S1 Edexcel June 2006 Feedback

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Edexcel got takenover by the media giant Pearson, owner of the Financial Times and the publisher Penguin a couple of years ago. Now Edexcel may be a non-profit organisation but why would a private american heavy profit oriented company want to control an education non-profit body? And push for lowering costs by lowering standards and introducing multiple choice across the board?

Now, what happens with all the profits they do make? It may be announced as a non-profit organisation but the directors all have insentives to get even more money in their pockets.

Something has to be done, but like anything else you need to open your mouth, protest, and have a celebrity voice for things to change. Look at what happened with the fast good at school. The question was asked to members of education if they were going to do anything about meals in the UK. But they replied: "That there was nothing wrong with the meals at schools." and then Jamie Oliver spent a year moaning, moaning, going on the telivision a thousands times, and now they do admit that:

"Meals at school were not enough funded, and that less money had been put in it in the past few years, and things would change"

Not enough funding in the the entire education sector...

Reply 301

kadhimA

yup, it was defo leaked. i know people that had the paper on them, but i refused to look at it. it was DEFINITLEY leaked.

would we really have to retake S1?

Reply 302

The-Wrestling-Fanatic

will grade boundarys go up or down as a result of the leak?

Reply 303

k10k

It depends on the number of people who used the pre-release copy of the paper. If people who didn't cheat in general found the paper slightly harder you would expect the boundaries to go down ( By how much again depends) Depending on the amount of cheaters however who did better they could go up or still remain below. It's like a balance. It's impossible to predict.

In the past year it seems to have stayed around 62/75 min for an A. Which is higher than the 80% we are used to.
Or will it be a January 2005 of 53/75 min for an A?

Reply 304

The-Wrestling-Fanatic

thanks for your input to my question.

well in all honesty i thought that was a very hard paper and i do not think the jan 2005 paper was as hard so this should match it or be even lower. hopefully the leak doesnt have a toll on things i.e. make the grade bandarys go up (if it makes the grade boundarys go down i however wont complain)

Reply 305

The-Wrestling-Fanatic

thanks for your input to my question.

well in all honesty i thought that was a very hard paper and i do not think the jan 2005 paper was as hard so this should match it or be even lower. hopefully the leak doesnt have a toll on things i.e. make the grade boundarys go up (if it makes the grade boundarys go down, i wont complain)

Reply 306

Apagg

If grade boundaries were to change at all, they'd be pushed upwards, as presumably cheaters will get higher marks than otherwise, and they'd compensate for it accordingly. However, because the number of cheaters as a proportion of the exam candidates is likely to be rather small, the leak shouldn't have too large an effect on the standardisation.

Reply 307

The-Wrestling-Fanatic

Dont you mean they would be pushed downwards? If this BS has any toll on the grade boundarys i will be pissed.

Reply 308

Apagg

Hmm, it's confusing - by upwards I mean you'd need more marks for an A.

Reply 309

The-Wrestling-Fanatic

but thats unfair. the mean mark has gone up due to cheats. therefore the level of difficulty of the paper is not detected by the board because people are getting high marks. i know it wont change stats and figures by very much but still...for that hard a paper having high grade boundaries is quite ridiculous.

Reply 310

Apagg

They base the boundaries on the difficulty of the paper. Cheaters will push up the average mark, and in doing so will push up the grade boundaries. Like I said though, I doubt there were enough leaked papers to make that much of a difference to the boundaries.
I hate to say this (again) but it wasn't really a very difficult paper.

Reply 311

The-Wrestling-Fanatic

you have to admit it was more challenging than other S1 papers from previous years

Reply 312

Apagg

Hmm, people on here seem to be saying that, but I actually thought it was the easiest so far. Maybe I just prefer different types of questions - the sort that came up.
What questions were the more challenging ones, in your opinion?

Reply 313

ywhite

i have an exam next week on regression , can someone give me an example of what regression looks like

Reply 314

Loz2402

omg i cant believe it was leaked. i mean its bad enough cheating yourself and getting an undeserved mark, but the people are also cheating other candidates throughout the country, whose marks will be lowered no doubt if the amount of cheating has been high.

regression is just like an accurate line of best fit through data plotted on a scatter diagram. its set so that the distances between the points and the lines are equal. the regression line is in the form y=a+bx. that any help?

Reply 315

Geerththanan

Loz2402

Not all people who cheated would have got been caught...or would they have been..?

If they haven't and say..and say many cheated...and they all get high marks...then boundaries will go up...? And for people like us non-cheaters who haven't done all that well...its not good... :frown:

Reply 316

Apagg

Stop worrying, it's a very small percentage of the total candidates who will have cheated in this way. It's highly unlikely to affect the grade boundaries significantly, you might lose one mark at most.

Reply 317

Loz2402

Original post by G&#949

no they wont have been. i was basically saying that the whole marks of everyone would go up. but (how i understand it) there were very few places where the paper was leaked, so it wont make a big dif to the boundaries. i wasnt worried about the boundaries, i was more ranting about cheaters and how they annoy me! cos they dont just cheat thereselves, they cheat others too... etc etc :smile: