Those annoying people who say GCSEs are easy

I was talking to my neighbour the other day about my GCSEs and she was saying how 'honestly though, you've got it much easier now - when i was at school there was no coursework so there was far more pressure on exams!' (my neighbour's in her 40s now).

I thought, well yes, more exam pressure. But, for a start coursework is very annoying. Secondly, they only did 7/8 subjects then (I'd love to be doing 7!! That's 4 less subjects than what I'm doing/did!!). Also, far less people stayed on at college/6th form, let alone uni, in the 1970s (especially women) so there must have been less pressure on gaining good results, right?

I don't really know what life was like for my mum's generation. However, it just really annoys me when people decide to have a moan about how our lives are so easy when they don't even know! Maybe if they went back to school they would be very surprised?

MissSurfer

Reply 1

je ne sais quoi

You must admit that GCSEs are relatively easy when compared in the days of yore, when there were things like O Levels or something of that sort. When I looked at some past O Level papers, they seemed ridiculously hard (not because I'm thick). People used to rarely achieve straight As before. But now, or last year, I remember something like 40 people getting straight As in their GCSEs in my year.
Labour has definitely dumbed down the education system to achieve his pledge of getting at least 40% of people into higher education.

Reply 2

mfb3000

But you must understand that although the exams were harder and the grades were harder to get, it wasn't necessary to get straight As to get into Uni like how it seems to be these days. Matriculation offers were much more common, and a huge stash of A grades were not expected, nevermind the norm.

Reply 3

chazzinio

i think it is a fair staement to say that gcse's are a greater test of how well you remember things than actual intelligence (which a-levels require much more of)

Reply 4

greatpotter

it seems like you think GCSESａｒｅ　ｅａｓｙ　ｔｏｏ！

Reply 5

xlouisedoll

16

I said this in the A level thread.. I challenge all those who say that GCSE's are easier now to take 11 GCSE's and get 11 A*s. If they're so "easy" now, then they should have no problem doing that.

Reply 6

SlyPie

12

One of my closest friends never did any work at all and he passed his GCSEs, all of them, with B's and C's. Given they are not the best grades, he literally never did any work and ditched a lot of school, plus huffed a lot of other sorts of things.

So maybe it's easy to pass, get Bs and Cs, but not easy to get As or A*s.

Reply 7

MissSurfer

OP

17

Hmmm...well, don't get me wrong, i'm not saying O levels were easy or anything, just that people shouldn't assume GCSEs are easier just becuase that's what they've heard in the media. I don't know what O Levels were like, therefore I cannot compare. That's what annoys me - people are try and compare the two when they only have experience of one (O levels or GCSEs).

Oh, and in my opinion those past O level papers for Maths seemed a lot easier than my GCSE Maths exam! maybe it just happened to be topics I knew well?

MissSurfer

Reply 8

7589200

18

GCSE are not fully indicative of intelligence and are easier than O Levels, no doubt.

Reply 9

YouKnewThat!

1

je ne sais quoi

You must admit that GCSEs are relatively easy when compared in the days of yore, when there were things like O Levels or something of that sort. When I looked at some past O Level papers, they seemed ridiculously hard (not because I'm thick). People used to rarely achieve straight As before. But now, or last year, I remember something like 40 people getting straight As in their GCSEs in my year.
Labour has definitely dumbed down the education system to achieve his pledge of getting at least 40% of people into higher education.

The government has nothing to do with the exam boards,
the pledge was 50% and they're still way off target, thankfully.

Reply 10

sherunsaway

2

Perhaps standards of teaching have improved since the sixties meaning that we are in fact better educated than our parents ever were.

Reply 11

Wilko_777

10

YouKnewThat!

The government has nothing to do with the exam boards,

Exactly. Exam boards are in the private sector.

Reply 12

~Bex~

14

je ne sais quoi

You must admit that GCSEs are relatively easy when compared in the days of yore, when there were things like O Levels or something of that sort. When I looked at some past O Level papers, they seemed ridiculously hard (not because I'm thick). People used to rarely achieve straight As before. But now, or last year, I remember something like 40 people getting straight As in their GCSEs in my year.
Labour has definitely dumbed down the education system to achieve his pledge of getting at least 40% of people into higher education.

Just because you didn't know the answers to the O level papers, doesn't necessarily mean they're harder, just different. The syllabus could be completely different from what you have been taught, so obviously if you haven't been taught it your not gonna be able to do an exam in it.

Reply 13

Pookie

1

Erm no idea if GCSE's are easier now, but they were certainly easy in the mid 90's. I did no revision full stop for mine and my results came out perfectly well :wink:

They aren't particularly challenging.

Reply 14

kellywood_5

17

It's always the same when results day gets near; the A-level pass rate has gone up, so A-levels are getting easier, the GCSE pass rate has gone up, so GCSEs are getting easier. It can't possibly be because students or working harder or teaching standards have improved. It really annoys me how people say exams they've never done themselves are easy- unless you've done an O-level and a GCSE in the same subject, how can you possibly know? Exams are very different now compared to what they used to be, but that doesn't mean they're easier. As Bex said, something you've never been taught is obviously going to seem difficult, just like someone who did O-levels wouldn't know some of the topics we learn for GCSEs.

Reply 15

want2know

I don't know about anyone else but I found the coursework much more stressful than the exams!

Reply 16

Shamen

11

want2know

I don't know about anyone else but I found the coursework much more stressful than the exams!

Why? It's worth less and doesn't require any revision; you've got the option to get it marked, remarked and have constant help from teachers. Just curious.

It's not O-Levels we should be comparing to, it's the early versions of the GCSE. Being honest here, it does look as though the GCSEs are becoming easier (when comparing last years practice papers with practice papers 5 years ago I noticed a slight difference; but a difference, nonetheless). I am not saying GCSEs are now easy - they're not; that would be pointless if they were "easy". I definitely think there is some truth in the statement that Labour are wanting more to go to University and pay fees, ergo they are making it easier for students to go.

Just to say, in reply to the original post: Perhaps there wasn't enough pressure "back in the day" when O-Levels were supreme, but, wouldn't you be astonished if Society hadn't progressed and matured since then? Many more are in employment now, partly due to the fact of a huge increase in the amount of jobs open to people.