Are exams harder this year?

Possibly but I'm thinking grade boundaries will be higher this year to coincide with Gove's plan's. I wouldn't be surprised if the overall A-level pass rate fell this year.

That's depressing :frown:

What are the government's plans?

I'm feeling a bit pessimistic but I think they do vary depending on how the country do in the exams. For example, the chemistry unit 1 exam was 66 out of 80 for an A in June, so you'd think Edexcel adopted a tougher policy on A-grades, but then the Physics Unit 2 paper was 51/80 in the same exam session for an A.

Reply 41

MSI_10

15

Physics Unit 4 says hi :smile:

Reply 42

User944645

OP

2

Original post by GCSE-help

What do you mean by a less skewed mark distribution? Do they want lesser A grades? How do you think the grade boundaries will be affected by this?

Basically, if the paper is too easy, a high number of candidates score very highly, so a graph of frequency against score would show a positive skew. If the paper is tougher (but not too tough), the distribution would be a bell-shaped curve; a normal distribution.

So, if that is the case, grade boundaries would be lower this year. However, it is entirely speculation on my part, and there is no concrete evidence to suggest that this is the case. Unfortunately the only way to find out grade boundaries is to wait for the boards to release them.

Reply 43

letsbehonest

15

Original post by RunningInHeels

C1 wasn't "super hard"? Wow. I am already revising for my resit.

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I am not even that great at Maths, got an A at GCSE, I just did a LOT of prep including solomon papers ^_^

Reply 44

kalika_amz

8

i agree with the above posts. when in the exam environment, the exam seems harder than it is. nevertheless, i found the f335 ocr salters chemistry of materials exam more difficult than other past papers, perhaps because it focused more on the biological chemical side whereas i prefer physical chemistry...

i took biology communication and homeostatsis exam which again had some off putting questions and some good questions

Reply 45

Lucy-1995

I thought Chem4 and Phys4 were really hard, but exams generally stress me out and seem harder!

Reply 46

BioGeek

13

Biology F211 JAN 2013 OCR was the hardest the paper I've ever seen.

Reply 47

User944645

OP

2

Another possibility, if it does turn out that exams are getting trickier, is that most specifications have been around a few years now since the last reform, so candidates are becoming accustomed to stock questions with model answers...so questions this time round require a bit more actual thought :eek:

Reply 48

AspiringGenius

15

I don't know about A Level exams but that BMAT was insane this year! :lol:

Reply 49

GeekyNick

10

It's hard to be objective given that most people will have sat the exam for the first time. So far this series I've done OCR Physics G484 and Edecel Chemistry 6CH04.

Based on the 5 or so past papers I did I do think that there has been a general increase in the difficulty of the G484 papers - a move towards more thinking questions rather than simple recall. This paper was challenging in places and perhaps a little harder than June 2012 but now that much. I actually think this is quite good as it means that your grade better reflects your understanding and skills rather than your ability to memorise the course.

I found the Edexcel Chemistry Unit 4 quite challenging but I don't think it was an especially difficult paper. The multiple choice had more odd questions than normal but the rest of the paper was straightforward. My main issue was timing!

Reply 50

Mollymod

15

Chemistry Unit 2 was kind of clearly designed for A2 students, which is fair enough because most of us were resitters anyway, probably the entire population of people doing that exam this January were A2 students, so some of the questions were geared towards A2 organic, which was alright since that's pretty much my thing anyway :biggrin:

Biology Unit 2 was a little bit dodgy though. Chemistry Unit 4 was an alright paper, it's just scattered with some of my silly mistakes.

Reply 51

zakkaz

13

F324 was definitely hard in comparison to the other past papers, I think there was only one that was harder, I think it was jan 2012 but not 100% sure.

Reply 52

Blair Waldorf

Original post by Miracle Day

Psychology is so difficult compared to it's grading on that list :frown:

so unfair

Edit: Yeah guys, try learning a total of 20 25 mark essays and 5 15 mark essays just for one exam and tell me it's easy.

That's easy it's been 3 years since I completed my A-levels and I can tell you psychology was a walk in the park compared to science/maths.

You need to memorise a few things and "wing it" for the rest as long as you could talk about the subject for a few pages you were good.

And I got an A*, but I liked psychology so perhaps that's why I found it easier?

---

On-topic: No tests aren't getting easier.

Reply 53

Miracle Day

21

Original post by Blair Waldorf

That's easy it's been 3 years since I completed my A-levels and I can tell you psychology was a walk in the park compared to science/maths.

You need to memorise a few things and "wing it" for the rest as long as you could talk about the subject for a few pages you were good.

And I got an A*, but I liked psychology so perhaps that's why I found it easier?

---

On-topic: No tests aren't getting easier.

This is total BS.

Reply 54

Blair Waldorf

Original post by Miracle Day

This is total BS.

The only bull**** here is your insinuation that A-level psychology is difficult lol.

Granted there's quite a lot to memorise but that comes with the subject. Topics are easy to understand and easy to recall after you learn them once.

The questions are broad and offer 25/20/15etc marks a pop, which makes it easier to gain marks as you can talk about a lot of different points and back them up with studies as well as any criticisms.

A-level Psychology isn't hard, you must be thick if you find it hard.

Reply 55

username937760

16

Original post by Blair Waldorf

On-topic: No tests aren't getting easier.

The point is that this examination period is starting to make people think the opposite - that the crackdown on A-Levels etc. has made this examination period on average more difficult than previous ones. For example, there's a general opinion that the difficulty of the Physics papers has been notched up a bit this year, across the board. I've only done 2/6 papers so far (One of which I cannot discuss for another 6 hours) but the other one (G494, OCR Physics B) was a step up from previous years' papers.

Reply 56

User944645

OP

2

Original post by DJMayes

The point is that this examination period is starting to make people think the opposite - that the crackdown on A-Levels etc. has made this examination period on average more difficult than previous ones. For example, there's a general opinion that the difficulty of the Physics papers has been notched up a bit this year, across the board. I've only done 2/6 papers so far (One of which I cannot discuss for another 6 hours) but the other one (G494, OCR Physics B) was a step up from previous years' papers.

The discussion of this possibility was indeed the intended purpose of the thread.

Reply 57

furryface12

21

Not necessarily harder, but different- there seem to be more questions trying to catch us out this year. For example, physics there were lots of long answer questions and very few calculations, maths they did several things the opposite way round to usual and chemistry the questions were just phrased weirdly

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