Re: [RSGB] Deadline for exam applications for the current syllabus

[Spike]

Apparently, the 'exams are easier these days' policy us due to vibrant, diverse multiculturalism and the perceived need to boost figures for minorities - at least that's what I think the chap said on the BBC last night, although he may not have put it in quite those terms - I was only half-listening at the time as the BBC isn't worth one's full attention as the propaganda is very easy to spot.

I passed my Maths A-level with a modest grade that these days would result in the award of an A-star. How times have changed...

[charles]

In one of my Advanced Maths papers, I achieved 101% - it would be Maths. Oh, and one of my classmates got 102%.

[Brian Gaff]

And this is in DIY because? Actually the new syllabus now contains a lot more on Digital modes etc, I am given to understand. To be honest as long as people use type approved equipment they might as well let us all have one for free. I don't think you can do much harm with 10 watts. I used to illegally use that to make an am relay for my cassette player when I was young and probably stupid. Never got caught. Brian

[spuorgelgoog]

I think you mean a degree.

I've seen undergraduate essays I'd have been told to re-do before O-level.

Owain

[Stephen Cole]

To be honest, the current Foundation licence exam is at such a basic level that they pretty much are giving licences away for free; the exceedingly minor hurdle of the exam serves merely as a filter for total useless dumbfucks, IMO.

[Stephen Cole]

I was in the top set for maths for the first three years at grammar school but lost interest when we started doing complicated algebra by the fourth year that I couldn?t quickly understand, so the teacher lost her rag with me and moved me to the bottom set, which limited my GCSE grade to a maximum of a B no matter what score I got. I ended up pretty much answering everything in the exam correctly so should have got an A* by rights but got a B instead; f*ck it, tho, not one person has ever asked to see my exam certificates, which has pretty much reinforced the belief I always had when I was at school that GCSEs were beyond pointless.

[Stephen Cole]

Blame your shitty gussets, Jim. Thanks, Jim.

[Brian Reay]

If you were limited to a B you did the one of the lower papers. No sure what is was called when you did your exams- probably the Intermediate. The papers have some common questions but, the middle one you probably did, doesn't have the harder questions which carry the marks for the A and A* grades. From memory, the lower paper (below the one you probably did) you can only get a C.

So, if you've don't do the Higher paper, answered the same questions, but struggled with the more complex ones, you'd not have got a A* or even an A, as some of the easy (available) questions you picked up marks on would have been removed to keep the overall number questions etc the same.

[Stephen Cole]

What you say sounds sensible but the reality of it for me back in 1997 was that both maths sets (there was only two tiers at my school; top and bottom) sat the same paper at the same time; identical like. Mental, eh?

[Brian Reay]

That doesn't agree with your earlier post, unless they all did the intermediate paper- which would be very strange. In fact, it is quite unusual for a (good) grammar school to use the Intermediate paper for whole class, even a 'bottom' set.

It is quite normal for those doing the Intermediate paper and those doing the Higher paper to not only do so at the same time but in the same room. Remember, some questions are common.

[Stephen Cole]

The papers were dished out from a single stack, not named or otherwise indicated as different, and I recall talking with lads in top set that it was daft that lower set were capped at B despite sitting same paper as them.

¯\_(?)_/¯

[Brian Reay]

The exam board mark the papers and have no idea which class / set you are in.

Tiered papers aren?t uncommon. They work as I described. True all my pupils were entered for higher paper but I know the system, it is also used for NATS (used to be called SATS).

You sat a paper ?capped? at a B. The rest is your own delusion.

[Stephen Cole]

It is always amusing to see you imagine that you know somebody?s life better than they do themselves, Brian, but the very brief dalliance you had with teaching following the abrupt failing of your engineering career is, as ever, leading you to horrifically overreach.

[Brian Reay]

You obviously feel the need to delude yourself.

[Bob Eager]

Certainly correct in recent years.

[Brian Reay]

It is a standard approach and has been in place since GCSEs started- it was integral to their replacing both CSEs and O levels.

In the old O level days, rather than doing the Intermediate paper, the weaker pupils would probably have been entered for a CSE in the same subject as an ?insurance?. I?m pretty sure some of the people I went to school with who, shall we say, didn?t pay attention did this.

The SATS/NATS use the same basic approach, different papers which overlap, and have some common questions. The hardest one in Mathematics offers a Level 8, next one 7, and then 6. Only Mathematics has a paper which goes to 8, at least unless things have changed since I retired.

Steve is just deluding himself.

[Steve Walker]

Back in my 'O'-level days (1983), we took most subjects with the Joint Matriculation Board. Anyone who was borderline also took CSEs, but I don't know what board that was with, as I didn't take any.

Two subjects though were different: Latin and Physics, where we took the forerunner of GCSEs, the 16+, with The West Yorkshire and Lindsey Regional Examinations Board. A single exam, not different papers, where you could get anything from an A-grade 'O'-level down to a grade 5 CSE.

SteveW

[Stephen Cole]

Like I said, it sounds sensible so I can easily believe that it?s how things are done now. Brian?s problem is that he played at being a teacher for a couple of years when he couldn?t get another job after being forced to abruptly end his engineering career, so he pretends he knows all there is to know about education, to make up for his unqualified status I guess. It?s best just to nod and smile at him in these circumstances, with luck he won?t make too bad a fool of himself.

[Brian Reay]

Repeating lies made up by the usual rejects may make you feel better but it doesn?t change the facts.

[Stephen Cole]

The facts are, Brian, that you were an unqualified teacher. You?ve admitted so yourself here several times in the past. It?s all in the archives.