My GCSE's

I go into year 10 in September. I am worrying about my GCSE's, are they hard?

I go into year 10 in September. I am worrying about my GCSE's, are they hard?

GCSE's are by no means difficult. Simply go over past papers, recollect what you've been taught and study the text book you'll purchase via the school. Do all this and boom, you've got an A*

It's not that easy. XD

It's not that easy. XD

Granted it seems easier for us who have done them, but on a truthful note, GCSE exams aren't marked as harshly as A levels, hence you can waffle about a topic that doesn't really answer the question and have horrible grammar and still get an A*.

Granted it seems easier for us who have done them, but on a truthful note, GCSE exams aren't marked as harshly as A levels, hence you can waffle about a topic that doesn't really answer the question and have horrible grammar and still get an A*.

Alright, I agree they'll probably be marked nicer than Alevels,
but you can't just waffle about a topic that doesn't really answer the question because you get 0 marks. :l The stuff about grammar is kind of true, except the questions that give marks for grammar but yeah you can still get an A* with crappy grammar.. mhm..
Being able to regurgitate information does not = what GCSE exams are about. They've changed a lot and almost all questions in science papers aren't straight forward (well, for OCR). We never got anything as simple as "Define active transport". It's always "Bill does an experiment: he fills 5 plant pots with different amounts of water. He fills the 5th plant pot full with water, he notices the flower didn't grow as much as the others, why is this?"
- Waterlogged soil
- Waterlogged -> no oxygen -> needs to respire anerobically.
- Anerobic releases less energy per glucose molecule than aerobic.
- Therefore less energy for active transport.
- Therefore the plant doesn't get as many nitrates.
- Therefore it doesn't grow very well.

Well my perception of waffling for this case would be writing a paragraph referring to a specific object mentioned in the question as a "thing" or "it". In the markscheme for GCSE is explicitly states, It = "object". At A-Level you just can't get away without mentioning specifics. Also, for longer answer questions there's a column that says "Allow:" so you can get marks for getting roughly the correct answer because there's a lot of benefit of the doubt marks given. A lot of students at my college who gained 8/9 A*'s are now struggling at AS/A2 level simply because they apply a GCSE mindset to A level. I'm talking generally here.

I'm going to make sure I'm not one of those people then. >< I'll have to try and get to the Alevel mindset..

I'm talking very generally and from my experience of sitting GCSEs.

GCSE's are by no means difficult. Simply go over past papers, recollect what you've been taught and study the text book you'll purchase via the school. Do all this and boom, you've got an A*

Do GCSE pupils have to buy all their text books ? Do they get a grant if their parents are on benefits ?

Do GCSE pupils have to buy all their text books ? Do they get a grant if their parents are on benefits ?

I'm not too sure. I believe child benefit is supposed to cover stuff such as text books in secondary school but beyond that, I have little knowledge of the benefit system.

So are pupils required to buy textbooks as you stated or not ?

Paddy proposes that they're lent, my school however, made us purchase them. I imagine it's different across schools given the data present.

This is very interesting. There does not appear to be any consistent nationwide policy.