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Official Edexcel S3 thread Wednesday 20 May 2015 Morning [6691]

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Original post by chughes17
Could stick a prove s^2 is an unbiased estimator of sigma^2 into S1, as you have everything taught that you need in the S1 textbook (Var=Ex^2-(Ex)^2), i mean all you have to do it think about it properly really.


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Yes. All you really need to do is think a little. I might apply to write the S1 papers. Give them some thinking to do.
Original post by tggfootymad
No need for all this rubbish about "I understand the educational value" and "I understand that you may be very busy". If everyone writes such a long-winded email they wiill ignore them! Just say directly that you sat the paper this year, found it to be much much harder than usual, despite strong preparation and having done all the past papers etc, and am writing so that this can be taken into account with the grade boundaries.

Do you think going to court and shouting "i'm innocent!!!" would suffice to convince a judge? In the same vein, saying "the exam was REALLY HARD!" is no argument. It's an entirely subjective statement, utterly negligible. However, saying it required more thought than other papers for the same period of time, is still subjective but more reasonable.
Reply 782
Cannot believe this
Gone44 is right
This is a test and tests are sometimes supposed to be hard
No point emailing
If most have not done well then grade boundaries will drop
No need to patronise anyone

As i said before why spoil the rest of your exams
Reply 783
Original post by AQUF42
Cannot believe this
Gone44 is right
This is a test and tests are sometimes supposed to be hard
No point emailing
If most have not done well then grade boundaries will drop
No need to patronise anyone

As i said before why spoil the rest of your exams


I'm guessing you were able to answer question 5d
Original post by AQUF42
Cannot believe this
Gone44 is right
This is a test and tests are sometimes supposed to be hard
No point emailing
If most have not done well then grade boundaries will drop
No need to patronise anyone

As i said before why spoil the rest of your exams


'sometimes' supposed to be hard.

This is the issue....

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Original post by chughes17
'sometimes' supposed to be hard.

This is the issue....

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Yes. All the other papers have been easy (relative to the one we sat). Edexcel chose for this year to be difficult. Exams are supposed to test your understanding, not see whether you can regurgitate a solution
Original post by Gome44
Yes. All the other papers have been easy (relative to the one we sat). Edexcel chose for this year to be difficult. Exams are supposed to test your understanding, not see whether you can regurgitate a solution


Yeah I actually do agree with you, but I still think there's nothing wrong with letting Edexcel know how comparatively difficult it was. I also still don't agree with 5d, I get it, and if there was even a yellow box in the book explaining this property of it then it would be fair, but there isn't. I just honestly did not think you could do that. That's all. I do agree with you on the whole though, the rest of the paper was a lot harder than previous years but you could apply what was in the textbook in a different way. With 5d, in my opinion, it wasn't made clear enough in the textbook for most to be able to apply their knowledge.


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Original post by Gome44
Yes. All the other papers have been easy (relative to the one we sat). Edexcel chose for this year to be difficult. Exams are supposed to test your understanding, not see whether you can regurgitate a solution


The issue is that none of the previous exams tested understanding particularly well
Edexcel did their job better this year and frankly despite the fact they could "deprive" (obviously I am not entitled to it) me of a high grade it's in one sense refreshing to see a genuinely testing exam, but you can see why people consider it "unfair": the cohorts of the past several years had relatively easy exams. You can make the argument that grade boundaries will solve these issues, but the problem is that such a random difficulty spike can have a much more profound effect on exam performance, which may make an a/a* candidate (had they sat the paper any other year) crumble and end up with a mark that does not reflect their skill level relative to all the other students in past years who weren't put through such an exam

edit: sorry, obviously didn't read your message very properly/thoroughly since I just rephrased what you said half the time but the latter points stand
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by TabulaSmaragdina
Do you think going to court and shouting "i'm innocent!!!" would suffice to convince a judge? In the same vein, saying "the exam was REALLY HARD!" is no argument. It's an entirely subjective statement, utterly negligible. However, saying it required more thought than other papers for the same period of time, is still subjective but more reasonable.


You're not convincing Edexcel here. Saying that the paper required more thought than others in the same time is not a persuasive argument that will make them think, "Gee, now we really are convinced". The whole point is to simply inform them, and if enough people do that, THEN they will be convinced. The convincing thing for them is not the quality of argument and persuasion - which they will ignore - but the number of people that write in to tell them it was hard.
Original post by 1 8 13 20 42
The issue is that none of the previous exams tested understanding particularly well
Edexcel did their job better this year and frankly despite the fact they could "deprive" (obviously I am not entitled to it) me of a high grade it's in one sense refreshing to see a genuinely testing exam, but you can see why people consider it "unfair": the cohorts of the past several years had relatively easy exams. You can make the argument that grade boundaries will solve these issues, but the problem is that such a random difficulty spike can have a much more profound effect on exam performance, which may make an a/a* candidate (had they sat the paper any other year) crumble and end up with a mark that does not reflect their skill level relative to all the other students in past years who weren't put through such an exam

edit: sorry, obviously didn't read your message very properly/thoroughly since I just rephrased what you said half the time but the latter points stand


Yes. It's stupid that most years the papers are so easy that you need 70/75 to get an A*. Further maths is supposed to challenge the brightest, but such high grade boundaries show that that hasn't been happening. So I agree with harder exams, just not unexpectedly and harder out of the blue.
i really hope fp2 isn't like this :s

(also guys, lets move on to the fp2 thread now!! remember, focus on what you can do to make up for S3 :smile:)
Reply 791
XKay

Its not about individuals
I am the parent but my sin said it was hard but was not moaning about it
He took that in his stride and said he should get around 67
Normally during practice he never got less than 72 or 73 but since it was a tough paper he will not achieve that

But he will not keep moaning about it and start emailing edexcel
He is working hard for his next exam

This is just an exam and you are all about to face more trickier situations on life which will be much harder than S3

So move on please
Reply 792
Original post by AQUF42
XKay

Its not about individuals
I am the parent but my sin said it was hard but was not moaning about it
He took that in his stride and said he should get around 67
Normally during practice he never got less than 72 or 73 but since it was a tough paper he will not achieve that

But he will not keep moaning about it and start emailing edexcel
He is working hard for his next exam

This is just an exam and you are all about to face more trickier situations on life which will be much harder than S3

So move on please


The reason why your son is taking it in his stride is because he is more likely to get an A* with 67, any lower i can guarantee he would have been moaning like the rest of us.(I, too, was getting 72-73 marks in past papers).

And please don't lecture me about life.
Original post by AQUF42
XKay

Its not about individuals
I am the parent but my sin said it was hard but was not moaning about it
He took that in his stride and said he should get around 67
Normally during practice he never got less than 72 or 73 but since it was a tough paper he will not achieve that

But he will not keep moaning about it and start emailing edexcel
He is working hard for his next exam

This is just an exam and you are all about to face more trickier situations on life which will be much harder than S3

So move on please


With all due respect, you did not sit the exam thus you don't really have a right to tell us to 'stop moaning' or 'move on'. Ultimately, this is the 'student' room so why you even have an account in order to speak about your son is beyond me.
Reply 794
He will be happy with below 65 as well
Not lecturing anyone
But it seems like a broken record
Original post by AQUF42
He will be happy with below 65 as well
Not lecturing anyone
But it seems like a broken record


If you just come on this thread, flaunt your son's relative success and tell people to move on repeatedly I wonder why you don't stop following the thread. It seems like you don't have anything to gain from it and are just antagonising students who have felt their futures have taken a bit of a hit. Yes it probably is not a big thing in the grand scheme of things but you really shouldn't rub salt in a wound, so to speak.
Reply 796
Apologies if i have hurt anyone
You will still do well as nothing is end
of the world
This is just the beginning of better things to come for all of you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Daxi1ylA11M

thought I'll lighten up the mood a bit...
Original post by llIllIllIllI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Daxi1ylA11M

thought I'll lighten up the mood a bit...


Knew someone had to make one eventually.. good job :tongue:

Although I'd like to see Hitler go on a rant about the kids picking colours in the circle :colonhash:
Reply 799
That was very funny
Thats the spirit
Well done

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