An "intermediate" tier should be brought back for GCSE maths

WJEC has intermediate and that works quite well in my opinion

Intermediate level is the worst of both worlds. Not enough real maths or academic rigour for A Level and too much real maths for employment where proficiency in everyday maths and money calculations is required.


What is interesting (and confusing outside of Wales) is that WJEC also has a mathematics - numeracy GCSE.

Plus, the highest you can get on foundation is a D.. I also believe it's easier to get a B on higher than on intermediate, but I guess that depends on the student

That is not true - you can get a 5 on Foundation.

I suspect I'm the only one on this thread that has actually taught a three level GCSE ...

oh I didn't know, everyone in my school complained that the highest you could get on wjec was a d??? I always thought that was a bit odd

That may have been so in the old three level GCSE but not in two tier nor in the new linear spec.

There's just too broad of a spectrum of abilities. Someone with a learning difficulty that can just about access the foundation paper wouldn't have a chance of scoring on a higher paper. If you were to combine them both together, that may work but it'd make a long exam and would be quite demotivating for people who can only answer part of the first half, and a waste of time for people who find the first half very easy. (say, students aiming for a 6 or above)

I get your point, but I believe that you should only be put forward to do the higher exam if you can guarantee a grade 6 or more. I don't think a new level is needed, if you're genuinely good enough for higher, you should be able to get a 5 or more. I think the grade 4/5 is there for people who severely messed up the higher paper and it gives them a chance to still pass. If you're getting 5s or less, you should deffo do the foundation paper cuz its easier and it increases the grade boundaries for the higher paper so it's easier to differentiate between the high achievers ( grade 8-9 students)

however since it's half intermediate and half foundation it gives students a chance to get a good grade that they might not be able to achieve when doing higher, and obviously have no chance of getting doing foundation.

Lmao did the higher paper and got a five close to a 6 (foundation is too easy for me) but that was because I was sick and tired of doing equations and didn't put in the effort...

exactly, if you find the foundation paper easy af, you should do the higher paper. What subjects are you taking lol.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/276110 (not created by me)

For 9-1 GCSE maths in England there are two exams:

Foundation: Available grades U, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Higher : Available grades U, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

For the higher paper, 50% of the marks are targeted at grades 4-6 and 50% are targeted at grades 7-9. This has meant that grade 4/5 students are not able to demonstrate their ability in over half of the paper and this has led to grade boundaries of below 20% for grade 4. However hard an exam is, getting less than 20% does not demonstrate enough mathematical ability to achieve a passing grade in my opinion.

Some may argue that this is what the foundation paper is designed for but when schools are seeing such low boundaries for the higher paper you can understand why they would choose it for their grade 4/5 students.

Proposal : create an intermediate paper (like there has been in the past). Possible structure

Foundation: Available grades U, 1, 2, 3, 4
Intermediate : Available grades U, 4, 5, 6, 7
Higher : Available grades U, 6, 7, 8, 9

Possible downsides : cost, more confusion, more U grades and retakes