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Edexcel: IAL vs Standard

Would you say that the IAL papers are more difficult than the standard papers for A-level Mathematics/Further Mathematics?
We've just had them as mocks and our confidence was suddenly knocked, one person in my class missed out two questions when usually he's getting 90+%.
I think some of them have been a bit more challenging in that the questions were different than those seen on past papers, many have been of similar difficulty and some of them have been easier.
The summer 2014 C1 R paper certainly made you think, testing some topics in different ways than in the past.



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TeeEm
19
Original post by Mutleybm1996
Would you say that the IAL papers are more difficult than the standard papers for A-level Mathematics/Further Mathematics?
We've just had them as mocks and our confidence was suddenly knocked, one person in my class missed out two questions when usually he's getting 90+%.


I have used EDEXCEL R papers and IAL papers with my students and I found not significant difference with R versions (sometimes UK version are far harder).

with IAL I found one or two of them harder but how can you make an assertion based on 2 IAL papers (and some modules only one)?
Original post by Mutleybm1996
Would you say that the IAL papers are more difficult than the standard papers for A-level Mathematics/Further Mathematics?
We've just had them as mocks and our confidence was suddenly knocked, one person in my class missed out two questions when usually he's getting 90+%.


I can't speak for further maths because i only did maths, but i did my AS last summer (IAL) and i can definitely say the the c12 paper we sat was way harder than any past paper.. But then again the grade boundaries dropped dramatically. Some people might disagree with me but I've noticed that with all the IAL i do (maths, bio, chem) the exams are slightly different to normal A levels, like the style of question is slightly different and I'm less used to it. Also I would much rather sit C1 and C2 seperately rather than a 2h30 C12 exam.. but thats just a personal preference.. The best thing about IAL is that you get january exam sessions which is a great plus :smile:
Original post by Mutleybm1996
Would you say that the IAL papers are more difficult than the standard papers for A-level Mathematics/Further Mathematics?
We've just had them as mocks and our confidence was suddenly knocked, one person in my class missed out two questions when usually he's getting 90+%.


i have done uk papers and IAL papers from jan 2014 and R papers of june 2013. 9/10 times the R and IAL papers are harder. i hate to say it but international students on average are smarter so i guess thats why and they need to differentiate top marks. Also from our mocks (i think they were june 2014 R as i had done june 2014 uk and they rubbed out the type of papers) everyone failed c4 ie below a C except for my friend and me (100% :wink:). And everyone done terrible in S2 (100% me :wink: ). i think people are not used to the difficulty as i think people would work harder if we actually sat the ial papers. but recently edexcel papers are starting to touch that level anyway so..yh.


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Original post by physicsmaths
i hate to say it but international students on average are smarter so i guess thats why and they need to differentiate top marks.
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Are they?
Original post by Phichi
Are they?


ik pretty sure they are lol. As people do badly on papers they five us UK students but then when they sa then the gradeboundaries are normal indicating alll of them did normal.


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