[344302]

IMO, GCSEs should be taken in year 9 and 10, they're pretty easy. A levels should be taken in y12 and 13. Students should have a year to prepare and familiarize themselves with a level as it is a big leap from GCSE.

[Akbar2k7]

(Original post by ieatcheeseyo)
GCSE, basically to educate everyone; everyone HAS to do it, there'll be basic knowledge... for example most people in the UK will have basic English, Maths and Science skills...

Enough maths to calculate a shopping list, enough English to read instructions on how to vote in x factor and enough science to pro-create :L

If you want the MAJORITY (not all) of the decent jobs, A Levels and University are the key...

This is

[1q2q3q4q5q]

I must be the odd one out then, as i found GCSEs so much harder than i am finding my A levles; I did go to a pretty rubbish school though. For example, i achived the second highest mark in my year for german, a C, and the highest was B which was gained by a person whose family spoke german :/! I'm just glad my school lacked a sixth form otherwise my A levles would of been terrible too.

[Danatlive]

For me it wasn't until I started studying for my A Levels that I realised I could have blitzed my GCSEs. sob

[344302]

(Original post by 1q2q3q4q5q)
I must be the odd one out then, as i found GCSEs so much harder than i am finding my A levles; I did go to a pretty rubbish school though. For example, i achived the second highest mark in my year for german, a C, and the highest was B which was gained by a person whose family spoke german :/! I'm just glad my school lacked a sixth form otherwise my A levles would of been terrible too.

I went to a crappy school too, took languages in yr 9 and got an A. Most people in my class did pretty well .. Just had to learn basic words and how to throw a connective into your sentence. Ridiculously easy.

[1q2q3q4q5q]

(Original post by 344302)
I went to a crappy school too, took languages in yr 9 and got an A. Most people in my class did pretty well .. Just had to learn basic words and how to throw a connective into your sentence. Ridiculously easy.

in retrospect, i could of definatly done better. At the time though i kind of assumed that what we were taught was all we needed to know. In business we were always given past papers to revise from that were made by our teacher, apparently he took the questions from actually higher GCSE past papers, it wasn't untill i took the actual exam that i realised he had been giving us questions from foundation papers :/.

[cooldudeman]

(Original post by Aldridge)
Does anybody else agree GCSE's are a complete pisstake?

They are far too easy, you can practically turn up on the day and get an A* using common sense.

IMO they definitely need to make them far, far more difficult, to separate people with intelligence from people with common sense.

i agree only except in english. that subject destroyed my life...

[alexs2602]

(Original post by Sabster)
For a joke go into a Biology/Geography exam with no revision and you will cruise an A*.

The subjects are soo ridiculously easy, dont get me on to Maths/Languages - I could have done Maths GCSE at the age of 8 and French/Spanish/Latin at 11.

THIS NEEDS TO CHANGE

I agree GCSE maths is easy but that easy? Excuse me if I'm sceptical about your so called ability at maths. I guess it depends on your teaching but it isn't something most people could do at that age without intense studying. At that age you're doing multiplication, perhaps division, but definitely not basic trig or algebra(two of the things I remember coming up).

[JOR2010]

(Original post by Sabster)
Finally someone who thinks like me....

Yes I agree, they are a complete piss take, most of them you can just turn up with no revision whatsoever A* (like Maths, French, Biology, Geography etc). And it just makes a complete mockery of the system.

They need to be made sooo much harder.

FFS i took a GCSE in Italian with no knowledge of italian and got an A*

It is a complete piss take and makes all grades worthless.

I did a Spanish GCSE Higher Reading as a laugh (never studied Spanish), and got a comfortable A*! :')

[FL00DY]

Wow....I wonder why it's a minority of people then who actually get A*-A's....oh wait...yes you are in fact talking out of your ass. And how long ago did you do your GCSE's? Maybe the teaching is actually better, how would you know otherwise? It really annoys me when people like you come along and undermine the hard work the vast majority of us put in to get the grades we get.

[OvertSpecialist]

(Original post by Aldridge)
Does anybody else agree GCSE's are a complete pisstake?

They are far too easy, you can practically turn up on the day and get an A* using common sense.

IMO they definitely need to make them far, far more difficult, to separate people with intelligence from people with common sense.

No they aren't, how old are you?! You need to study the course properly along the way. The only way you can get A* with common sense is if you learnt the whole course naturally by yourself on your own time.

GCSE English need not be harder (it's hard enough already). GCSE Science is fine. If they make GCSE science any harder A level Science will become half redundant. GCSE Maths is fine (it's easy for some but that's because they do their work properly).

[OvertSpecialist]

(Original post by TimmonaPortella)
English Language.

That's one of the few you can do that with IF you're good at it, try that with English literature and let's see you fail.

People saying stuff like Geography and Foreign language are auto A*, NO THEY AREN'T.

I'm doing a Geography exam in January, I can get A* if I study and PLAN my answers but only if I do that. If I don't I'll get like a B.

Language, yes you can be crap and get a good grade but you still need to study hard. Even then it's not easy.

[gumball]

I thought the language GCSE oral test were stupid. It's a memory test. You sit in your class for a month, write out your 12 sides of answers with the teacher's help, memorise them and recite them to the teacher whilst being recorded.

If you can memorise the sides then you'll get an A/A*. If you can't (like I couldn't) you'd get screwed because everyone else has set the bar so high with their perfect recitals.

[AtomicMan]

(Original post by Sabster)
Additional maths is one of those exams that, the freaks who think that they are clever because they can work hard and get grades, are shown up.

No i did them years ago.

Agree, in my year atleast, additional maths seperated the bright from the very clever. I just did a past paper and did some hard calculus questions the day before, got an A

Anyways, GCSE is somewhat hard, I'd say that the hardest is probably the sciences and perhaps history.

To add, whoever said languages were easy is a retard, languages are hard subjects if your not already fluent, only very smart people/the talented get A*s.

[psychojonas]

(Original post by Sabster)
Finally someone who thinks like me....

Yes I agree, they are a complete piss take, most of them you can just turn up with no revision whatsoever A* (like Maths, French, Biology, Geography etc). And it just makes a complete mockery of the system.

They need to be made sooo much harder.

FFS i took a GCSE in Italian with no knowledge of italian and got an A*

It is a complete piss take and makes all grades worthless.

Total BS.

[Little Wing]

Lol, most people who talk like this usually fail Additional Maths - that's a real test of how good your brain is.

[c3ntury]

[OvertSpecialist]

(Original post by gumball)
I thought the language GCSE oral test were stupid. It's a memory test. You sit in your class for a month, write out your 12 sides of answers with the teacher's help, memorise them and recite them to the teacher whilst being recorded.

If you can memorise the sides then you'll get an A/A*. If you can't (like I couldn't) you'd get screwed because everyone else has set the bar so high with their perfect recitals.

THIS. This is true. He is a little good at Spanish but my friend basically got given help because of favouritism with his whole answers etc. and he got an A*..

[bad8oy]

(Original post by WearyWill)
What year / university are you in now? Or did you do them a few years early?

GCSEs were a pisstake, but I do find that your arrogance is quite funny. That's why I had to ask whether you took your GCSES early and, as a prepubescent, erm, prick, decided to begin a revolution of 'OMFG GCSEs need reform!' on TSR. I can't begin to imagine you working within a team of any sort, as a doctor, or as anybody who works with people or with an element of care in the future despite what sounds like reasonable GCSEs.

lol maybe he will have a future careere in writing the italian papers for aqa :P

[TurboCretin]

(Original post by Sabster)

FFS i took a GCSE in Italian with no knowledge of italian and got an A*

It is a complete piss take and makes all grades worthless.

No, that is a pisstake. You cannot walk into a language exam for a language you don't know and get an A*. It doesn't matter how intelligent you are, if you don't know it you don't know it.

I think some GCSEs could stand to be made a little harder, such as maths perhaps, but the above just loses you all credibility.