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Exam board chief Andrew Hall Q&A session: Thursday 25 July at 3.30pm

Reply 40

study beats

22

can i tell him i have OCD?

Reply 41

ThatPerson

18

Original post by CJ

Andrew Hall is the chief executive of exam board AQA. He’ll be live on The Student Room from 3.30pm-4.30pm on Thursday 25 July to answer your exam-related questions.

You might like to ask him about how the marking and grading system works, the proposed reforms to GCSEs and A-levels, how last year’s GCSE grade boundary controversy can be avoided in future, or how the exam appeals policy works. Whatever your question, add it below!

How many times is an exam paper proofread before it is finalised?

Reply 42

BioGeek

13

How do you make sure that all exams are relatively the same in difficulty?
For instance a Biology paper from OCR, and a Biology paper from AQA.

Reply 43

Data

14

Original post by MNem

if a candidate is borderline A/A* in an essay type subject (eg History or English) would predicted grades be taken into account?
Thanks!

No you are marked on what you write in the exam.

Reply 44

Data

14

Original post by tssf_skye

Hi Andrew,

My question is regarding the reforms to the A-Level. I understand the principle of taking out January exams in order to avoid mass retakes, but why not just put a limit on how many retakes you can do? This will effectively have the same outcome and students won't feel as stressed, particularly at A2. I know my life is going to be a lot more stressful because of this and don't understand why this alternative couldn't have been done.

This decision was nothing to do with the individual exam boards but imposed on all English exam boards by Ofqual.

Reply 45

Matt_dragon

1

Original post by BioGeek

How do you make sure that all exams are relatively the same in difficulty?
For instance a Biology paper from OCR, and a Biology paper from AQA.

I would say OCR exams are easier, but have higher grade boundaries, whereas AQA are harder but have lower grade boundaries. It's what I've noticed, but don't quote me on that.

Reply 46

Matt_dragon

1

Original post by Simran Mars Foster

Why was it that my AQA unit 2 biology exam happened to be 90% how science work questions. This exam hardly tested biological knowledge of the specificationmeaning revision here was pretty pointless.

I could NOT agree more with this.

Reply 47

Munrot07

18

Original post by Matt_dragon

I would say OCR exams are easier, but have higher grade boundaries, whereas AQA are harder but have lower grade boundaries. It's what I've noticed, but don't quote me on that.

I think it depends on subject really. My teachers believe OCR is harder and best for science while other teachers believe AQA is hardest and best for the arts subjects (as with you, don't quote me on that, that is my teachers opinions) but it does seem certain exam boards do better at certain subjects (like i'd say edexcel is best for maths) but it seems different exam boards are harder for different people

Reply 48

Matt_dragon

1

Original post by Munrot07

I think it depends on subject really. My teachers believe OCR is harder and best for science while other teachers believe AQA is hardest and best for the arts subjects (as with you, don't quote me on that, that is my teachers opinions) but it does seem certain exam boards do better at certain subjects (like i'd say edexcel is best for maths) but it seems different exam boards are harder for different people

Oh that's fair enough then! I'm on AQA for Biology and Chemistry and the exams are basically 80-90% application questions which can be totally irrelevant to the specifications. I've had a look at some of OCR past papers and the questions seem a lot more nicely structured compared to AQA!

Reply 49

Jkizer

16

Hi andrew

I'm sure everybody knows that exams are generally becoming harder... In one sense i don't mind this at all, as it strives the candidates which really do want the grade to go the extra mile in learning and practicing.

However how can you tell if the exam paper is TOO much of a jump in comparison to the previous paper. Obviously the exam subject head may see little difference, since they write the exam paper and obviously know the answers but students may find the jump ridiculous!

Reply 50

ultimatekunal

Original post by Simran Mars Foster

Why was it that my AQA unit 2 biology exam happened to be 90% how science work questions. This exam hardly tested biological knowledge of the specification meaning revision here was pretty pointless.

With all due respect, that's a pretty stupid point; there's a reason you do the past papers. It's all about application of knowledge. To quote my biology teacher; 'if all you learn is the textbook, at best you'll get a C,' emphasizing that exam questions are crucial in learning AS Biology.

Reply 51

thelion0

11

The Ed Miliband one failed and I wouldn't be surprised if this one also does..

Reply 52

Illusionary

19

Original post by thelion0

The Ed Miliband one failed and I wouldn't be surprised if this one also does..

Surely that depends on what you mean by "failed"? This isn't the place to get into an extended debate about the nature of any of the responses, but we've had a number of interesting (in my opinion, of course :tongue:

) Q&As in recent weeks: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/content.php?r=742

Reply 53

thelion0

11

Original post by Illusionary

Surely that depends on what you mean by "failed"? This isn't the place to get into an extended debate about the nature of any of the responses, but we've had a number of interesting (in my opinion, of course :tongue:

) Q&As in recent weeks: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/content.php?r=742

very true the rest have been good!

Reply 54

DurhamChemist

Do exam boards intentionally make a significantly harder than usual exam paper for a few units in an exam season?

I ask this because I have encountered my fair share of exams that were significantly different to the trend and difficulty set by the predecessors.

After these encounters, myself and others would link the increase in difficulty to the rumor of 'A level's are becoming harder'. What contradicts this statement is that 1) An abnormally hard edition of a unit's exam is (in my experience) always followed by an average/below-average difficulty edition in the next exam season, almost in an act of compensation from the exam board. 2) I have also encountered easier than average papers when the preceding edition wasn't much harder.

I did not sit any AQA exams, but other TSR users may be able to see what I mean when I mention some of the specific exams:

OCR Maths D1 May 2012
EdExcel 6BIO1 May 2012
OCR Maths S1 Jan 2013
OCR B Physics G494 Jan 2013
OCR A Chem. F325 June 2013 (Absolutely horrid paper, probably blew my decent chance of getting into my firm.)

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 55

Kaylax3

5

Hello Andrew,

I feel that the A2 CHEM5 exam this year included two questions which maths and physics students would be at an advantage at compared to students who did not do those subjects (including myself).
I believe this is unfair as it is not testing what is on the chemistry specification, instead testing what are on the other subjects specifications. I appreciate that the questions were not impossible to work out (unlike previous exam questions), but they would take a maths /physics student much less time than a student who only studies chemistry (as the questions were on the maths and physics specifications so required little calculation and thought which the question intended to provoke) and therefore impacts performance on other questions too. It has no reflection on any of the students ability in a chemistry exam. I also appreciate the overlap between subjects, but what is usually worth a few marks in other papers was spread over two whole questions in this paper. A few marks is much easier to gain and much less time is wasted than on two whole questions, which increases the unfair element of the paper even more so. I believe I would have performed significantly better - over a grade at least - if these questions were not included or offered the same level of difficulty to the average candidate irrespective of their other A level subjects. Due to the large number of maths and physics students studying chemistry I believe this will increase grade boundaries, unfairly to those who do not take these subjects.
How is this paper marked fairly, considering the different advantages /disadvantages students faced, if it is marked fairly at all?
Thank you for your time,
Kayla

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Reply 56

ryanb97

15

Whyis AQAs iGCSE Further maths certificate 10X easier then the edexcel counterpart ?

I did my AS level in maths before doing the Edexcel one...and i found the edexcel one much harder!
... but the AQA one is very very easy in comparison

Why are they both rated the same then ?

and whats up with the fancy A^ ? - is it for attention - or for the cash ?

ryan

Reply 57

MNem

13

Original post by Data

No you are marked on what you write in the exam.

i did think that too, seems pretty obvious really, but someone else on TSR said the exam boards received your predicted grades from school. So i guess i was just wondering what would be the point otherwise?

Reply 58

Data

14

Original post by MNem

i did think that too, seems pretty obvious really, but someone else on TSR said the exam boards received your predicted grades from school. So i guess i was just wondering what would be the point otherwise?

They do get your predicted grades but I imagine that they take them with a slight pinch of salt as teachers tend to err on the generous side. I have been told that Edexcel gives the marking of your paper a quick check if the grade you get is 2 grades off your predicted grade, but I don't know about the other boards.

Reply 59

MNem

13

Original post by Data

They do get your predicted grades but I imagine that they take them with a slight pinch of salt as teachers tend to err on the generous side. I have been told that Edexcel gives the marking of your paper a quick check if the grade you get is 2 grades off your predicted grade, but I don't know about the other boards.

ahh, thanks for clearing that up :biggrin:

Exam board chief Andrew Hall Q&A session: Thursday 25 July at 3.30pm

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