Physics GCSE

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I was just reading this article that I found on Digg, http://www.wellingtongrey.net/articles/archive/2007-06-07--open-letter-aqa.html about the state of GCSE physics today.

As someone who did their GCSEs 11 years ago it shocked me to see what passes for physics these days. Even back when I did them they had been dumbed down from the exams that my parents took.

Things like this are going to discourage the most able pupils from studying the subject further.
Physics should be about fact and not opinion/debate.

I fear for the future of this country if this is how our children are going to be educated :(
 
Well I can say that in the GCSE Physics that I am doing (which is AQA), we do need to know the equations, and we have never had a debate in the class (we also learn about how nuclear power stations work [well, the basics]).

I think the new science courses that are coming in seem to be a bit strange. As far as I can gather there is a new course that some people in the year below me at school do, which seems to be modular; this might be what the teacher in the article was talking about.

I personally have found the lessons relatively interesting (and I will be taking Physics up to A-Level, unless I die, or something like that).

One thing I think is not concentrated enough on is the theory. I really enjoy doing theory, and working out what will happen with equations and simulations (Mathematically), but the course I do has quite a bit of content that one just has to learn off by heart. I don't mind this, but I like to know why something happens, not simply what happens.

I think this is one place where coursework is great. In the course I am doing, we did two experiments which had to be written up, including plan, etc. and we were marked for all aspects (including performance in the practical itself). I think this was fun as I did a lot of research into more complex aspects of the subjects to get a better mark; this made me more interested, and I think this is definitely something that Physics should keep.

The problem is that people want to ensure that everyone does as well as possible, so exam boards come up with different "specifications" that are aimed at different people. So, for example, one can do a single science GCSE at my school, but the more able students take a dual award GCSE. So, one might get more people getting five A* to C grade GCSEs, simply because they don't get two D grades in science as they have done a less comprehensive course, that is only worth one GCSE (which could be a C grade or better if the person has had to revise less for it).

Angus Higgins
 
My god, are these seriously GCSE Physics questions? :eek:

I did my GCSE Physics in '94 (wow, was it that long ago) and the questions were much harder, more than that, much more numeric!

No wonder no-one is taking A-Level physics these days, the jump in content must be huge!!

edit: Quote:-

The rigorous of physics been torn down and replaced with impotent science media studies.
 
I did my GCSE's last year and was expecting the science to be really hard so I took the foundation course instead of the higher - boy was I wrong. I was devastated in the exam because I got basically every question right after revising for months. I could have easily taken the higher paper and gotten better results (My m8's got A's)
 
The Physics A Level was a joke when I took it, and it sounds like it's only got worse. The Maths A Level seems to be going the same way, as well. It's all very sad - universities already say that pupils don't know enough science and maths when they arrive, and this will only make it worse. :(
 
hmmm I dunno I remember GCSE's being quite easy 10 yrs ago. Example biology exam question.

"A monkey in a cold climate has long/thick fur, what kind of fur does a monkey in a hot climate have?"

:rolleyes:
 
Arcade Fire said:
The Physics A Level was a joke when I took it, and it sounds like it's only got worse. The Maths A Level seems to be going the same way, as well. It's all very sad - universities already say that pupils don't know enough science and maths when they arrive, and this will only make it worse. :(
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This is GCSE, not A Level.

As someone taking Physics at A Level, it covers a pretty broad spectrum and is a big step up from GCSE level. Although a lot of the bite is taken out by having most of the formulae given to you.

Anyway, that article is terrifying. Although he says there are no calculations, in the syllabus he linked to I saw this:

efficiency = useful energy supplied/total energy

so there is some calculations at least. Those questions are, like he says, utterly stupid though (rofl at the iPod answer), and shouldn't even be called science. If true this is a worrying trend, although there wasn't that many ethical/moral questions when I took GCSE science, there was a little bit which is quite reasonable. This is taking things too far.

EDIT: looked at syllabus and it has c=f lambda as well, not too bad.
 
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The decline in standards in science and mathematics at GCSE and A Level is certainly very depressing. Saying that my sister is doing her GCSEs at the moment and the physics questions I have seen don’t seem quite as bad as those in the link although the only ‘maths’ required seems to be plugging numbers into F=ma and V=IR. How A Level physics can be taught without calculus is beyond me, my dad thought I was joking and refused to believe me. I did actually quite enjoy physics at school though; the desks were by far the most comfortable for sleeping on :)
 
Surely that's the exam for single (or even double?) science. I did 'triple' science, that is, earning a single GCSE for each of the three, and it was much harder than that, even in only 2002. I refuse to believe that that's as hard as it gets, sounds like a teacher with an axe to grind.
 
TommoUK said:
utterly stupid though (rofl at the iPod answer), and shouldn't even be called science.
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Well you have to understand that he has picked the most stupid questions he can.

Yes, in my exam (GCSE) there can be a question that is simple comprehension, but it is about ensuring that people can read a scientific style of text, and then take the relevant information from it (it sounds stupid, but it is something people should be able to do, and thus having the qualification shows that they can do this).

The guy who wrote the article is right that some of the things are being dropped in favour of less "sciency" things, but he has probably spent some time picking the examples he used.

Angus Higgins
 
From what I hear from A level Maths/Physics it's really been dumbed down in terms of maths.

For IB physics there were none of these questions; most of the questions are about being able to derive an equation and integrate/differentiate it to be able to get a function of x in terms of y. This involved partial differentials and differential equations just in Physics (Higher Level) - my mate who does physics here tells me they didn't really do that at all in A level physics as they can't make the assumption that you do maths as well. (at IB you have to do maths, and if you do Physics HL they strongly advise Maths HL as well, which you do need) So whilst I was doing AC voltages as integrations or electric fields/forces as vector products he was just being spoon-fed formulae. Sounds incredibly biased (from a former IB student) but the IB seems to have prepared me a lot better for university than A levels would have done, and I'm glad I did it.

Take just this year at university - in my first year maths module I've covered about 80% of the stuff for IB Maths, but the people who did A level maths hadn't covered anything of the second semester stuff, and about half the first semester stuff. And I always thought that the IB was meant to be "less detailed" in the sciences? :confused:
 
OCdt Stringy said:
Surely that's the exam for single (or even double?) science. I did 'triple' science, that is, earning a single GCSE for each of the three, and it was much harder than that, even in only 2002. I refuse to believe that that's as hard as it gets, sounds like a teacher with an axe to grind.
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(Sorry for posting twice in close succession).

I think it could be from the most simple questions of a new double award exam. I do the AQA double award (co-ordinated) and we get some pretty difficult questions, well I think they are and I am interested in science.

I think too much is based on words in the Physics exam, for instance if they ask you to explain the life cycle of a star, and then offer 6 marks. They will only offer 3 marks for a relatively complex calculation (in the context of GCSEs :p).

Angus Higgins
 
Sure there are easy questions. I can remember one from my Chemistry paper that asked: "Scientists need to develop ways to analyse and remove sulphur from petrol, how can they do it?"

Now I thought maybe they need to heat the petrol so it evapourates, leaving only sulphur in the container - something along those lines.

Turns out, my answer was wrong. Correct answer in the mark scheme, was "Scientists develop a method to analyse sulphur content in petrol, and develop a method to remove sulphur".

This was the hardest tier paper there is.

But the other questions are harder. :)

Some of the stuff that guy is saying is true, but the majority isn't. We usually have to work out how to get the numbers to plug into the formulas, which, unlike with maths, aren't usually given to us.
 
Fraggr said:
We usually have to work out how to get the numbers to plug into the formulas, which, unlike with maths, aren't usually given to us.
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Exactly.

What do people propose we do, derive the forumlae ourselves?

We have to memorise the formulae for the exam, and understand how to put the numbers into them, and what units the answer will be in. You can't expect anything else as far as I see (at GCSE level).

Angus Higgins
 
OCdt Stringy said:
Surely that's the exam for single (or even double?) science. I did 'triple' science, that is, earning a single GCSE for each of the three, and it was much harder than that, even in only 2002. I refuse to believe that that's as hard as it gets, sounds like a teacher with an axe to grind.
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I thought the same thing. Seems very much like the double award physics stuff rather than the separates stuff. They made the "less able" kids at my school do the double award for a reason.

Triple award still wasn't really "hard", no GCSE's are these days, but they cater for the masses and so there's quite a lot of stuff in there that is very easy to grasp if you are so inclined.

However, I know looking back I think A2 level physics is easy now, but when I was doing it I didn't. People may remember their exams being harder becuase their maturity and level of understanding (pre-uni etc) was much less, so when they look at stuff now it will most certainly seem a lot easier. I'm not disagreeing that things are getting easier, but maybe it's not as extreme as people first think.
 
I sat my GCSE physics today I found it easy, a lot easier than last years and the year before's paper-very basic stuff in that exam.
 
Hamoodii said:
I sat my GCSE physics today I found it easy, a lot easier than last years and the year before's paper-very basic stuff in that exam.
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Hmm, all the people who did GCSE Tripple Science (thats 3*90mins exams just finished + 3*45mins still left to be done in the next few weeks) at my school found it harder than the mocks/past papers. :(
 
Seems to me to be more "Applied physics" etc.

It seems the pure science of physics is disappearing, and it's all being dumbed down and political-ized (yes; me fail english that's unpossible!)

When I was in school I got marked down for showing a greater knowledge, it was either "recite word for word" or fail, not only where some of the answer I provided insightful but also technically correct, which is the only kind of correct there should be.

Eventually it'll end up like biology i.e. not a pure science.
 
i did my physics GCSE in june2004. i knew sod all as I messed about in school and still got an A in physics. In GCSE physics you are given numbers and you either times or divide them to get the answers. Easy as. It doesnt get much past V=IR or equations of similar difficulty. GCSEs are useless as anyone who works hard enough and has half a brain can pass. I know many many people with loadsa As and A*s at GCSE who get Us in their 1st AS exam as they simply arent clever enough. having said that, most Alevels are a waste of time anyway (media studies, psycology, sociology, art, RE)
 
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