A2 maths last week 20th January

mystery · Post by **mystery** » Sun Jan 24, 2010 10:29 pm

Anyone have a son or daughter who did the a2 maths module last week 20th January. What was the general consensus?

KB · Post by KB » Sun Jan 24, 2010 10:50 pm

which board/ module
if it was edexcel C3 then seems to have been *******

mystery · Post by **mystery** » Sun Jan 24, 2010 11:27 pm

Yes it was that one. Student I know found every question difficult / impossible, and was told by teacher that examiner had changed this year and questions were in a very different style.

But would everyone have found it difficult, or was it to sort out the As from the A*s in the first year of this? Or was it just this student found it v. hard? Or was it a mistake of a paper that will make it hard to set grade boundaries as nearly everyone will have lowish marks on it?

KB · Post by KB » Sun Jan 24, 2010 11:50 pm

Think everyone found it hard which means those that slogged on & picked up marks where they could will probably do OK with UMS but those that gave up will be in for a retake!
Think everyone was worried that the first year of A* would see unpredictable changes to papers - goodness knows what the subjects that have introduced new syllabus as well will be like!
Having said that, M1 paper this time last year was also a horror which threw up some suprising marks so I think it does just happen sometimes.
C4 tomorrow so we'll see what that is like

Looking for help · Post by **Looking for help** » Mon Jan 25, 2010 8:16 am

Phew glad to hear it, we were not happy in this house

familyinthevalley · Post by **familyinthevalley** » Tue Jan 26, 2010 3:00 pm

My son took that exam as well, as did a few of his friends. They ALL said that it was alot harder than the previous practice papers they had done, but are all still confident of A's in it. My son is not one to readily admit that an exam was 'hard' or 'harder than expected'.....so I do believe this one would've been quite alot more difficult than anticipated.

KenR · Post by **KenR** » Fri Mar 12, 2010 11:50 am

DD took the A2 paper in January as well and also found it hard. She's just had her results and got an A overall for the A level, but the A2 paper brought her down a lot from her previous A* at AS. (I think she had UMS 297 for AS)

She's not going to retake it as she doesn't need an A* in Pure Maths for Univ offer.

Looking for help · Post by **Looking for help** » Fri Mar 12, 2010 11:55 am

Well done to your DD KenR - my daughter also scraped an A, but she still has 2 modules left in June before we have the full A2. She doesn't need an A* either, phew just as well. She was very happy to get her A, there was a lot of disappointment yesterday

familyinthevalley · Post by **familyinthevalley** » Fri Mar 12, 2010 12:25 pm

I got a bragging email from my son yesterday morning when he got his results - he was quite proud of his 99/100 - and when asked what happened to the other point - he says 'I have to leave room for improvement for my next exam!' .....duh!
Quite the happy camper, and glad he retook it. In fact, all of the boys who retook (most were trying to go from a B to an A or an A to an A*) were extremely happy with the retake results as they were all able to improve on their mark with one getting 100%.

KenR · Post by **KenR** » Fri Mar 12, 2010 5:01 pm

General view from talking to my DD is that Jan is not a good time to take the A2 papers because in most schools you are up against all of the superior A2 Further Maths candidates who take A2 Pure Maths early in Jan.

Hence the relative marking is always tougher. My DD decided to drop Further Maths as her 5th A level in the summer so had no Maths lessons at all between June and exam - not the best preparation.