The New GCSEs are way to hard

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They want us to know a lot more than there predecessors and since I am the first year to do it in my School they believe that we will get the best GCSE grades the school has ever received but that is way too much pressure on us pupils and the government are making it too difficult, especially with the new grading system. 9 is now like a A*+ and there are two C grades its just too much for us.

But why english why something we are not good at why not maths everyone loves maths

Reply 41

Unknown468

I'm doing my GCSEs this year and English isn't that different. We have 16 poems to learn and 3 books to remember for literature. Even as a top set pupil I am struggling a lot more then I properly should be

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Reply 42

username1292215

Each year always complains about something, and thinks it was easier in the previous year. :borat:

Reply 43

username2471155

Original post by SuperHuman98

Each year always complains about something, and thinks it was easier in the previous year. :borat:

So true!

Reply 44

norman786

I think it's good that they've made the GCSEs harder, because then the jump from GCSE to A level will not be as big as it use to be, you will realise the difficulty of Alevels and will really question if you would really put the work and effort in at A level to be successful.

Reply 45

Connor27

Original post by Goldfish4343

I will be sitting my GCSEs in 2018 and I am already struggling. I am not finding gography, history and RE that bad, but it is more the other subjects.

German is almost impossible to remember everything. We have a massive booklet if words to remember and a lot of them aren't that useful if you were actually wanting to learn a language. We also have to speak for around 10 minutes (I think) in German for the actual GCSE. I didn't even want to do German, but I will probably fail it.

English you now have to remember 15 poems and I think you have to remember the quotes from the other literature books as well. This isn't really testing skill, it's testing memory.

Maths I don't find that bad, but it is the remembering the formula that I will stuggle with a lot. They are expected us to have super memory.

I took triple science and I think I will fail it. They have given us old A Level stuff to try to do and again you have to remember most of the formula. We had a test recently and most people in the year got less than half marks. I think that shows how hard this is now.

Why does it seem like they are testing our memory rather than our skill?

Urm, the speaking on old spec languages was a total of 10minutes aswell; 2 5 minute tests, so more pressure as you do it all in one we had the nerves twice.)

Remembering quotes was a thing for us as well, yeah we were allowed the books but they were clean unaltered copies so you had to trawl through to find quotes if you couldn't remember, that was time consuming in an already tight for time exam. And lol, we also did the exact same poetry clusters and it was pot luck what we got.

The "new" GCSEs are barely any different from the old ones from what you've described here; get over yourself.

Reply 46

0Karen0

I would just like to point out to all of those saying that we need to get over ourselves that last year, with the old spec, 25% of your gcse was coursework. The new spec is 100% exam, so yes, it is harder.

Reply 47

liam12345677

Original post by Amefish

Sounds very similar to my GCSEs actually, and you think it is a lot more difficult than it is. Despite what anyone says, you don't have to learn every word of that German booklet. You just need to learn the key, most important and basic words so you can understand and construct basic sentences.

The speaking assessment isn't as hard as you think either, because you will get a lot of help and guidance for it and it is actually quite straightforward. If I'm right in my understanding, you can write a piece out to begin with and rehearse it and then speak it. You will definitely get a lot of help with this.

In English, you don't have to remember whole poems. I know for a fact there is no "write this poem out" section, again you should just learn the key bits about each poem. And you should learn key quotes from the literature books that you are reading/have read. Keep going over them again and again.

If you are wanting to do A Levels after this, you need to get your head in the game and accept the workload. Set targets and make sure they are achievable. Let me reiterate that you do not have to learn every single thing. In lessons like German and English, you can learn the key things and build on them. But don't let this be an excuse for you to slack, you should always try to learn as much as you can so you are prepared.

Umm, the point about German speaking is not true. WE were allowed to practise before and get a lot of help, since we're on the old spec. Our speaking was barely even speaking ffs lol, just memorise a script and then say a couple of sentences for your random question. They have to do it in the exam hall and to be honest, that's just outrageous. Especially at schools who make French compulsory, I mean people at my school who detest French struggle even on our easy controlled assessments, and I know even the most enthusiastic/intelligent French GCSE students are going to have a hard time speaking for 10 minutes, because that's something like what a native speaker would be asked to do.

Reply 48

lydiapelling

I'm doing my GCSEs in 2018 too! I'm finding everything alright at the moment except for English Literature and History. I've remembered many quotes from the novel we are doing but in mocks I never have quotes relevant to the question and it's really annoying. History I've basically given up on, but I probably would have sucked at it even in the old exams. It's really annoying because we have 4 questions on the cold war, all of which are only 8 marks yet we have to learn decades worth of content? The same goes for the Elizabethan section in the latter half of the paper. I took triple science too which I find easy seeing as I am a complete science nerd. Although learning the 20 odd physics equations off by heart is proving difficult, especially along with quantitative chemistry formula and equations.I do think they are testing our memory more than skill at the moment. What I think is the worst thing about it all is is the amount of pressure our teachers put on us to do well, and I know it's for our benefit but all GCSEs are really good for in getting into college. That thought is actually the main thing that keeps me calm, knowing that I can still survive without an 8 in history.Good luck with your studying :biggrin:

Reply 49

elliothunt01

It may be hard for you, not being able to distinguish between 'to' and 'too'.

Reply 50

Tiwa101

These new GCSEs are much better than the old one though, the old one was a joke, anyone could get an A*, it was not an amazing achievement at all. It just meant that you spent a lot of time memorising the specs.
Also, the jump between GCSE and A level becomes much smaller with these new GCSEs.
I would rather do these new GCSEs and get a 7 in a subject knowing that it reflects my ability than do the old ones and get an A* that I memorised the spec for.

Memory is not the same as understanding.

Reply 51

07780361576

Im taking a GCSE in may ish and its biology . Its really hard i cant wrap my head round it . Im in a higher teir and i did a mini mock i got 9 marks out of 48 and grade u im worryung if i dont pass any of my GCSEs What do i do ???