Edexcel A Level Mathematics Paper 1 (9MA0 01) - 6th June 2023 [Exam Chat]

Is mock set 4 designed to me similar to how this years paper will be, similar topics and stuff? Is that how the mock sets work?

that statement doesnt in any way say that the papers will be easier though. I've read through it and all it is suggesting to is the fact that after the negative feedback they received from the papers in 2019, they took steps to design papers in a way that will allow students to 1) try and understand the question more by splitting up questions into more sections (so papers will include more 1a,1b,1c ... etc as a part of the question) and 2) try and reduce the number of questions that are locked away (meaning in order to get full marks on a question you would have to answer part (a) for example correctly)

None of this alludes to the fact that the papers will be easier or grade boundaries changing so significantly as suggested. This report was published in march of 2020, meaning any changes to this sort should have affected the papers after this, however the 2020 onwards papers still had grade boundaries of A between 52 and 55%.

In 2018 only people completing the new spec in a year sat the paper and 2019 was the first full sitting - you cannot interpret anything from that.

yeah youre right i totally forgot about that, but that doesnt mean you cant interpretate anything from it.

It does - we actually haven't had a 'normal year' with this spec - 2019 cohort were mainly doing one A level Maths

are the edexcel c34 international papers good practice for us ?

by making questions more accessible and mark accessable later on wouldnt it be making the test easier? grade boundaries from 2020-2022 arent a standard and shouldnt be used as a rule of thumb

In 2018 only people completing the new spec in a year sat the paper and 2019 was the first full sitting - you cannot interpret anything from that.

How does this explain the fact that the boundaries from 2018 were the highest and 2019 were quite low?

In 2018 - it was mainly double maths people who took maths in Year 12 ie a very able cohort.

IN 2019 it was the first sitting of the new linear spec -

its not the questions themselves though that are becoming more accessible, its just the way that it is formatted. The questions could be quite difficult but the way they are shown easier. I guess it could be argued that it is making the student experience better when they sit the exam however as a whole it is dependent on how the exam board approach the difficulty of questioning. 2020 - 2022 i agree isn't standard however its the only other data points we have, I think as @Muttley79 said 2018 cannot really be taken into account either. Even with the advanced info and nicer marking grade boundaries were still at around 55% for 2020 to 2022. So with no advanced info and marking generally meant to be going back to normal, shouldn't it be assumed grade boundaries will be roughly the same as this level and not into the 60's?

what percentage is roughly an A and a* then?

ok so what we've concluded is that 2019 boundaries are the most reliable as ALL the other years have had other factors meaning they were lower/higher

this means a B is about 45, an A is about 55, and an A* is about 72

Is there any difference content wise between paper 1 and paper 2? Is it a split so that if you dont get e.g parametric in paper 1 you know its in paper 2? Or is it just anything? Has anyone seemed to make a connection between the two papers and contents or is it just random