_gcx's GCSE Journey :D

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Yeah the B1 paper had some weird Q about a 15-year-old drinking alcohol which is odd and I can't remember what happen with P1.

Apparently a lot of stuff that wasn't on the spec. I remember people complaining about the inclusion of Brown Dwarfs, although I'm unsure whether that is in the specification. Tbh, Twitter probably just overinflates the difficulty of these exams, although sometimes it is definitely warranted, Hannah's sweets, for example (even though I thought it was quite straightforward, it does require a decent bit of thinking, and I can understand why many struggled). The question about the Independant Company was pretty much just common sense, but I didn't see the other questions. I doubt the difficulty, however, is as bad as Twitter would lead one to believe.

The French exam (either last year or this year), talked about vaping, which I thought was quite odd! XD I'd have no clue, and I would have probably flopped. On that note, does anyone have any advice on practicing French listening? I always end up guessing half the paper, which so far has got me Bs and Cs, but I want to push that up to a potential A, if possible.

Reply 21

Daydreamer3

Original post by _gcx

Not really. You still have to learn the theory, of course. Can't really say for sure, I haven't tried any AQA/OCR past papers. The thing is with Edexcel, compared to AQA and OCR, is that the grade boundaries are higher, to varying degrees. It's not rare, for Edexcel, to see papers that require 54/60 for an A*. In the June 2013 test, you would've needed 52 for an A*, and 44 for an A, a fair bit higher than other exam boards. I can't really compare it to other exam boards in terms of difficulty though, since I have only ever sat Edexcel exams.

Oh Okay. Usually, when the grade boundaries are higher it is an indication that perhaps the exam wasn't as hard. Hence why grade boundaries vary every year due to the difficulty. :smile:

Reply 22

_gcx

Study Forum Helper

Thanks! The new curriculum hasn't been too bad, really. In English, we no longer get the Anthology in the exam, and the coursework has been scrapped. (I probably would've done decently in that too :frown:

) In Maths, some new topics have been added in Higher, but Foundation has became significantly harder with more concepts from Higher. It is good, in some sense, as the overlap between A-Level and GCSE is growing, which should soften the blow. That also means that we don't have any past papers for English or Maths, meaning we're stuck with the SAM and Specimen, or the old course's papers.

Spoiler

Reply 23

_gcx

Study Forum Helper

Original post by Daydreamer3

Oh Okay. Usually, when the grade boundaries are higher it is an indication that perhaps the exam wasn't as hard. Hence why grade boundaries vary every year due to the difficulty. :smile:

The thing is, they are consistently higher than AQA/OCR's grade boundaries, which could be related to the difficulty, I guess.

Reply 24

_gcx

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To be honest, I find it pretty straightforward (really don't like saying easy, it's just because I have a natural skill for Maths, and it's not. I still make silly mistakes). I did meh (probably a 7 or 8) in my first paper, probably because it was a shock, but the other two papers went down really well (solid 9), and let me bag a 9. Oh, and there's functions this time, with potentially sketching them, which is definitely Core 1 (A-Level Maths) stuff, as with quadratic inequalities, so that's fun! :biggrin:

Luckily there's no calculus, because then people really would have a rough time. :frown:

We have no idea what the grade boundaries are like, I believe my school just used old course grade boundaries and weighted it a bit. I believe a Grade 4 or 5 is a good pass, equivalent of a C, or a C/B borderline respectively. Ofqual recognises 4 as a good pass, although my school recognises 5 as a good pass, so that's pretty confusing! :P And no, C has always been a good pass for both of the tiers.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 25

_gcx

Study Forum Helper

Day 3:

I have a plan of action today, which I hope I can stick to!

•

Chemistry - Note where I slipped up in C1, in the same format as before.

•

Biology - Revise the B3 topics I have done so far.

•

Physics - Redo my P1 notes, and ensure they are complete in accordance to the spec. (or at least start it with one or two topics)

•

French - Potentially revisit my reading and writing, noting down some vocab.

I'm going to leave Maths for a bit, I think I've done enough practice for now :smile:

Reply 26

iso.lde

A lot of people who took a GCSE language say they regretted it, I feel sorry for you ;-; I'm attempting to teach myself six languages starting this summer, and honestly even then it feels less stressful than pre-GCSE foreign languages...

But well done on that maths score! That's actually really encouraged me to start working harder in maths as it's one of my weaker subjects that I want to improve massively on over the summer. Keep up the good work!

Reply 27

_gcx

Study Forum Helper

Original post by iso.lde

The thing is, most people felt they had to, and I guess I did too. By now I've just accepted that French will stick out as my poorest grade for the remainder of my course. :frown:

I was going to do Spanish, but a bad teacher put me off. My friends are naturally good at languages (they got A/* :frown:

), and they make me look inadequate :P

I bid you good luck with the Maths! I understand it's tricky for many, but if you have an interest in Maths, things become so much easier and clearer. Also good luck with learning 6 languages! What languages are you trying to learn?

Reply 28

iso.lde

Original post by _gcx

The thing is, most people felt they had to, and I guess I did too. By now I've just accepted that French will stick out as my poorest grade for the remainder of my course. :frown:

I was going to do Spanish, but a bad teacher put me off. My friends are naturally good at languages (they got A/* :frown:

I know, that's harsh. They really try and guilt you into doing it because of EBACC. I love foreign languages but it's so much easier doing it at your own pace with no exams. And I'm learning German and French (which I already have a little comprehension with) as well as Russian, Italian, Dutch, and Hebrew.

And thanks! I'm starting to try and engage with it a little more, so hopefully I'll get better by the time I take my exam.

Reply 29

umar39

My foreign language (German) is also my weakest subject. It just doesn't seem to click for me ! :s-smilie:

Reply 30

_gcx

Study Forum Helper

Original post by umar39

My foreign language (German) is also my weakest subject. It just doesn't seem to click for me ! :s-smilie:

Really, the only thing you ned to actually know any vocab for is the reading and listening. The writing and speaking are pre-prepared, and it's really just a memory test, of which mine is horrible. I had anxiety in my speaking, and completely screwed it up. The reading and listening papers we did really shatered my confidence: It didn't help that my French teacher chose one of the hardest past papers she possibly could, she saw that people started revising the markscheme for 2015, someone even left the markscheme in the hallway! (she even came in to see our reaction lol). After that, I'm pretty disillusioned, because I came out of the mock thinking I had completely failed. Even people who were expecting A*s got Cs and Ds, most people got Us. I knew almost none of the vocabulary and it was a horrible feeling. I don't want that to happen in my real exam, or I'd break down, especially considering reading and listening are squished together consecutively. It'll be even worse next year, since, afaik, it'll be like A-Level and Reading, Writing and Listening will be all on one paper! I've been learning French since like Year 4, and it still feels like I'm useless at it :s-smilie:

I have the same feeling, nothing seems to go in. I can't remember how to formulate tenses, I can't remember a lot of adjectives, etc., despite the fact that they're hammered in.

Original post by iso.lde

Good luck! It sounds like you're really committed! :biggrin:

Reply 31

_gcx

Study Forum Helper

Day 3:

Didn't procrastinate that much, did most of the work in the morning, and some just now. Spreading the workload like that is pretty effective and helps me maintain concentration. I'm accomplishing more than I thought I would, and it's only been 3 days!

•

Maths - Not GCSE but I looked into Standard Deviation, progression and summations, as well as graph transformations [more AS than GCSE]

•

Physics - Started off my revision notes, with the first few topics of P1. Looking back, P1 is easier than I thought, although I'll have to put effort in to apply this knowledge. One thing I've missed out, albeit temporarily, is the light-style of a star. That comes later :wink:

•

Chemistry - Added C1 notes to my previous Google Doc. I will do some full-blown C1 notes later down the line.

•

Biology - No energy for B3 today. Maybe tomorrow? [or the next day, or the next day, etc., although we haven't learnt too much, so there's no hurry to maintain the knowledge]

•

Further Maths - Covered some topics in the process of looking at C1 stuff.

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French - Started a vocab list :biggrin:

•

English - No progress! :biggrin:

Overall: Meh. :P

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 32

_gcx

Study Forum Helper

Day 4:

Not much I can think of doing today. Bad sign? Idk :biggrin:

•

Maths - More C1 concepts, might start having a look at S1 too. Going to look at circle theorems, too, which encompasses both Core and Further Maths GCSE.

•

Physics - Do some work on improving my Physics notes, including detailed notes on the life-style of a star. That is of top importance since I completely bottled that question in the mock.

•

Biology - Have a start, at least a start, working on B3 notes.

Need to find stuff to revise! lol

Reply 33

_gcx

Study Forum Helper

Day 4:

Didn't accomplish as much as I would have hoped, although I'll try to make up for it tomorrow.

•

Physics - Did a lot of work improving and refining my notes. Colour coding makes a lot of difference. I only wish I had done this before my mocks, I now feel quite confident in topics such as the life-cycle of a star, the use of transformers on the national grid, and the EM spectrum. To be fair, for my mocks, I did almost no P1 revision, which is now coming back to haunt me. Oh well, lesson learnt. The feeling in the exam was the worst I've ever felt in an exam, in regards to its contents. If that had been the real exam, I may have just had a full-blown panic attack. Awful, and this work goes towards avoiding that happening in the real exam.

•

Maths - Helped my friend, that's taking Further Maths, (envy XD) with some differentiation, dabbed a bit into quotient rules in the process, although that's far beyond what I need to know, even for Year 12.

•

Biology - Decided to put this off indefinitely as Physics is far more important to learn. C vs A :P I might make some notes here and there, but I won't do anything substantial for a while.

In summary: bof. :unimpressed:

Reply 34

_gcx

Study Forum Helper

Update:

My parents are trying to convince me to take FM GCSE. Although, due to timetabling, I don't believe I would be able to attend the lessons, I may be able to arrange sessions at another time, or even self-teach it, and then take the mocks and such with everyone else. I am considering it, definitely, although I plan on staying at my school for A-Level, and they require 6-8 (forgot) A*-Cs (definitely achievable), and an A at GCSE for Core Maths, and an A* for Further Maths (A-Level), so I'm really unsure whether I actually want to do it, or not. Regardless, I will learn everything on the spec, so I'll be ready when I go back to school, if I am allowed to take it.

Reply 35

chemistrynerd13

Original post by _gcx

As a student who has taken their first full year of it and completed an actual GCSE exam. It is the BEST subject ever. Would really recommend it and you sound like you have an amazing work ethic. I am with CCEA for my exams because I am from Northern Ireland. It is a great subject that does need a good amount of concentration. However, I could send you my notes on certain topics if you want!!!. In fact I'll give a link to a past paper so you can give it a go then work on more unfamiliar topics☺️☺️☺️

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Reply 36

_gcx

Study Forum Helper

Original post by chemistrynerd13

Yeah, to me it looks a lot more interesting and challenging (a plus for me), in comparison to Core. I believe my school does AQA's level 2 certificate. While it's not a GCSE, it's a close enough equivalent, and even has the grade A*^, pretty much A**, which I would aim for if I take it. If you could send me the notes, it would be much appreciated :biggrin:

. Even if I don't/can't take FM, I want to learn the contents of it to prepare myself for A-Level. :smile:

My weaknesses at the moment are trigonometric, although I know the basic SOHCAHTOA, I don't know some of the application questions on it, and probably circle theorems, because I haven't took much time to learn them yet.