What's the ideal number of GCSEs ?

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Mindset
Posts: 96
Joined: Sat Apr 28, 2012 9:40 am

Re: What's the ideal number of GCSEs ?

Post by Mindset »

PaterGloucester wrote:One theory is that GCSEs are so easy these days that any less than ten or eleven would leave Grammar school pupils unstretched.
Please don't be too sure of this! I have my old mock papers in the loft and they were far easier, and required far fewer skills than students have to show now. Of course, I had to do different things (functions in Maths that are no longer required of a student at GCSE) but I didn't need to hypothesise, prove and justify as students do now. The kids work really hard for their qualifications, it saddens me that it's generally perceived that they are easy. M
PaterGloucester
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Joined: Sat Oct 23, 2010 10:53 pm

Re: What's the ideal number of GCSEs ?

Post by PaterGloucester »

I discovered my old A-level papers from the 1970s in the attic the other day and my gosh do they seem difficult. As for the O-levels, I simply couldn't do the French, Maths or Physics O-level papers of 1975 !
Guest55
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Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: What's the ideal number of GCSEs ?

Post by Guest55 »

The marks needed for high grades are far higher than in the past.

You could pass Maths O level by learning a few geometry proofs and questions were very repetitive; GCSE demands much more problem solving and communication of maths.
Mindset
Posts: 96
Joined: Sat Apr 28, 2012 9:40 am

Re: What's the ideal number of GCSEs ?

Post by Mindset »

Yes, i quite believe that. One of the changes over time has been the move away from having to remember vast swathes of material, towards being able to do something quite technical with it. So a paper from 1975 might appear to be much more difficult, where in fact there was just a much greater glut to recall. A higher order skill (than memory) might be processing the information in a technically challenging way.

An illustration might help... A friend isn invigilator at a local school. She had a peek at a paper and was incredulous at how easy the questions were. "Ridiculous/ Insulting/ Childsplay/ Not like my day" was the squeal. She was particularly incensed by an RS question that 'even a 2 year old can answer'- the question was "why might a religious peron take care of an elderly relative?" Of course, a 2 year old could say "because it's nice". What her peek at the paper didn't show her was an awareness of what was expected for an A/A* answer (an understanding of the teachings, including quotes, from two different religions, some kind of comment on how dealing with an elderly relative would make you mindful of your own impending mortality, and your actions impacting on any afterlife... probably much more besides.)

A 1975 Religious Studies (Knowledge? Instruction?!) paper would have given a quote and asked you who said it, or something about the context it was found in.

So my point (eventually!) is this... The 75 paper may look unfathomable, but recently studied may have been really quite manageable. The 13 paper may look like childsplay, but the expectations for a high grade are hidden. Certainly, in my opinion, the range of skills our children have to demonstrate is wider.

M
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