We are the organisers of the Edexcel Protest AMA

Contingency papers would have taken too long to distribute, although I do agree that contingency papers should have been more heavily considered, or postponing the exam.

Hi, I've talked to two maths teachers that have looked at Paper 2, both say the main issue was that the questions were rather badly worded with poor punctuation.

This led to confident mathematicians reading the questions differently and getting different answers. Basically, poor punctuation led to different interpretations of the same questions.

Is this a problem that Pearson's are aware of?

Also, well done on what you are doing. It may not be perfect, but it's great that you're actually doing something, rather than just being keyboard warriors and sitting on your backsides waiting for results day.

No, not possibilities and not optimism. Logically, Edexcel will enact change based on the concerns we raise, due to both the traction of the protest and the moral obligation that they have due to the nature of the service they provide.

I do apologise if this did not make sense. I am limited in my ability to help people deploy logic to scenarios or change their worldview, but I hope you will in time, be comforted too.

What's the point of having contingency papers then it's not like they found out minutes before the exams it was hours. Why even let the exam go ahead just postpone it until the back up papers could be 'distributed'. Sounds like an excuse tbh.

What's the point of having contingency papers then it's not like they found out minutes before the exams it was hours. Why even let the exam go ahead just postpone it until the back up papers could be 'distributed'. Sounds like an excuse tbh.

You just did it again with "logically". This doesnt mean anything once again, it is only your belief that they will act logically. Nothing is set in stone and you still have not answered the question of whether anything is definite.

What's the point of having contingency papers then it's not like they found out minutes before the exams it was hours. Why even let the exam go ahead just postpone it until the back up papers could be 'distributed'. Sounds like an excuse tbh.

exams get leaked every year, it happened to my sociology A-level last year so whats so different about this one? it seems like this is an issue with all exams not just edexcel. and why are you protesting the solutions they are offering if you cannot come up with your own?

It's not easy for schools, or pupils, to postpone an exam to another date. Year group exams take a lot of time and space. Space in some schools is limited, considering they also have a schedule of other A Levels and GCSEs to accommodate. You can't just push an exam into any old vacant classroom and the exams need to be conducted in exam conditions, with correct staffing.

Also, a lot of schools conduct their own internal year group exams at the end of the national exam period, so who whole question of postponement creates an awful lot of knock on effects, for staff and students, even if it's only one 2 hour exam that has to be catered for.

A lot of exams get leaked every year, so if they postponed this paper, they would have to postpone other papers and it would become a complete logistical nightmare for schools.

Thank you for this. We maintain a line of communication with Edexcel so we'll bring this up. I wish someone put this point forward sooner!

Be sure to follow us on twitter @EdexcelP where updates come out more regularly. Thank you for the kind words. We knew getting into this that the TSR community was tough, but we agreed that this would be best because as you say, the protest is not perfect and by it being challenged, it improves the entire protest

What's the point of having contingency papers then it's not like they found out minutes before the exams it was hours. Why even let the exam go ahead just postpone it until the back up papers could be 'distributed'. Sounds like an excuse tbh.

Here's the issue - bringing the perpetrators of the leak to justice doesn't provide compensation for the rest of the cohort, so any communication with Pearson along those lines isn't going to change anything

Everyone who's complained about the paper being 'off-syllabus/specification' is unreasonable, as they did test the topics prescribed.
Yet you're not querying with Edexcel anything about the difficulty of the papers which - while subjective - was the main issue?
Asking for target grades is completely pointless, but arguably more demands need to be made for compensation for the pure papers

Personally - and from what I've seen - people sought to or redeemed themselves on the applied - which was leaked - and they fear higher grade boundaries as a leak consequence on the only chance they had to bring up the grade

The best compensation for this - in my opinion - is a re-assessment of pure grade boundaries, and transparency as to how they're going to set them

I'll bite - what's the point kicking up a fuss about paper 1 and paper 2 if the exam board's statistical analysis after the exam will have told them the exams were especially hard? I think it's worth pointing out the poor notation in the sum question in Paper 2 also.

It is also worth noting that the practice papers were produced by Graham Cumming who did not have access to the paper before it was sat.

I do take on board your point, and it was a point of much deliberation on our discord. We decided we would talk about Paper 1 and 2 because the questions in that paper did not reflect the format or style of any resources we had. We do understand that exams are supposed to be hard, but students who sat the paper felt that the difficult of the questions (not necessarily the maths involved to answer those questions) really impeded their grades. Our main goal at the time was to collectivise the student outcry as a group is more likely to achieve better responses.

Thank you for challenging us. I have said it a few times - but we do appreciate being challenged as it helps us rationalise our position.

not necessarily the maths involved to answer those questions

People have no leg to stand on with respect to "compensation". Just as you shouldn't expect to be disadvantaged by the hard papers and the leaks, you can't expect to be somehow advantaged because of them either.

They are already transparent with how boundaries are set, the process is outlined in this video. Arguably, the outrage and worrying about future prospects is all down to people not being aware of or misunderstanding this process.

No, not possibilities and not optimism. Logically, Edexcel will enact change based on the concerns we raise, due to both the traction of the protest and the moral obligation that they have due to the nature of the service they provide.

I do apologise if this did not make sense. I am limited in my ability to help people deploy logic to scenarios or change their worldview, but I hope you will in time, be comforted too.

We have no reason to believe otherwise. I cannot give assurances nor have we even said anything of the like. Understand that we answer in our capacity, so cannot answer your question. Email Edexcel, but you will receive a similar answer so our assurances are based on a logically sound judgement.

We hope this comforts you, logically we believe it should.




Original post by Travis $cott)