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Failing my Statistics GCSE

I have just done my Stat GCSE this Monday and am pretty sure I am going to be extremely disappointed with my grade - I didn't do about a quarter on my paper as I didn't have time. I was predicted to get and A* but due to some family complications I was not able to attend the after school lessons.

I was wondering if I really got anything other than an A or an A*, if I should re sit it in year 11 (since I am currently in yr 10) but as a private candidate in a nearby exam centre - since I want to do Further Maths in year 11 which I won't be able to do if I am re doing my Stat GCSE - at least my math teacher won't allow it.

Ok, sorry for rambling. That was it. Any advice on what I should do? Btw my results should come sometime in August.
Reply 1
Thank you :smile:
Original post by mintdrop
I have just done my Stat GCSE this Monday and am pretty sure I am going to be extremely disappointed with my grade - I didn't do about a quarter on my paper as I didn't have time. I was predicted to get and A* but due to some family complications I was not able to attend the after school lessons.

I was wondering if I really got anything other than an A or an A*, if I should re sit it in year 11 (since I am currently in yr 10) but as a private candidate in a nearby exam centre - since I want to do Further Maths in year 11 which I won't be able to do if I am re doing my Stat GCSE - at least my math teacher won't allow it.

Ok, sorry for rambling. That was it. Any advice on what I should do? Btw my results should come sometime in August.


I also did the stats exam is it Edexcel ? If you did everyone found out it a little difficult so don't worry :h: Maybe the grade boundaries will be low
Reply 3
You guys are so lucky - my school only let us do maths GCSE - not further maths or stats ... They don't even offer further maths for alevel meaning you have to self teach it -_-
Original post by fefssdf
You guys are so lucky - my school only let us do maths GCSE - not further maths or stats ... They don't even offer further maths for alevel meaning you have to self teach it -_-
Same......:frown:
Reply 5
Original post by hamza772000
Same......:frown:


Annoys me cause I'm good at maths and another few A/A*'s st GCSE would've been nice - instead I had to do useless subjects like graphics products and film studies
Original post by fefssdf
Annoys me cause I'm good at maths and another few A/A*'s st GCSE would've been nice - instead I had to do useless subjects like graphics products and film studies
Pretty much exactly in the same position as you, I love Maths, I just finished Year 11, I'm like 99% sure I got an A* in those papers, and a couple more A*'s(FM and Stats) would've been so much more desirable. :frown:

Are you doing A Levels now?
Reply 7
Original post by hamza772000
Pretty much exactly in the same position as you, I love Maths, I just finished Year 11, I'm like 99% sure I got an A* in those papers, and a couple more A*'s(FM and Stats) would've been so much more desirable. :frown:

Are you doing A Levels now?


Yeh I got an A* in GCSE maths and yeh I'm doing alevels - had to self teach AS further maths last year and now just waitirng on my results for A2 ( maths , English Lang , and psychology ) hopefully should be off to do a maths degree but pretty sure I'm not getting my offer ( AAA for firm and insurance ) :/ life is hard lol
Original post by fefssdf
Yeh I got an A* in GCSE maths and yeh I'm doing alevels - had to self teach AS further maths last year and now just waitirng on my results for A2 ( maths , English Lang , and psychology ) hopefully should be off to do a maths degree but pretty sure I'm not getting my offer ( AAA for firm and insurance ) :/ life is hard lol
Oh, I hope you do get AAA.
I'm going to be doing FM next year(I'm going to a different school) so I shouldn't have to self teach it.

btw, how big of a jump is it from GCSE Maths to A Level Maths and FM, I've heard a lot of people who can easily get an A* at GCSE, struggle with A Level Maths and FM and end up getting D's :frown: Do you think I'll be able to get those 2 A*'s even if I haven't done FM at GCSE?

I'm really nervous and anxious because I'm gonna have Physics and Computing too! I can already imagine how miserable my life is gonna be, starting this September. :frown::ashamed:
Reply 9
Original post by hamza772000
Oh, I hope you do get AAA.
I'm going to be doing FM next year(I'm going to a different school) so I shouldn't have to self teach it.

btw, how big of a jump is it from GCSE Maths to A Level Maths and FM, I've heard a lot of people who can easily get an A* at GCSE, struggle with A Level Maths and FM and end up getting D's :frown: Do you think I'll be able to get those 2 A*'s even if I haven't done FM at GCSE?

I'm really nervous and anxious because I'm gonna have Physics and Computing too! I can already imagine how miserable my life is gonna be, starting this September. :frown::ashamed:


It really is about how much effort you put in . I am not naturally good at maths . My friend got an A in GCSE and they're gonna get an A in alevel maths this year but I know someone else who got an A* at GCSE and got a C at AS, so there's really no relationship between GCSE success and alevel performance !!

The only way to do good in maths is to practice practice practice . You need to make sure you attempt all the questions in the book and use the solution bank ( on physics and maths tutor ) to check over your answers and too see the exact steps for your working . I enjoyed revising for alevel maths as you come to a point where you just see a type o question and think ' yes I know how to answer this ' because alevel questions are generally quite repatitive, I mean you always get a really dodgy question at the end of the paper but for the most part there's no reason why anyone can't get an A if they put the work in . I can't reccomend using YouTube videos enough as well as this will help with your understanding of the topics :smile: as for whether you'll get A*'s is down to exam techniques really as this year I messed up a paper so won't get an A* lol but it's not like I need it for uni so I'm not gonna cry about it - I'm gonna retake that wx though next year so hopefully I will get an A* in alevel maths in the near future haha
Original post by fefssdf
It really is about how much effort you put in . I am not naturally good at maths . My friend got an A in GCSE and they're gonna get an A in alevel maths this year but I know someone else who got an A* at GCSE and got a C at AS, so there's really no relationship between GCSE success and alevel performance !!

The only way to do good in maths is to practice practice practice . You need to make sure you attempt all the questions in the book and use the solution bank ( on physics and maths tutor ) to check over your answers and too see the exact steps for your working . I enjoyed revising for alevel maths as you come to a point where you just see a type o question and think ' yes I know how to answer this ' because alevel questions are generally quite repatitive, I mean you always get a really dodgy question at the end of the paper but for the most part there's no reason why anyone can't get an A if they put the work in . I can't reccomend using YouTube videos enough as well as this will help with your understanding of the topics :smile: as for whether you'll get A*'s is down to exam techniques really as this year I messed up a paper so won't get an A* lol but it's not like I need it for uni so I'm not gonna cry about it - I'm gonna retake that wx though next year so hopefully I will get an A* in alevel maths in the near future haha
Yeah, I understand what you mean, I mean I'm not just gonna laze around, I understand the responsibilities I'm going to have after making such a decision of picking these A Levels.

I really do love Maths, and I've pretty much learnt everything from YouTube, a few months ago I was at a D coz I hadn't been taught anything at school, so I went on YouTube and started learning some topics, I figured that I really enjoyed it so I would just do this all day, and before I knew it I was at an A*, so I am determined as my new school, which I'll hopefully be going to, is a lot better in comparison to my current/previous school, but I know that doesn't mean that I wouldn't have to work hard, in fact I'd have to work harder coz of the competitiveness there.

Thanks for your help any ways. :smile: I think people think just coz they have an A* at GCSE, it will automatically transfer to their A Level, which doesn't tend to happen, hence the low grades, and then there is a false correlation formed between GCSE performance and A Level grades(as you said).

Thanks again. :biggrin:
If you are feeling that you are going to be so miserable in September are you really doing the right course? You should be feeling excited about starting your A-levels - an opportunity to really concentrate on what interested and excites you. If you don't feel like this maybe have a rethink about what you are planning on doing
Original post by 2childmum
If you are feeling that you are going to be so miserable in September are you really doing the right course? You should be feeling excited about starting your A-levels - an opportunity to really concentrate on what interested and excites you. If you don't feel like this maybe have a rethink about what you are planning on doing
I am excited and the subjects I have chosen really interest me, what I said was just based on other people's experiences (I know this is a little naive). Even if I was to do any other subjects I'd still feel the same, and I don't know what other subjects I could possibly want/like to do.

Maybe I exaggerated a little by saying 'miserable'. I'm just really nervous and don't know what to expect.
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 13
Original post by mintdrop
I have just done my Stat GCSE this Monday and am pretty sure I am going to be extremely disappointed with my grade - I didn't do about a quarter on my paper as I didn't have time. I was predicted to get and A* but due to some family complications I was not able to attend the after school lessons.

I was wondering if I really got anything other than an A or an A*, if I should re sit it in year 11 (since I am currently in yr 10) but as a private candidate in a nearby exam centre - since I want to do Further Maths in year 11 which I won't be able to do if I am re doing my Stat GCSE - at least my math teacher won't allow it.

Ok, sorry for rambling. That was it. Any advice on what I should do? Btw my results should come sometime in August.


I did Edexcel GCSE Stats 2 years ago - I didn't finish the paper either and still managed to come out with an A*. Not all hope is lost until results day! I'd say it depends on what you want to do after GCSE - if you want to do Maths A Level then other students reckon doing Level 2 Further is useful (my school made us pick one or the other as a short course), as it introduces you to a lot of Core 2 as well as FP1 topics. The only place I've ever needed my GCSE Stats was to convince my A Level teachers to let me self-teach S1; when I transferred to a College for A2 they hadn't heard of GCSE Stats!

I guess what I'm saying is a) wait until results day as the outcome may be better than you fear, and b) resitting is very much up to you - if you're desperate for the A* in Stats then it's normally the last exam, although I wouldn't resit at the expense of your other subjects.

Hope it all goes okay for you :h:
Original post by mintdrop
I have just done my Stat GCSE this Monday and am pretty sure I am going to be extremely disappointed with my grade - I didn't do about a quarter on my paper as I didn't have time. I was predicted to get and A* but due to some family complications I was not able to attend the after school lessons.

I was wondering if I really got anything other than an A or an A*, if I should re sit it in year 11 (since I am currently in yr 10) but as a private candidate in a nearby exam centre - since I want to do Further Maths in year 11 which I won't be able to do if I am re doing my Stat GCSE - at least my math teacher won't allow it.

Ok, sorry for rambling. That was it. Any advice on what I should do? Btw my results should come sometime in August.


I kind of depends on how many GCSE's you are doing anyway; If you are doing 12+ proper GCSE's you will just be just be giving yourself too much work!!!

If you are very good at maths (sounds like you are) you should be able to self teach the bits you missed out on; I am currently self teaching GCSE further maths.

Also you should bare in mind that if you plan to go on to study something like physics there is not much point in stats
My son only took GCSE maths and went straight to maths and FM A-levels. He got an A* on maths last year, and is predicated A* for FM, so it is possible without any additional further GCSE maths. He plans to study physics and took C 1,2,3,4,D1,M1,2,3 , FP1,2,3 and S1 - there is a small amount of stats in physics - looking at e.g. anomalies and lines of best fit, which he found useful.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by 2childmum
My son only took GCSE maths and went straight to maths and FM A-levels. He got an A* on maths last year, and is predicated A* for FM, so it is possible without any additional further GCSE maths. He plans to study physics and took C 1,2,3,4,D1,M1,2,3 , FP1,2,3 and S1 - there is a small amount of stats in physics - looking at e.g. anomalies and lines of best fit, which he found useful.
Thanks! :biggrin: Now I feel a lot better. :smile:

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