The Student Room Group

ARE GCSE's too easy!?

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Original post by just george
in maths A*


Point proven.

/thread
Reply 61
How the country's GCSE grades could be so so much better: Force them into an A level mindset during GCSEs.... boy do you become a much better student when moving up to A levels, and hence notice how gcses are a bloody doddle.


Edit: As an example I have these folders with 20 plastic wallets. For my biology GCSE all the notes I needed for modules 3-7 took up nearly all of the wallets (merely a single two sided piece of A4 per wallet). Back then I considered this to be alot of theory, haha dear oh dear not only was it a small amount theory, but the concepts were easier!. Now for Biology I have certainly more than 5 times that amount in notes (not even finished the theory!) and I don't even consider it that much! GCSEs are pathetic, poor teaching, a rather depressing time if you ask me (everyone wearing the same clothes that often didn't suit the person, alot of bloody idiots in classes etc). There was no capacity to let good students excel.... call me cocky but I wouldnt of half minded to of done C1 maths at GCSE purely due to the increase in confidence it brang!
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 62
I agree, they're not as easy as people make them out to be, you do have to work really hard to get A's.
Original post by Andy16
How the country's GCSE grades could be so so much better: Force them into an A level mindset during GCSEs.... boy do you become a much better student when moving up to A levels, and hence notice how gcses are a bloody doddle.


I totally agree with this tbh.. GCSEs are taught terribly, when i got onto maths A level i got a decent teacher (finally) who basically had to start all over again teaching me how to lay out my work properly, show workings etc.. and even had to go over some really basic things because at GCSE i'd just been told to memorise some ****, rather than actually understand what i was doing. The whole system is fundamentally flawed.. starting at about infants school :L
Original post by just george
at GCSE i'd just been told to memorise some ****, rather than actually understand what i was doing.


If you actually understood maths A level you are in a very small minority. I know someone who got an A* who pretty much just rote learned the methods for each question. Most people just memorise, exactly the same as at GCSE.
Reply 65
tbh they were quite difficult, but nothing like A levels which is a big problem imo as there is a big jump between the 2. If i remember righlty i got ABBCCCCDD and i hardly revised for many of my subjects which in a way kinda shows that gcse's are easy as you dnt need to put alot of effort in to achieve the national average of 5C's. If you dont revise for your A levels you are ****ed lol, and this big difference is bad imo as lots of AS level students are shocked to find grade E's and U's on their exam results sheet and many before that drop out :/
Reply 66
Original post by Newbie123
What were you revising? Key Stage 2?


I think you should stop being such an arrogant c**t, and actually address the question at hand. How does criticising the OP's intelligence tackle the question of whether GCSEs are becoming easier? Stop attempting to get some sort of power rush/academic status in TSR by belittling people. You have to realise how completely subjective the question is and that everyone can't be achieving A*s all the time. If you're going to assess this question, you have to compare whether what they know now would be enough to attain the same grade (whatever it may be) 10 years ago. And if that material is considered by the exam boards as having the same intellectual order in previous years (i.e. that Grade C material today was still Grade C material back whenever.)

Before addressing this question though, maybe you need to reassess your own academic calibre and why you have the need to criticise others' ability to compensate for your intellectual insecurities.
Reply 67
And guys, if we really want to get to the core of whether they are difficult or not, we need to consider their intrinsic difficulty and stop comparing them to A-levels and other Level 3 qualifications.
Original post by Joey15
I think you should stop being such an arrogant c**t, and actually address the question at hand. How does criticising the OP's intelligence tackle the question of whether GCSEs are becoming easier? Stop attempting to get some sort of power rush/academic status in TSR by belittling people. You have to realise how completely subjective the question is and that everyone can't be achieving A*s all the time. If you're going to assess this question, you have to compare whether what they know now would be enough to attain the same grade (whatever it may be) 10 years ago. And if that material is considered by the exam boards as having the same intellectual order in previous years (i.e. that Grade C material today was still Grade C material back whenever.)

Before addressing this question though, maybe you need to reassess your own academic calibre and why you have the need to criticise others' ability to compensate for your intellectual insecurities.


1. That wasn't the OP I was replying to.
2. That was a joke.
3. O-Levels are noticeably more difficult than GCSEs, therefore, it's my belief that the difficulty of public examinations has decreased - btw, I already said this, so I have addressed the question.
4. Your generic attempt at giving the internet tough guy (me, in your opinion) a taste of his own medicine by attempting to plant seeds of doubt by undermining his (my) abilities by implying that I'm insecure is just juvenile and boring.
5. Calm down.
Reply 69
They are certainly a lot easier than O levels but they are designed for a different range of students. When O levels were around we also had CSEs for the not so academically able. CSEs are probably the equivalent of the foundation papers of some GCSEs.

Most people did either just CSEs or a mixture of O levels and CSEs. Only the most able did all O levels. 7, 8 or 9 was the normal number of subjects taken not the 12 or so some people take these days.

I compared my Maths paper with my son's. The topics areas were very similar: Sine rule, Cosine Rule, quadratic equations, etc. but my paper didn't have as many easy questions on it and I needed over 50% to get a C on his paper he needed 24%!!!

Incidently, I've been helping him revise or so I have gone through a lot of past papers with him. I haven't struggled with any yet - and that includes French which I last studied 20 years ago.
Reply 70
Just to add to this, I personally think GCSEs are too easy. My A level physics teacher dug out some O level papers for us to have a bit of fun with (Yes, that passes as fun in an A level physics class. =p) and quite simply we all struggled. Everyone in my class has either an A or an A* at GCSE maths which suggests our GCSEs are easier than the past equivalent O levels.
But GCSEs are too easy also in the sense that they don't prepare students for future study. A levels are a massive leap academically so perhaps we should be preparing our pupils for that level of study sooner and maybe a return to O level style papers could be the solution.
Reply 71
Original post by sagederby
They are certainly a lot easier than O levels but they are designed for a different range of students. When O levels were around we also had CSEs for the not so academically able. CSEs are probably the equivalent of the foundation papers of some GCSEs.

Most people did either just CSEs or a mixture of O levels and CSEs. Only the most able did all O levels. 7, 8 or 9 was the normal number of subjects taken not the 12 or so some people take these days.

I compared my Maths paper with my son's. The topics areas were very similar: Sine rule, Cosine Rule, quadratic equations, etc. but my paper didn't have as many easy questions on it and I needed over 50% to get a C on his paper he needed 24%!!!

Incidently, I've been helping him revise or so I have gone through a lot of past papers with him. I haven't struggled with any yet - and that includes French which I last studied 20 years ago.


24%!? to be honest- thats very low indeed. In my GCSES it was usually 45-65% ish for a C.
Original post by matthurry
... i have moved onto A levels, got an A in chemistry, B in biology, B in maths, B economics?


That's the same as me, I did even worse than you, I got AABBBBBCCCCC,worked really hard for them. At the minute my grades are around a B in my A-level subjects.
The problem with GCSEs these days is that they do not differentiate sufficiently at the upper end of the achievement scale - in the old days it was extraordinarily unusual for a child to get straight As at O-level whereas these days the number of children achieving straight A*s makes it hard to distinguish the truly exceptional students.

Linked to this is the fact that GCSEs are not challenging enough for the most able pupils: they jump through all the hoops which are presented to them but then find themselves ill-prepared for their A-levels and degree courses.
And when did they stop teaching when and when not to use the apostrophe?

"Re: ARE GCSE's too easy!?"

Can OP explain why he felt the need to insert one there?
Reply 75
You can't just get a GCSE without doing any work and you have to work very hard and revise a lot to get an A (at least I do), not to mention an A*. I don't think they're too easy at all.
Reply 76
Ermmm, Quite a lot of people are missing the point, actually comparing results means nothing, because each to their own and such, everyone is different in academic ability.

We know for a fact that Exams in general, in this case GCSE's have been made easier than prior generations. There is evidence for this, such as the large increase in people capable of applying for university.

Whether or not GCSE's are too easy, that depends. The entire school mentality has change from say 30 years ago, which has also led to people not putting in as much effort, and in turn the general decrease in difficulty. I would not say they are too easy as they themselves are a product of what current teaching methods and mentalities are churning out.
Original post by TimmonaPortella
If you actually understood maths A level you are in a very small minority. I know someone who got an A* who pretty much just rote learned the methods for each question. Most people just memorise, exactly the same as at GCSE.


Fair point, but the difference is from what ive seen is that the people of just memorise get U-B's and the people who understand get the As and A*s.. clearly youv had a different experience on that though :smile:
A levels are increasingly going that way though and i think its a bad thing, you arent spoon fed everything in later life, you will have random problems chucked at you and will have to solve them by improvising and using what youv learnt outside the box.. GCSEs dont even go near that sort of thing, whereas A levels still have a few questions that get you to think outside the box..
Thats probably just my opinion though :smile:
Original post by m4nurul3
You can't just get a GCSE without doing any work


Well considering a "pass" is a C grade, I know many people who have got a C or higher without revision.
Reply 79
Original post by Worcester2011
And when did they stop teaching when and when not to use the apostrophe?

"Re: ARE GCSE's too easy!?"

Can OP explain why he felt the need to insert one there?


:O THAT MUST MEAN THAT GCSE ENGLISH INS'T HARD ENOUGH, THIS SHOULD BE MOANED ABOUT UNTIL IT IS MADE HARDER.
seriously, who actually goes are picking out grammar mistakes when i'm trying to point out how much i hate everyone. Tsshh.

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