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Small dumb classes or Large clever classes?

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At GCSE at my school we had sets for maths and english with 30 or so in the top set tapering to ~10 in the bottom set (5th). I liked being in the top set. Meant you could go unnoticed by the teacher when doing things you weren't supposed to.

Reply 21

small&mighty

With the large clever classes, the teacher would obviously have less time to speak to individual students and go over things that they may be struggling with. Small dumb classes, the teacher may have to go at a slower pace but the students would learn more in the long run.

This comes from someone whose biggest A Level class was 5 people :biggrin:

but we're not stupid, just some of us struggle with different things, and the teacher always went over it almost one to one, and I thought it was great.

Reply 22

jellylegs08

small&mighty

but we're not stupid, just some of us struggle with different things, and the teacher always went over it almost one to one, and I thought it was great.

I'm not saying you were "dumb" or anything, in fact, it wasn't my intention to use the word "dumb"... it's just that the word is short and gets the meaning across pretty sharp lol. :redface:

Reply 23

TheKunstMonkey

I'd go with the bigger class however clever they are. Smaller classes would involve more attention being directed at me, and if I didn't like the teacher, or I did but they didn't 'get' me, I'd feel quite uncomfortable. I'd generally go for bigger classes anyway, I work so much better when people talk to me (or more chatter away in the background). My biggest class at sixth form is English though, which is one of the quiter ones. It depends on the subject really, and how the teacher teaches it. Also, in bigger classes, I'm less likely to be the fail person who gets Us and negative percentages and such (which sucks).

Reply 24

Ryouga

Would you rather be a big fish in a small pond(the "thicker" class) or a small fish in the big ocean(the smart class)

Its hard to say as the smarter class would mean you would be less unique and not as recognised by the tutors.

Reply 25

yusufu

Ryouga

Then again, you might end up being the big fish in the big ocean!

Reply 26

Roobagnall

small fish in a big pond

Reply 27

linkdapink

Well I've been in the reverse situation... a small class with clever people and a large class with dumb people. I prefered the large class with dumb people! My teacher could see that I was being held back, so she worked with me to help me get the most of things. The clever class, there were always people more clever than me, so they were pushed to excel, and the people (like me) that were clever, but not on the genius level at the others, were deemed smart enough to work on their own and still just get things. I didn't.

Reply 28

small&mighty

jellylegs08

I'm not saying you were "dumb" or anything, in fact, it wasn't my intention to use the word "dumb"... it's just that the word is short and gets the meaning across pretty sharp lol. :redface:

Lol yeah I get what you mean. I'd still go for the smaller classes, but maybe I just got lucky with the class sizes and teachers, i.e. teachers I liked and who 'knew' me as such.

Reply 29

rainbow drops

my english lit class is large and dumb. it isn't very fun.

Reply 30

saenlt

my choice - Large clever classes.

a test was done whereby they got a class of students to do a test. then they streamed the ones who did well into the mediocre class, and the ones who didnt do so well into the smart class.
after awhile, the "smart class" did better than the not so smart ones.
it has something to do with your mentality when ure in the class.
when u think ure of the smart calibre, you tend to be motivated to excel further.

however, even if u choose small dumb classes, you can learn alot (by strengthening your concepts) as you teach others. plus, you can be more bonded and work hard together rather than working to outrun each other. (:

Reply 31

Greatleysteg

rainbow drops

my english lit class is large and dumb. it isn't very fun.

Yeah, there were 35 in mine (smaller than the other one, which had 40+) and it was seriously only me who contributed. It was like English lessons were the Stephen and Dr. Coley show.

Reply 32

rainbow drops

Greatleysteg

Yeah, there were 35 in mine (smaller than the other one, which had 40+) and it was seriously only me who contributed. It was like English lessons were the Stephen and Dr. Coley show.

haha, ugh. in mine it's more like me and this one other girl who contribute, and when the teacher asks anyone else in the class for their opinion they usually say "err... like... i dunno" without actually thinking about formulating an answer. hardly any of my class are even interested in reading, we're reading our 2 chosen novels for the comparative piece of coursework now and they won't stop complaining about how the books are "well boring"... none of them re-read any of the texts we've studied before the AS exams either. :rolleyes:

Reply 33

shabanrauf

What is the point of this thread :s-smilie:

......

Reply 34

wanderlust.xx

Greatleysteg

Yeah, there were 35 in mine (smaller than the other one, which had 40+) and it was seriously only me who contributed. It was like English lessons were the Stephen and Dr. Coley show.

Same with me and maths.

I mean SERIOUSLY, if you can't simplify

\frac{x^2+5x+6}{(x+3)}

in less than 30 minutes then you shouldn't be doing A level maths.

Teacher wasn't too pleased that I'd finished the entire double sided worksheet on algebraic simplification in about one lesson (double period), in which I proceeded to give my answers to the class so they could "check" their work.

Meh, would have been forced out of my hand anyway, and if they're stupid enough to copy the work, then they're stupid enough to fail their exam.