grades! Simple.

+1

GCSEs get you into your next educational/work role

so, good GCSEs get you into the college course you want or your first job. with poor grades and going for a job straight from school look forward to saying 'want fries with that?'

 

[realBabelfish]

Yup that is dreadful parenting in my eyes. No offense. Almost everyone I know who did pretty well at GCSE myself included received no money for it. Then people who scraped out C's etc were given hundreds in some cases. Does not compute. I kid you not when I say ANYONE can get A*'s in GCSE if they put a decent amount of effort in. I didn't put much effort in, didn't do amazingly but still came out with A*'s A's and B being my lowest. Get yourself into a good habit of revising now because A levels will mess you up if you think they'll be as easy as GCSE. I breezed through GCSE pretty much but A level is a huge step up in my opinion.

A* is BS.

A* is A/B from when we did them. it devalues the whole system adding in a new level of grade. combine that with how much easier GCSEs are now and its devalued the whole system. (i know people say they arent easier, but trust me, so many things have been dropped over the years i think they should have a different name now)

 

[anathi]

Take it from someone that's been in the same scenario and wish I could go back and change my attitude about it.

Came here to post this.

I consider myself really lucky to be where I am now given my attitude towards my GCSEs and A-Levels.

Think about the ~3 months you have off after your GCSEs.. You can slack off something fierce then, you'll probably get bored of it

 

[Stewy]

I can't even get motivated for the last year of my degree

 

[lukeharvest]

A* is BS.

A* is A/B from when we did them. it devalues the whole system adding in a new level of grade. combine that with how much easier GCSEs are now and its devalued the whole system. (i know people say they arent easier, but trust me, so many things have been dropped over the years i think they should have a different name now)

I used GCSE/A-Level exams from the 80s and 90s to revise for my exams, and they were far easier. I also used a lot of Harvard Mathematics material from the 40s and 50s when preparing for my Oxford interview, which was supposed to be 1st year undergrad material. Also, the A* grade is not defined as the old A grade, you need a higher percentage to achieve it. The media like to go on about how exams are now easier than 20-30 years ago, which is what sparked me to actually start using some older material, and all I found was that they, if anything, were much easier.

 

[Ben Cole]

I used GCSE/A-Level exams from the 80s and 90s to revise for my exams, and they were far easier. I also used a lot of Harvard Mathematics material from the 40s and 50s when preparing for my Oxford interview, which was supposed to be 1st year undergrad material. Also, the A* grade is not defined as the old A grade, you need a higher percentage to achieve it. The media like to go on about how exams are now easier than 20-30 years ago, which is what sparked me to actually start using some older material, and all I found was that they, if anything, were much easier.

So do you think human beings have evolved at a seriously accelerated rate in the last 20 or so years then? Or perhaps you're all working harder?

Or maybe you're just being coached for exams rather than being taught the subject because believe me, the kids coming out of school now with these stellar grades are not as well educated as when I left school.

For the record I was in the first year to do GCSEs but I did O level maths a year early because I was an advanced student. I did very little work but got an A in GCSE with a pass in the extension paper. Everyone in my peer group considered the O level to be much harder and this trend appeared to continue for at least the next few years that I followed.

The fact is, I had fiends that went to Oxbridge that had 6 A grades at GCSE level. I'll bet you'd struggle with that now.

 

[jimjamuk]

you will also find that the attitude you take now generally will continue through your life and it doesnt end with A levels or Uni. whatever job you get - there is going to be a career ladder or some form of progression.

so your choice is to muddle your way through stuff - which may seem easy now, but later on studying becomes a lot harder to achieve decent results and then in the cut throat world of work you will be competing with fellow employees for promotion = payrises.

 

[Jay794]

I remember the day I got my GCSE results, my dad stopped by school so I could pick them up, I opened the envelope, glanced at the results, closed the envelope back up, jumped in the car and went off to Leeds Festival lol.

Arrived at school with a Land Rover full of camping gear lol

 

[lukeharvest]

So do you think human beings have evolved at a seriously accelerated rate in the last 20 or so years then? Or perhaps you're all working harder?

Or maybe you're just being coached for exams rather than being taught the subject because believe me, the kids coming out of school now with these stellar grades are not as well educated as when I left school.

For the record I was in the first year to do GCSEs but I did O level maths a year early because I was an advanced student. I did very little work but got an A in GCSE with a pass in the extension paper. Everyone in my peer group considered the O level to be much harder and this trend appeared to continue for at least the next few years that I followed.

The fact is, I had fiends that went to Oxbridge that had 6 A grades at GCSE level. I'll bet you'd struggle with that now.

GCSE/A-Levels are ridiculously easy, they could make A-Levels 10x harder, and it still wouldn't be a scratch on how Oxford is as a student, so I don't really know why humans would need to evolve to have harder A-Level papers, because they're nothing in comparison to how much work I have to do now.

All I can say is, when I were doing A-Levels (especially) I used 80s and 90s past papers, and they were much more straight-forward. This was for mathematics and the sciences, so it's a lot easier to compare papers over something like English or a foreign language.

That's all A-Levels/GCSEs are about, coaching to pass exams. However, I went to a school and college in the bottom 10% of the country, so I probably received far less "coaching" than you would at private/grammar schools/colleges.

For what it's worth, my GCSEs aren't much better than 6 A grades, and it wasn't a problem for me getting into Oxford.

 

[edscdk]

GCSEs are just tests of memory, total waste of time. Just get enough to progress wherever you want to go next.

thats what the parents of thick kids say,

if you fail GCSE its a good indication you are indeed thick and is shuts a lot of doors from the word go....

 

[realBabelfish]

I used GCSE/A-Level exams from the 80s and 90s to revise for my exams, and they were far easier. I also used a lot of Harvard Mathematics material from the 40s and 50s when preparing for my Oxford interview, which was supposed to be 1st year undergrad material. Also, the A* grade is not defined as the old A grade, you need a higher percentage to achieve it. The media like to go on about how exams are now easier than 20-30 years ago, which is what sparked me to actually start using some older material, and all I found was that they, if anything, were much easier.

odd, since plenty of maths has been dropped since when i took it. maybe you used newer papers?

we kinda got screwed as we were 2nd year of GCSEs. first year loads of people got high grades so they made stuff harder for our year. the whole country got lower grades that year

we also had to learn the whole syllabus, whereas now it seems many teachers know certain things arent going to be asked so dont teach them.

we even had things on our exams that werent in the syllabus. lots of people up in arms about it at the time (as it effectively made As almost impossible) but nothing ever happened.

still BS that there are higher grades available that when we took them

 

[SillyHeatsink]

Honestly? Sack the whole academic thing off. Leave school and get a trade. Join a big companies as an apprentice, earn some money, and get them to put you through your degree part time.

The alternative is to do GCSEs and A-levels and then a degree, and graduate without a clue about how to do anything in the real world.

 

[realBabelfish]

thats what the parents of thick kids say,

if you fail GCSE its a good indication you are indeed thick and is shuts a lot of doors from the word go....

i dont think exams are a great method to be honest. there is a lot of recall there. for example we had to remember big formulas in maths, that are now given (iirc)

in a real life job - if you dont know something you find it out. not just leave it blank.

 

[lukeharvest]

odd, since plenty of maths has been dropped since when i took it. maybe you used newer papers?

we kinda got screwed as we were 2nd year of GCSEs. first year loads of people got high grades so they made stuff harder for our year. the whole country got lower grades that year

we also had to learn the whole syllabus, whereas now it seems many teachers know certain things arent going to be asked so dont teach them.

we even had things on our exams that werent in the syllabus. lots of people up in arms about it at the time (as it effectively made As almost impossible) but nothing ever happened.

still BS that there are higher grades available that when we took them

From all the papers I saw, there was nothing that I couldn't do, whether it was off the syllabus or not I don't know. As for teachers knowing some things won't come up, I take it you're referring to the recent news of the examiners telling teachers at conferences if those teachers paid £x,000. I highly doubt any of these teachers were from government funded schools, seeing as they barely have money to replace a broken bin. There are still things "not on the syllabus" being put on exams now-a-days, over the last two years it has been in the news twice. With the introduction of the A* (in A-Level) exam boards started putting on "stretch and challenge" questions which are totally off the syllabus, which is targeted for those wanting to get an A*.

 

[Nitefly]

The alternative is to do GCSEs and A-levels and then a degree, and graduate without a clue about how to do anything in the real world...

... yet with considerably better job prospects and pay