A challenge to those who think GCSEs and A levels get easier every year

[Mrs Magpie]

Pick your subject and I will, in exam conditions, get you to sit a paper and mark the paper and see how you do.

I have been in a situation when someone I vaguely know was in a pub and banging on about how easy science was these days compared to when he was a lad. I happened to have a Foundation Science GCSE paper in my handbag (there are various levels of Science paper...double science...applied science...foundation science). Foundation Science is the paper that is about understanding basic science in everyday life and is regarded as the 'easy' paper. He was really confident to begin with but as he read through, beads of sweat started to appear on his forehead. A quick glance through his answers was joyful to me....
F!

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I don't believe that. Kids are just getting smarter. Tis true.

So I don't have to sit no exam.

*wipes brow*

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

I don't know that proves very much either way. I don't think I'd do anywhere near as well as I did in my actual GCSEs as I did if I sat one now - there's probably a lot of stuff there I haven't given a thought to since, and at the time I'd done at least some revision.

ETA: I can pretty much guarantee I'd hopelessly fail any sort of French exam now...

 

[Mrs Magpie]

I don't think though that you are one of the people who bang on about how much easier exams are these days.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

That said, I sat the last year of O levels, then took Russian GCSE a year later. That particular GCSE that particular year was definitely easier than the mock O levels we'd been sitting.

 

[quimcunx]

1. I haven't studied any science since school and if you'd asked me to sit one of my exams a year later I probably would get a lower mark than on the exam day.

2. You'd need to get a current student to sit an old paper too, for balance.

Not that I'm saying I think the papers have gotten easier. I have no idea whether they have or not.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

That said, I sat the last year of O levels, then took Russian GCSE a year later. That particular GCSE that particular year was definitely easier than the mock O levels we'd been sitting.

I couldn't mark a Russian paper, but I know someone who could!

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I couldn't sit one now!

 

[Mrs Magpie]

To be honest, no-one who has posted on this thread is one of the people who bangs on about how easy the exams are these days. I do have a couple of posters in my sights on this one but I think they're too chicken to take up the challenge because of the massive probability of what is technically known as pwnage.

 

[kropotkin]

But your challenge would have precisely zero impact on the truth or otherwise of their assertion

 

[ymu]

It's very hard to test these things across generations because what the kids are taught varies so much, and it does matter that you've been taught to a particular curriculum. There do seem to be unfeasibly large numbers of triple A or better students at A' level now though. I got into Oxford on a BBB offer 23 years ago, and although that was a low offer it wasn't that low. There were plenty of colleges with a standard offer of ABB for some courses back then. That just isn't happening now - A* was introduced precisely because AAA is getting a lot more common.

It may well mean that teaching is getting better rather than exams getting easier - very difficult to tease that one out.

Oh, and I couldn't sit my own A level papers now, let alone ones designed for a different curriculum!

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I'd be interested to do a maths gcse. I'd love to think that I'd get it all right, but I bet I wouldn't.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

But your challenge would have precisely zero impact on the truth or otherwise of their assertion

Yeah, but I want to see them sweat

 

[Mrs Magpie]

I'd be interested to do a maths gcse. I'd love to think that I'd get it all right, but I bet I wouldn't.

I can sort that for you, but like I say, you're not in my sights on this one.

 

[Steel Icarus]

To be fair, for the last 3 months of my TAing I spent some time in Year 10 and 11 diploma classes where all the kids were required to do was draw posters on a variety of subjects like STDs, reproduction, drug abuse, etc. I didn't really enjoy those lessons.

I'd be interested in taking an English Language paper, mind. But not tonight.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

I can arrange that too, but, again, you're not in my sights for total pwnage.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

I'd be interested to do a maths gcse. I'd love to think that I'd get it all right, but I bet I wouldn't.

There's an example here: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/maths/mocks/mathsmockh1_nocalc.pdf - I'm presuming this is pretty much what you'd get in a current exam.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Yup...and remember...SHOW YOUR WORKING!

 

[littlebabyjesus]

There's an example here: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/maths/mocks/mathsmockh1_nocalc.pdf - I'm presuming this is pretty much what you'd get in a current exam.

Kin hell!

Just had a glance through that. I reckon I could pass, just. But no way I'd get close to an A.

I might have a go at that at some point, just to really frustrate myself. I was very good at maths at school – got an A at A-level and in Further Maths too. But it has been a looong time!

 

[bhamgeezer]

I think papers test thinking more than knowledge these days, I know I got by my gcses (only 6 years go!) with far more reasoning than memorising of facts. Obviously this is likely to change how the results turn out. Not that I know what O-levels were like. Also far more approachable text books make a big difference.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Yes, that's absolutely right bhamgeezer.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Kin hell!

Just had a glance through that. I reckon I could pass, just. But no way I'd get close to an A.

I might have a go at that at some point, just to really frustrate myself. I was very good at maths at school – got an A at A-level and in Further Maths too. But it has been a looong time!

I reckon I could do most of it but then I've been doing Open University Maths recently (just to see if I could still manage it as much as anything). There's bits I'm not sure of though.

I think a better question is could you do it with some revision. I don't think it would take me too long to catch up on the bits I wouldn't be sure of right now.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I'm impressed by that GCSE Maths, I must say.

And yes, O levels were largely just great big memory tests. (Which suited me, I admit.)

 

[oryx]

I'm neither a teacher nor a parent, so not very well up on these things. But my nephew had me look at a business studies A-level essay he'd done and I was amazed at the critical thinking, planning and general insight that had gone into it. (He got a C in the end so heaven knows what an A answer would be like!)

My general view is that education these days is geared more towards critical thinking and overviews than towards rote learning.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Yup.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Where I work, we start critical thinking in year 7

 

[Mrs Magpie]

...and on the other hand we have kids with Down's, autism etc too, and their educational needs are well served too.

 

[oryx]

Where I work, we start critical thinking in year 7

How old is that Mrs M? (Me = non-teacher, non-parent, old-ish bag). In fact I am so old that if you said Lower Remove a la Billy Bunter it might have made more sense.

I have a feeling that Year 7 we might have been learning times tables and making plasticene dinosaurs, but it could be older than I think....

 

[Mrs Magpie]

11, what used to be 'first year'.

 

[oryx]

11, what used to be 'first year'.

Ah! We were learning stuff like bits about ancient civilisations (Rosetta Stone, anyone?) and 'Je m'apelle Oreex'.

Wouldn't have known what critical thinking was if it hit us on the nose with a pickaxe.