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GCSE Anyone ?

I've no doubt that GCSEs are getting easier and are far easier than O levels. I remember sitting mine 2 years after my neighbour and he was a good deal brighter than me, yet we both achieved the same grades. I don't recall ever getting too wound up about them, and I never enjoyed languages but I got 7 A*s, 4 As and an A in A/O french.

GCSEs hard? Best time of your life that is, enjoy it while it lasts.
 
davish said:
Wasn't that the last question of 4H..and you had to use prime factors or something? I think, if we are doing the same papers (Edexcel IGCSE) that you didnt have to use the part a) answer....well noone did in my set and we're not too bad at maths in my set...well not bad enough for all of us to get it wrong.
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YES!!! In some past papers, the mark scheme has deducted a mark for not using the previous answer when the question uses 'hence' :)
 
psychofreak said:
YES!!! In some past papers, the mark scheme has deducted a mark for not using the previous answer when the question uses 'hence' :)
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Oh goodie!


Just a note here...I've noticed many a person here commenting on the lack of difficulty in GCSEs....now it may be true that they are getting easier (neither of us would know---you don't do them and I didn't do O levels) but, I believe we do more subjects and easier though they might be, surely you're educated enough to realise that that means the only way to be really good is get straight A*s? All it means is that to be distinguished you have to do really really well, which, no matter what you say, is difficult.

So please, especially at this time of year around the exam period, stop commenting on the how easy GCSEs are compared to 'when I was a young lad'. Its really off putting, considering you have, unless you are a teacher, no idea. Please?

Tom
 
Well said Tom, yes, it seems that in the "good ol' days", you could do exceptionally well at the subjects you were great at, and it wouldn't matter so much if you didn't do so well in the ones you weren't confident in.

Now its completely different, and although I did well in the mocks, I'm not feeling confident about my worst subject tomorrow morning (English lit.)...

I'm an extra timer, and use a computer, so will be at a horrible Dell on an uncomfortable chair using Word Pad for around three hours...never mind the time it takes to fix the start up/printing/clock problems we always seem to have...
 
psychofreak said:
I'm an extra timer, and use a computer
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Those bastards always complain after English going "my hands hurt!" Try writing 8 pages in 2 hours and not typing.

Sorry but i really dont like people being alowed to type. As far as i am cncerned, it ives them an advantage because i can type a lot faster than i can write and it helps SO much in english.
 
®îçhå®? said:
Those bastards always complain after English going "my hands hurt!" Try writing 8 pages in 2 hours and not typing.

Sorry but i really dont like people being alowed to type. As far as i am cncerned, it ives them an advantage because i can type a lot faster than i can write and it helps SO much in english.
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I used to handwrite (even in last year's English Language mock), and believe me, its not worse. We get these horrible laptops that really make our wrists sore...and to top it off (often, hopefully not tomorrow) we get laptops with a track-nub and a trackpad, with two sets of mouse buttons, so you often find that your last four sentences haven't shown up because you accidentally right clicked.

There are advantages, but not in speed of writing (I type equally as fast, if not slower than most of my classmates write)...for example, if I think of a new point it is easier and neater to go back to a paragraph and add a sentence than to use a star.

One big disadvantage is spelling...with handwriting I've been "trained" to look at the spelling and check while I'm writing, but this is not the case with typing; I've learned to sacrifice spelling for speed, as I always have spell-check, but I don't have it in the exam.
 
we used to do all our exams (writing ones that is) on computers at my old school, and, although the longest computer exam was only about 2 hours, your right it can hurt a bit after a while...but then again so does handwriting. it all depends on who you are and your typing skills etc. good luck for tomorrow, shouldnt be too bad!

ps. when you have finished the exam (unless you dont print off the work and leave it on the computer for marking), wipe the hard drive of the dell or wack on a nice virus to keep it happy :p
 
We have to print it off, then delete it...there seems to be a habit of the school to lose papers unfortunately...
 
Saying an exam is "easier" is entirely pointless. Exams are wildly different to how they were before.

Sure, I probably wouldn't be able to handle an O-Level exam, but that's only because I've been taught different things. An O-Level student would probably have trouble doing the multitude of subjects a GCSE student has to.

For example, I did an engineering AVCE at college and moved onto an Engineering course at uni. I was taught extremely different things to my classmates, who (apart from one other) did maths and physics at college. I find the calculus we do "hard" when to them it is quite easy. I'm a lot more confident in things like matrices and eigenvalues, or other subjects like materials, CAD and electronics, which they find harder. It's only because of the different things we're taught.

Using the argument that higher grades means exams are easier is stupid and undermines the quality of education in schools, could our children not just be receiving better education?
 
One thing I am irritated at is the Maths course. Maths is easily my strongest subject, but it just so happens to be the easiest subject (relatively, almost everyone at my school gets an A*), while my worst subject, English is tough (not many people get an A*)...

We switched to iGCSE maths after almost a year of the GCSE course, apparently to make it more challenging, and the year below us will be doing iGCSE science (meaning no coursework, lucky buggers), as the school is just not satisfied with the syllabus. One thing I think that the "GCSEs are easy" people know about is the "Science and life" part of the course; usually around 5% of the GCSE paper (but not iGCSE) is the ******** non-science that comes with questions like 'How do Scientists communicate ideas?', with listed mark-scheme answers including (I swear this is true): E-mail, talking, SMS and reading each-others papers.
 
psychofreak said:
One thing I am irritated at is the Maths course. Maths is easily my strongest subject, but it just so happens to be the easiest subject (relatively, almost everyone at my school gets an A*), while my worst subject, English is tough (not many people get an A*)...

We switched to iGCSE maths after almost a year of the GCSE course, apparently to make it more challenging, and the year below us will be doing iGCSE science (meaning no coursework, lucky buggers), as the school is just not satisfied with the syllabus. One thing I think that the "GCSEs are easy" people know about is the "Science and life" part of the course; usually around 5% of the GCSE paper (but not iGCSE) is the ******** non-science that comes with questions like 'How do Scientists communicate ideas?', with listed mark-scheme answers including (I swear this is true): E-mail, talking, SMS and reading each-others papers.
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psychofreak, which school do you go to, because you this is insanely weird...you seem to have exactly the same goings-on as i do at my school...id say you were in my maths set if i didnt know better!
 
davish said:
psychofreak, which school do you go to, because you this is insanely weird...you seem to have exactly the same goings-on as i do at my school...id say you were in my maths set if i didnt know better!
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No, I go to St Paul's (as with a few other members of MR), in London...and as you're in Oxford, we don't go to the same school.

:mad: I MESSED UP PAPER 2 LATIN :mad: AND REALLY FEEL BAD ABOUT IT :mad:
 
psychofreak said:
No, I go to St Paul's (as with a few other members of MR), in London...and as you're in Oxford, we don't go to the same school.

:mad: I MESSED UP PAPER 2 LATIN :mad: AND REALLY FEEL BAD ABOUT IT :mad:
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oooo no worrries though-great thing about latin is you have the other 3 to make up being **** on one of them with.

i buggered up the easy translation badly....still got an A though. not that thats much consolation, but keep it up. 33 days to go until mine are all over....physics extension on 25 June. Can't wait.

by the by, do you row by any chance?

i got a big regatta this w/e up in Nottingham--national schools regatta-- and our biggest opponent is, well, st. pauls. such a small world. i hope you dont row, because i might not be able to be friends with you if you do (that is for the next few days till the weekend) :p .

Tom
 
davish said:
i got a big regatta this w/e up in Nottingham--national schools regatta-- and our biggest opponent is, well, st. pauls. such a small world. i hope you dont row, because i might not be able to be friends with you if you do (that is for the next few days till the weekend) :p .
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I don't row...and your sig seems a bit offensive but VERY true
 
I had my English Lit GCSE today like most (Caretaker..woo!)
I did maths and ICT last year. And luckily I've already completed Art and Drama so far...just double award science, English lang, French, History and Maths C1 to go :p

Hope eveyone's English Lit went well today, i've had mixed reports :p
 
dcv said:
WTF is the point in an A*? :confused:
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To answer your question, there is no point at all in using them. That is why, here in Scotland where Highers and Advanced Highers are used in place of AS and A levels, we do not have anything above a grade A.

There is some major inadequacies with the English education system.
 
Well, I have maths tomorrow. I've already done intermediate last year (got a B, the top mark for int), but this one is higher. It doesnt really matter what I get, cos if I get higher than a B the school counts that one on the average points to get into the 6th form, but if i get lower (likley, knowing me :p) they'll count the B. Already done French and German speaking, got an A in French and a B in German (odd, since I'm much better at German than French), and the coursework (A* in French, B in German). I gotta get an A (or above) in chemistry and physics (doing them at A-Level) which should be pretty easy, and I'm hoping for an A in biology and DT. English is my worst subject, so a B would do me good, but I reckon I fudged up the EngLit so we'll see. I already have atleast a C in DT cos i got an A* in the coursework (mainly just to show up the teacher, who predicted me a D), and the exam is stupid (one of the Qs in the mock was "What are the moral issues involved with using the mains power supply to power an ever-running water stream?"! WTF?!
 
Shadow said:
Well, I have maths tomorrow. I've already done intermediate last year (got a B, the top mark for int), but this one is higher. It doesnt really matter what I get, cos if I get higher than a B the school counts that one on the average points to get into the 6th form, but if i get lower (likley, knowing me :p) they'll count the B. Already done French and German speaking, got an A in French and a B in German (odd, since I'm much better at German than French), and the coursework (A* in French, B in German). I gotta get an A (or above) in chemistry and physics (doing them at A-Level) which should be pretty easy, and I'm hoping for an A in biology and DT. English is my worst subject, so a B would do me good, but I reckon I fudged up the EngLit so we'll see. I already have atleast a C in DT cos i got an A* in the coursework (mainly just to show up the teacher, who predicted me a D), and the exam is stupid (one of the Qs in the mock was "What are the moral issues involved with using the mains power supply to power an ever-running water stream?"! WTF?!
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LOL my DT teacher predicted me a D as well. :D I don't know what I got on the coursework but the exam was piss. Geography tomorrow morning, did some revision today for it.. night before, shweet. No maths for me, did that last year, but got C1 and C2 on Thursday. :( English Language on Tuesday which you can't revise for, so I can prepare for Biology (Wednesday afternoon) and Maths.

Good luck in these next 2 weeks everyone, when it gets serious..! :)
 
The thing to remember with GCSEs is that they are no real measure of intelligence. A person who fails miserably can still be extremely intelligent and a person who aces them can still lack skills necessary to form a well rounded person. At least that is my opinion on the subject.

Many people are just not ready for the type of work needed at that age. I'm firmly of the opinion that a combination of good work experience and well rounded character coupled with a decent university degree can over ride any failures that might occur during the GCSE / A level period. In fact if I am honest I am an advocate of people leaving school at 16 and working full time for a couple of years before returning to full time education. Nothing concentrates the mind on the importance of academic work when faced with 2 years of work.
 
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