The 20+yr old GCSE Thread!

[Amp34]

That's weird, my A-level maths teacher has been teaching A-level maths and said only a couple of things have changed, such as imaginary numbers being pushed out to further maths. He reckons the style of the course/exams has changed, not the content

Thats pretty much the same as my teacher. He had been teaching maths for 40 years and said it hadnt changed much at all.

I think this is the main reason people grades are better, when i was in school [only a couple years or so ago ] we had to do lessons we didn't like such has languages and R.E, i think if i didn't have to do them i would have gotten better marks. They made me unmotivated, lowered morale and such.

Same here, there were certain subjects we had to do (like maths, science, french, DT) and we were allowed to choose only 3 subjects we wanted to do so the majority of people did the same subjects.

 

[Gribs]

i did my gcse's 7 years ago, I went to a grammar school and only a couple of highly exceptional students got over 5 A's, getting like 11 A*'s was just unheard of. I personally got an A and 8 B's.

I was unfortunate enough to do Maths A level 5 years ago, before they changed the system around to all this AS level stuff. I can tell you now, that was a damn hard course, again, in a class of 15 above average intelligence kids, not one person got a A. I got a D, which I was really annoyed with at the time as I was hoping for a C, but when I look back through some of the work that was involved to even get that grade, I am astounded. Far harder than anything I had to do during my 4 years at uni. The pure mathematics 3 paper was just mind boggling.


Do I think they are getting any easier? Absolutely. They must be. Surely it's not some kind of darwinian hyper evolution, where every year, the human race is getting smarter. Far from it, kids leaving school now, from what one reads in the press, are getting dumber.

At my school only 1 person got 1 A* (that was in drama) and quite a few of my friends have gone on to get firsts at decent uni's.

I did A' level math’s and further math’s 8 years ago and I don't remember the maths being that hard, or a least not after doing further math’s. To give you an idea of the difference I got an A in maths but an E in further maths. Just one question on the further mechanics paper was equivalent to about half of the first pure paper.

I'm guessing you didn't do a math’s based degree as first year physics involved much more complicated maths than anything I'd done before.

I'm not sure they're getting easier, just that students are being taught what they need to know to pass them and they're taking easier subjects. The same is true at A' level were less people are taking sciences which have correct answers rather than more subjective arts subjects.

 

[UKTopGun]

Same here, there were certain subjects we had to do (like maths, science, french, DT) and we were allowed to choose only 3 subjects we wanted to do so the majority of people did the same subjects.

Nowadays its:
Maths
English
Science
RS are all compulsary.

Then you choose 4 other subjects. 1 language is heavily recommended in our school so a lot of people choose one.

 

[Una]

I think this is the main reason people grades are better, when i was in school [only a couple years or so ago ] we had to do lessons we didn't like such has languages and R.E, i think if i didn't have to do them i would have gotten better marks. They made me unmotivated, lowered morale and such.

kids have it easy these days

Hey be happy you never went to a bording school (public school) like I did.
We got forced to study Latin and Greek as well as the regular subjects. My days were spent 9am-4pm lessons, small break, then 3-4 hours homework/prep time at night (in silence - enforced by house prefects). We also got forced to go to church 3 times a week. (Which I am totaly against being a atheist)
Then at weekends we were expected to go to church/play sports for the school. We really had 0 free time . This really killed my motivation towards the whole system.

 

[taz488]

well i have just done my exams this year, i got 1A*(geography), 7A's (maths,english lit, english language, biology, chemisty, physics, french) and 2B's(business studies, R.E.). and i think that the exams are not getting easier as such but coursework makes it easier, as well as the attitude towards GCSE's. even the dumbest kids in the school have (on occasions) a high motivation to do well as all pupils realise the potential of passing their GCSE's. in the case of coursework, they are changing the way this works and are not doing it next year, im not sure what they are doing but my physics teacher told us it is because basically the teachers tell you exactly what to do to get the marks, which is true in the sciences and maths, although english is a bit more of thinking for yourself and not everyone does the same thing. but my coursework grades are evidence that it is too easy, in geography (easy subject, just general knowlege and a bit of learning) i got full marks in both of my courseworks, and about 5 of my class got full marks in one coursework, not to be honest 20% of people getting full marks in coursework, thats surely not testing pupils enough, and this isnt a grammar school, its a school in a large debt, struggling to keep standards.

in addition to this, my maths calculator exam seemed to be one of the easiest out of any past papers we have seen. i took edexel in maths this year, and a few of my friends online did aqa, and theirs was a lot harder, this may be because i havn't focused on the same subject matter or because the two exam boards pick easier/harder modules to study/test on. teachers having access to this will know which exam board is easier therefor this will benefit the studets and more will pass.

also i think that many students get their A's and A*'s in subjects that they have chosen, which means that they will be better at it, as they will choose what they are better at, or they will be more motivated because they chose they subject that they like more. both of these things contributing to higher grades, whereas if you look at the core subjects like maths english and science, there isnt a great improvement. and if there is an improvement i think it is because of the above reasons, that coursework is getting easier and the teachers choose the easiest exam board.

p.s. '20+ year old gcse thread' this mean only 20+ year olds can post? hope not lol

 

[Nix]

, in geography (easy subject, just general knowlege and a bit of learning) i got full marks in both of my courseworks, and about 5 of my class got full marks in one coursework, not to be honest 20% of people getting full marks in coursework, thats surely not testing pupils enough, and this isnt a grammar school, its a school in a large debt, struggling to keep standards.

To be fair, I went to a very bad school in my view and I still pulled double A* on my coursework. And about Geography being easy... I hope you enjoy your A-Levels.

p.s. '20+ year old gcse thread' this mean only 20+ year olds can post? hope not lol

Yes it would.

***

In hindsight (wonderful thing isn't it), the GCSEs really were stupidly easy, but then again I was very immature when I took them and I was still a very confused person during my A-Levels. Some people will always do better than others at that time because their heads are still screwed on when others have hormones to deal with but saying that, GCSEs do appear to be getting easier.

I know if I did my GCSEs now (same standard as when I took them), I'd wipe the floor with my old results (with a bit of brushing up ) and I'd have the motivation to see my A-Levels through.

I'm just glad I'm finally in the right frame of mind to get my degree

I guess this is why you find people who don't do fantastically during GCSEs and A-Levels but come away with very respectable degrees because they mature and learn to apply themselves.

 

[Amp34]

In hindsight (wonderful thing isn't it), the GCSEs really were stupidly easy, but then again I was very immature when I took them and I was still a very confused person during my A-Levels. Some people will always do better than others at that time because their heads are still screwed on when others have hormones to deal with but saying that, GCSEs do appear to be getting easier.

I still stand by my idea of starting at degree level and working down, yes a degree at 3 years of age would be difficult but it would make A levels, GCSE and the rest of schooling a hell of a lot easier!

 

[50/50]

i was the second year to do GCSE's and my brother did O'levels a couple of years before and mine were definitely a lot easier - and they have got a lot easier since then - but everything has - A Levels are easier and so are degrees, because the emphasis is on getting results (from a university perpective) so they have been getting slightly easier as time goes by.

mainly because of the greater use of coursework - which is a) very easy to cheat and b) very easy full stop - if you can't get a 1st with access to libraries of books then you are an idiot.

I dont think Universities have changed quite as much as Alevels/GCSEs, well at least not at my university. Im sure lots of the poorer universities inflate the grades to make it look like they are highly achieving, and to increase funding.
I do engineering which is accredited, so the exams must hit the standard that it required to keep the status, but I guess lots of the non-accredited courses can get away with becoming easier.

 

[UKTopGun]

if you can't get a 1st with access to libraries of books then you are an idiot.

Thanks for calling most of my family and friends idiots .

 

[Amp34]

Thanks for calling most of my family and friends idiots .

1sts: for people with no lives who spend their entire time studying
2.1: for intelligent people with a life!

 

[50/50]

1sts: for people with no lives who spend their entire time studying
2.1: for intelligent people with a life!

Exactly, well sort off.
I had to work stupid hours to scrap a 2.1, but its mainly because I suck at maths, and im doing a mechanical engineering degree

 

[SwishSpencor]

Hey be happy you never went to a bording school (public school) like I did.
We got forced to study Latin and Greek as well as the regular subjects. My days were spent 9am-4pm lessons, small break, then 3-4 hours homework/prep time at night (in silence - enforced by house prefects). We also got forced to go to church 3 times a week. (Which I am totaly against being a atheist)
Then at weekends we were expected to go to church/play sports for the school. We really had 0 free time . This really killed my motivation towards the whole system.

Eeeep ... although learning latin would be cool

 

[Behemoth]

I was applying for jobs the other day, and when I was entering my GCSE results, I was looking at them and thinking just gow bad they are. Mainly all D's and E's, one C and one F. After talking to a mate about it, made me realise that these results are with you for life.

And I worked darn hard to get those, it was mainly due to the teachers I had at school only wanting to help those that were naturally more gifted. For example Design Technology was the subject I got the F for, I enjoyed the subject and I was told by my parents because my teacher had told them at parents evening that he would help me if I asked him for help.

I did ask for help, on many occassions, but never got it he was always off sorting out help and in some cases doing work for the ladsthat were much more gifted than me. I even one day found an "under achievers" list he was working on his computer and I left a comment by my own name when he was looking along the lines of "Some of us will never achieve if you don't help us" I was that annoyed about seeing it, but I didn't really know what to do.

This wasn't the case for just this subject either, it was all of them. I wasn't really much good at any subject, apart from say History which I enjoyed. French was one of my better subjects, and for some reason I got a C for RE, how I managed that when the teacher didn't stick to the sylabus I will never know, all she taught us was christianity, when I got to the exam it was judasim !!

I think the worst one though was biology, our teacher gave us nothing but plant biology, none human at all. So I took it upon myself to makesure that I knew asmuch of human biology as I could.

But at the end of the day at my school if you weren't a Grade A - C student then they didn't care, you had no help at all, you just suffered and were left to fend for yourself.

I was also stuck in groups with kids that really didn't want to learn at all, they had the ability but chose not use it. I was in the lower groups because I had learning problems, and I worked my rear end off, to have these kids punnish me for it, make me feel as if I was worthless, when in actual fact it was the other way round, they were the worthless ones not me.

Anyway I'll get off my soap box now, I hated my school I really did.

I agree that yes GCSE's are very imprtant if you want to progress onto A levels and then to uni, but if after A levels and people want to go out and get a job, to me they mean nothing, at the end of the day I think it's all down to life experience, and not what a bit of paper says.

Can't believe that was all 8 years ago, still feels like yesterday though.

 

[nealw]

1sts: for people with no lives who spend their entire time studying
2.1: for intelligent people with a life!

QUOTED FOR TRUTH


I got a 2:1

 

[Gribs]

And I worked darn hard to get those, it was mainly due to the teachers I had at school only wanting to help those that were naturally more gifted.

But at the end of the day at my school if you weren't a Grade A - C student then they didn't care, you had no help at all, you just suffered and were left to fend for yourself.

My school was the opposite. A group of us would comfortably get at least 5 a-c's so they left us to it and concentrated on the people who were d/c borderline to try and push the schools stats up.

 

[D.P.]

2.1: lazy intelligent people, a bit more effort and you get a 1st..
1st: intelligent and hard working
2.2: general lazy people
3: some how didn't fail...

 

[Von Luck]

I was in the first year to sit GCSEs and also did O levels a year early - so I'm in the fairly unique position of having sat both types of exam, duplicating exams in two subjects (Maths, English Language).

Add to that having two recently retired teachers as parents (at both GCSE and A level) and working in the education sector myself for 15 years, I have quite a broad view of the topic

GCSEs are far easier than O levels, end of story. The difficulty of GCSEs has slowly declined since their introduction.

Sadly the dumbing down has now extended to A levels as well.

Until politicians understand that they're not helping anyone by making it easier to pass exams, the problem won't get better. Giving points for coursework being neat and having pretty pictures is pointless. They should be testing knowledge.

 

[HangTime]

When I opened the thread I thought it was going to be about older people going back to (re)sit GCSEs

Anyway, the OP makes some valid points here, about the increased availability of resources for students. When I did GCSEs and A-levels, I had no internet access, and nor did the majority of my contemparies. For GCSEs I didn't even have a PC at home. For things like coursework this makes a big difference - it's relatively easy for students to do their research now without even leaving their chair.

I think it's fairly safe to say that GCSEs are easier than O-levels. I remember when I was studying for A-levels that our head of science said much of what we were studying in physics was what he'd done at O-level.

Personally I think the introduction of the A* was an excellent idea because it gives you a way of seperating the cream from the alsorans. My old school typically gets 99%+ A-C grades and that doesn't really tell you much, I'd find A* or A*/A statistics more interesting.