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GCSE Results - good luck if you're getting yours today!

planetgeli said:
I’m on holiday so I am buggered if I’m getting into a bun fight. But, having worked in education for some years now, it is my strong opinion some exams are getting a lot easier. And here’s how.

In the past, many exams required long form essay answers. Very few now do. Here is an article from today’s Guardian that gives actual exam questions for you to try. In the comments section below the author of the piece actually says “it’s a selection of long form essay questions”.

How tough are GCSEs? Try our exam questions

Long form? Many of these questions are expected to be answered in a handful of minutes. The psychology one even asks you to evaluate a study of aggressive behaviour...in seven minutes. In my experience, this is typical of exams these days. Lots of short questions for small marks, that all add up. If you look at that article you’ll see the longest question is from an English Literature paper. The paper is 2.5 hours long. At my last school, a school of 1500 pupils, there were four students who took English Literature. This is not a coincidence I feel.

A* and now 9,8,7 were invented for a reason. It’s not because we suddenly had more and more bright kids who needed differentiation in marking to show the outstanding ones. It’s because we started overmarking exam grades, to the detriment of those bright kids who were now getting the same marks as kids who previously got what we called Bs.

Exams are now shorter, in all ways, not harder.

(There is a caveat to this. Many science exams are unchanged. But you have a look at the difference now between a Maths GCSE - or a numeracy one as we’ve suddenly decided pupils can have two Maths GCSEs - and any Maths GCE A level. The difference is enormous. And to get even a B, on the Maths GCSE intermediate paper, requires no actual Mathematical conceptual knowledge at all.)
Click to expand...
Not after a bunfight planetgeli - enjoy your holiday! - but it's worth pointing out you're talking about the state of play in Wales, which is not the same as the rest of the UK.
 
Thank fuck school is a long way behind me. I found exams easy and passed OK despite being a lazy git more interested in getting pissed. But I was horrified when I was sent on a course in the last few years that had an exam at the end - I'm too old for that nonsense.
 
planetgeli said:
I’m on holiday so I am buggered if I’m getting into a bun fight. But, having worked in education for some years now, it is my strong opinion some exams are getting a lot easier. And here’s how.

In the past, many exams required long form essay answers. Very few now do. Here is an article from today’s Guardian that gives actual exam questions for you to try. In the comments section below the author of the piece actually says “it’s a selection of long form essay questions”.

How tough are GCSEs? Try our exam questions

Long form? Many of these questions are expected to be answered in a handful of minutes. The psychology one even asks you to evaluate a study of aggressive behaviour...in seven minutes. In my experience, this is typical of exams these days. Lots of short questions for small marks, that all add up. If you look at that article you’ll see the longest question is from an English Literature paper. The paper is 2.5 hours long. At my last school, a school of 1500 pupils, there were four students who took English Literature. This is not a coincidence I feel.

A* and now 9,8,7 were invented for a reason. It’s not because we suddenly had more and more bright kids who needed differentiation in marking to show the outstanding ones. It’s because we started overmarking exam grades, to the detriment of those bright kids who were now getting the same marks as kids who previously got what we called Bs.

Exams are now shorter, in all ways, not harder.

(There is a caveat to this. Many science exams are unchanged. But you have a look at the difference now between a Maths GCSE - or a numeracy one as we’ve suddenly decided pupils can have two Maths GCSEs - and any Maths GCE A level. The difference is enormous. And to get even a B, on the Maths GCSE intermediate paper, requires no actual Mathematical conceptual knowledge at all.)
Click to expand...

Exact same thing is happening over here.
It's depressing.
 
Fozzie Bear said:
A very bad year to do them, with the new format and all. Fucking Gove.
Click to expand...

New format? New format? Try making head or tail of it all when you grew up on O Levels!!!! :D

Good luck to everyone, I hope the results are what you hoped for and more!
 
These come out tomorrow right?
My daughter did one of her GCSEs a year in advance, any idea how we find out the result tomorrow?
We have not been told anything, I assume because she is not in the actual graduating year.
 
ATOMIC SUPLEX said:
These come out tomorrow right?
My daughter did one of her GCSEs a year in advance, any idea how we find out the result tomorrow?
We have not been told anything, I assume because she is not in the actual graduating year.
Click to expand...
Ime they can go into collect results on the day. Any not collected are posted out . This was pre covid times, no idea if that's changed anything.
Anything on the school website? Is your dtr in touch with anyone else awaiting results?
 
ATOMIC SUPLEX said:
These come out tomorrow right?
My daughter did one of her GCSEs a year in advance, any idea how we find out the result tomorrow?
We have not been told anything, I assume because she is not in the actual graduating year.
Click to expand...
Results day will be for year 11s. There won't be any results printed or made available for Y10s.

I would ring the school in the morning - 8am (by 9am they will be busy getting ready to hand out results) and leave a message for the exams officer.
 
I don’t think our year 10s do come in. It’s too busy and we have sixth form enrolment in the same day too. I think ours are told to wait for the post/an email/September.

I can’t believe the students themselves weren’t told, so if I were minisuplex I’d ask around on the various chat media to see what other kids are doing.
 
spanglechick said:
I can’t believe the students themselves weren’t told, so if I were minisuplex I’d ask around on the various chat media to see what other kids are doing.
Click to expand...
It was a separate teacher / area of the school that organised year 10 language GCSEs. I don't 'think' my daughter personally knows any other year 10s that did an exam. Despite good communication on the set up, once everything was set up (with examiners to do the speaking parts and marking), the information did not flow particularly well (where and when is the exam taking place? Who do we contact to find out? . . . "It's tomorrow??? where? what time?"
 
Best wishes to all getting their grades today, as ever, but just have to say that the use of the word "luck" when used in relation to exam results never sits comfortably for me.
 
My boy is going to wait till term starts to find out the results. He's Yr 10 and his school only do two in that year
 
I'm confused by the new system

So a 7 is an A in old money, ok. And an 8 is better than an A but not quite an A*? and a 9 is better than an A*?

9-1_Table.png
 
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