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Edexcel vs. AQA

I might need to change centres and take edexcel instead. is it harder?

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Reply 1
Dunno in my view AQA are 10 times better because i find thier questions are more clear, i am revising Physics with edexcel and am almost going insane because when i do a past paper i go to mark it and some of thier answers dont seem to make any sense at all. But thats just my view, you should complain to the school about this transition as studying for you A2 exams is probably going to be more difficult if you change exam boards.
Reply 2
edexcel often have 5+ mark q's which seems absent in the AQA question papers.
I also do Edexcel for Further Maths but I did once have a look at the AQA MPC4 paper (June 2006 I think) and found it rather easy , much easier than a lot of the Edexcel papers.That was one exam though and the others might not be as straightforward.

I do agree though the AQA papers seem more "led" , the questions are a lot shorter and there's more part-questions.
Reply 4
vinsta
edexcel often have 5+ mark q's which seems absent in the AQA question papers.


Almost at least 2 or 3 of them 8 mark questions per paper...
Reply 5
As to AQA being easier, I do not know, I think it may actually depend on whether you are asking for the level of difficulty in the pure section, or the mechanics section or the stats section or any other section.

As far as I am concerned, I have only done Edexcel and from my point of view, since I have seen some AQA and OCR papers, I'd rather stick to Edexcel... I mean, I had a choice of taking either AQA or Edexcel at the beginning of the year, since I was almost going to teach myself, so basically Edexcel appealed more to me than AQA, probably the format of the exams and the wide variety of Mechanics modules which I like... Basically I would say the higher Edexcel Mechanics Modules are real killers, you won't want to do those if you're going for further Maths, however generally speaking C1-C4 is almost the same accross the few exam boards.
Reply 6
Oo this is a tricky one, I don't think for all subjects Aqa is easier, I think for languages the Edexcel course is a lot easier, however for subjects like maths, Aqa is a definately harder, because some further maths modules im doing, like fp4, which is supposed to be linked to a first year degree module, edexcel don't even do it, so I would say it is totally dependant on which subject :smile: good luck with ur transition lol
piano123
Oo this is a tricky one, I don't think for all subjects Aqa is easier, I think for languages the Edexcel course is a lot easier, however for subjects like maths, Aqa is a definately harder, because some further maths modules im doing, like fp4, which is supposed to be linked to a first year degree module, edexcel don't even do it, so I would say it is totally dependant on which subject :smile: good luck with ur transition lol


I was always under the impression that FP1 to FP4 (for AQA) was just FP1 to FP3 (for EDEXCEL) spread out over 4 modules....:s-smilie:
Reply 8
8 Horizontal
I was always under the impression that FP1 to FP4 (for AQA) was just FP1 to FP3 (for EDEXCEL) spread out over 4 modules....:s-smilie:

It is hence AQA ARE easier for maths
It is hence AQA ARE easier for maths

I disagree.
Simplicity
I disagree.


Could you fill us in with some arguments then?
Reply 11
xinolisss
Could you fill us in with some arguments then?

of course he/she can't because edexcel is the harder board.
vinsta
of course he/she can't because edexcel is the harder board.


:laugh: yeah well, obviously that's why I asked :smile:
AQA FP4 seems to be about determinants of matrices , vectors (but in more detail than Edex) and something else which I can't remember but isn't in the Edexcel spec but I can't particularly remember.

I can answer most of the questions of AQA FP1 - 4 though , AQA does have a bit more than Edexcel in it's four modules such as improper integrals but not as much as an additional unit would suggest.
Reply 14
Exam-board loyalty. Only on TSR...

The FP1 module for AQA can basically be ignored - pretty much everything in it is covered in more detail in the later further pure modules. Since it's an AS module it doesn't really make sense to compare it to the corresponding Edexcel module.
Reply 15
Original post by coolgra101
Dunno in my view AQA are 10 times better because i find thier questions are more clear, i am revising Physics with edexcel and am almost going insane because when i do a past paper i go to mark it and some of thier answers dont seem to make any sense at all. But thats just my view, you should complain to the school about this transition as studying for you A2 exams is probably going to be more difficult if you change exam boards.


Edexcel Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Maths are not tend to be as easy as others because it equips a student with the most knowledge and practical skills.
Reply 16
I prefer edexcel - In my opinion, for C1, there method of asking questions is a lot.. simpler.

Also, for C1, you don't have to learn about circles until C2, but in AQA you have to learn it. So, I guess that's good :biggrin:

Although, I can't make an overall judgement on the exam boards because I haven't seen ALL of their papers for myself..
Reply 17
Original post by Mercutio
I might need to change centres and take edexcel instead. is it harder?


exam boards are mostly the same its just the wording of the question. For science i'm doing AQA because the questions are easier to understand. For maths i'm doing edexcel because it jsut tells you all need and it mostly uses numbers and not that much writing. AQA tends to explain it in sentences.

Only difference is how they present the question
Reply 18
Original post by Mercutio
I might need to change centres and take edexcel instead. is it harder?


I think Edexcel is a little easier but it doesnt make much of a difference which one you do they are very similar
I think edexcel are pretty straightforward :dontknow:

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