Am I an A-level Maths candidate?

This thread might sound a bit stupid but I was wondering if I am an A grade A-level Maths candidate. I finished my GCSE Maths early and got an A* and I was given the opportunity to do Edexcel C1 in Year 11. I have now finished my GCSE's and moving on to doing A level Maths and Further Maths. However, my school changed the exam board to OCR MEI and therfore means my C1 Edexcel exam will not count. I am confident that I would have achieved a top grade with a top UMS in that exam.

I have researched hours on OCR MEI students opionion and their comparison to Edexcel. I would say 99% prefer Edexcel as they think it is much easier. Why is OCR MEI hard, or really, is it even hard? I can understand the wording is much tricky but will doing past paper improve your OCR-MEI language skills ? My honest question is: Would I be able to achieve an A grade in a module in OCR MEI with the same amount of revision I could have done for Edecel ? Or does OCR- MEI require more revision than Edexcel?

Thank you for reading :smile:

Reply 1

Jkn

11

Original post by ssargithan

This thread might sound a bit stupid but I was wondering if I am an A grade A-level Maths candidate. I finished my GCSE Maths early and got an A* and I was given the opportunity to do Edexcel C1 in Year 11. I have now finished my GCSE's and moving on to doing A level Maths and Further Maths. However, my school changed the exam board to OCR MEI and therfore means my C1 Edexcel exam will not count. I am confident that I would have achieved a top grade with a top UMS in that exam.

I have researched hours on OCR MEI students opionion and their comparison to Edexcel. I would say 99% prefer Edexcel as they think it is much easier. Why is OCR MEI hard, or really, is it even hard? I can understand the wording is much tricky but will doing past paper improve your OCR-MEI language skills ? My honest question is: Would I be able to achieve an A grade in a module in OCR MEI with the same amount of revision I could have done for Edecel ? Or does OCR- MEI require more revision than Edexcel?

Thank you for reading :smile:

Yes, you are obviously an A grade candidate (not to be rude, but I'm fairly certain you already knew this before posting, in fact I would imagine you are aiming of an A*) :tongue:

Yes, OCR MEI is marginally harder but they still (have to) give out the same number of As/A*s. In fact, for an A* candidate, OCR MEI would be beneficial as A* candidates in Edexcel tend to need to get high UMS scores to achieve the grades (which makes it about not making silly errors rather than ability!)

That said, the whole idea floating around that people on Edexcel 'have it easy' and everyone else is learning things way beyond the scope of Edexcel is simply not true and, in my opinion, has to stop! It's human nature to like to distort differences in this way. For example, have you ever had a teacher who moaned on about 'how hard things were' back when they did their A-levels and you are all so lucky? I certainly have :redface:

Anyway, I was in a similar position to you a few years ago, so I certainly hope you succeed (good luck!) :smile:

Reply 2

Economi

9

With edexcel you have the assistance of the debatably best person ever......Examsolutions.

Reply 3

Anonymous_0749

OP

15

Original post by Jkn

Yes, you are obviously an A grade candidate (not to be rude, but I'm fairly certain you already knew this before posting, in fact I would imagine you are aiming of an A*) :tongue:

Yes, OCR MEI is marginally harder but they still (have to) give out the same number of As/A*s. In fact, for an A* candidate, OCR MEI would be beneficial as A* candidates in Edexcel tend to need to get high UMS scores to achieve the grades (which makes it about not making silly errors rather than ability!)

That said, the whole idea floating around that people on Edexcel 'have it easy' and everyone else is learning things way beyond the scope of Edexcel is simply not true and, in my opinion, has to stop! It's human nature to like to distort differences in this way. For example, have you ever had a teacher who moaned on about 'how hard things were' back when they did their A-levels and you are all so lucky? I certainly have :redface:

Anyway, I was in a similar position to you a few years ago, so I certainly hope you succeed (good luck!) :smile:

What do you mean they have to give put the same A's and A* ? Wel, I really love maths and want to get the highest grade possible. Do you have any recommended website for OCR MEI revision like exmas solution ?

And thanks :biggrin:

( this calmed me down a bit)

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 4

m4ths/maths247

7

If you want some ideas on whether its right for you this MAY help:

http://www.m4ths.com/is-a-level-for-me.html

Reply 5

Technetium

18

I did my A-Level Mathematics on OCR MEI. The syllabus is not as hard as some people make it out to be but it's the way that the questions are worded that can make it challenging at times. MEI places more emphasis on the wording of the questions which results in the candidate needing to use their own knowledge to figure out what the question is asking as opposed to the question telling you what to do - this is prevalent in Edexcel questions -

The applied modules have a slightly different structure in the sense that more content is covered in the MEI modules as opposed to the Edexcel modules. MEI offers a wider range of applied modules such as Differential Equations - DE - and Numerical Methods - NM - .

There is a coursework and comprehension component to the C3 and C4 papers and these are each worth 20%. The coursework is not difficult, it's pretty self-explanatory and is about Numerical Methods, you don't really need to understand what you're doing to do well. In my opinion the coursework component is much better than having a numerical methods section in the written paper - in Edexcel candidates are required to be able to use Newton-Raphson iterative methods -. The comprehension varies in difficulty from year to year and is all about how you can manipulate a mathematical text in order to answer questions about a particular mathematical concept/application.

Reply 6

Jkn

11

Original post by ssargithan

What do you mean they have to give put the same A's and A* ? Wel, I really love maths and want to get the highest grade possible. Do you have any recommended website for OCR MEI revision like exmas solution ?

And thanks :biggrin:

( this calmed me down a bit)

The value of a grade must be independent of an exam board. If Edexcel gave 25% of people A*s and 45% of people As then OCR would have to do the same for the system to even have a theoretical possibility of working :tongue:

If fact, these are in fact the correct statistics (roughly) and so it is clear that you should be aiming for an A* :tongue:

Nope sorry. I would recommend further reading though :smile:

Edit: On another note, you said that people prefer Edexcel as it is easier though I personally would have preferred OCR MEI as easier exam blur the boundaries between all of those in the top 25% (from the moderately capable all the way up to the intellectual elite). :tongue:

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 7

Magenta96

16

I've just finished AS Maths with OCR MEI. OCR MEI isn't particularly difficult in my opinion, the AS gets easier and easier the more practice you do. I did tons of revision for C1 and this made the unit very easy. S1 is the unit I performed best weirdly on, I think, but it was difficult to revise for because MEI's questions for probability especially are like mind games and you have to think carefully. C2 is like C1, but just more challenging.

EDIT: I now have my maths result. I'd advise you to absolutely smash C1 (get 90-100 UMS in the easiest unit), then you only need mid B's in the other 2 units for an A overall.

(edited 10 years ago)

Am I an A-level Maths candidate?

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you