GCSE results

[starlight32]

So the fact is, you have all had to bung your kids to encourage to them to do well?

So the going rate is 60-80 quid for an 'A'

Looking at the worst of it you are all nearly a monkey worse off.

But the best of I feel the vast majority of kids today all try a lot harder than we did at exams, despite what many say about the 'youth' of today.

No one has to give their kids anything, I was joking about being hassled for his 'reward' the fact of the matter is he hasn't even mentioned it.

If I hadn't of offered him anything he would have still done well, but to 16 year a piece of paper with letters on it doesn't mean a lot in the grand scheme of things so I have chosen to reward his efforts with some money. That money will be used towards his school trip next year (something else that has changed since 'our day') and as we only pay half and he raises the other half, that is a chunk that he won't have to work for - either way it isn't going on drugs and ho's

 

I feel sorry for this years outake.

They get the grades, the teachers are apparently teaching better, then they are told it's too easy to pass exams now

So who is wrong?

Any teachers on the forum, your views would be appreciated?

LB

LB, I am not a teacher but having been though the system and compared it todays methods, the one thing that has changed since we were at school is the whole system is far more results driven than it used to be. We were taught subjects and then tested on some of what we had learnt at the end, that still happens but the system is so tuned towards exam results they don't teach kids anything really new in the last term they just prep them to pass the exams. Good results are good for the students but the school also benefits as they need a feed of keen students who's parents will be looking up the league tables before deciding which school they want their kids to go to.

 

While I am with you all the way regarding spending money on narcotics I do think you are being a little rash not allowing him to spend it on women....

[beatingisbest]

Definitely easier these days.

 

This is from a lady teacher on a forum that my wife is a member of - they have a current thread about these GCSE's too :

 

I mark exam papers for A levels and I can definitely say that my subject in particular at A Level has easier exams than say 15 years ago - I have my old exam paper that I took still to prove it! You compare it to the exam papers I mark today and its soooooo much easier today - not just in terms of content but in the way the questions are structured! I think its evident in 25% getting A's at A Level - what on earth is that all about?!?!?!

 

Although I'm not so sure that its happened to the same extent to GCSEs - but nowadays we do teach them to pass exams as opposed to improving their overall knowledge, which is sad but the pressure on us to achieve A-C's is immense. If we don't meet our targets we're in trouble (all teachers have targets for every subject, every class and every pupil and its constantly monitored and now the results are out its being even more closely looked at), and so is the school....think special measures!

 

So there it is - targets, targets, targets

 

COURSEWORK!!!! She didnt mention that at all! Im sorry but if they had to spend 8 months on one single piece of coursework like i had to aswell then fair enough, but did they? Coursework these days take up most of the marks of a grade, not all down to exams.

 

Im fed up with older people always going oh well they are easy these days not like they used to be, its utter nonsence! Its almost getting down to jealousy to be honest.

[Chard]

Definitely easier these days.

 

This is from a lady teacher on a forum that my wife is a member of - they have a current thread about these GCSE's too :

 

I mark exam papers for A levels and I can definitely say that my subject in particular at A Level has easier exams than say 15 years ago - I have my old exam paper that I took still to prove it! You compare it to the exam papers I mark today and its soooooo much easier today - not just in terms of content but in the way the questions are structured! I think its evident in 25% getting A's at A Level - what on earth is that all about?!?!?!

 

Although I'm not so sure that its happened to the same extent to GCSEs - but nowadays we do teach them to pass exams as opposed to improving their overall knowledge, which is sad but the pressure on us to achieve A-C's is immense. If we don't meet our targets we're in trouble (all teachers have targets for every subject, every class and every pupil and its constantly monitored and now the results are out its being even more closely looked at), and so is the school....think special measures!

 

So there it is - targets, targets, targets

 

COURSEWORK!!!! She didnt mention that at all! Im sorry but if they had to spend 8 months on one single piece of coursework like i had to aswell then fair enough, but did they? Coursework these days take up most of the marks of a grade, not all down to exams.

 

Im fed up with older people always going oh well they are easy these days not like they used to be, its utter nonsence! Its almost getting down to jealousy to be honest.

 

 

Dream on.

 

Jealousy? Jealous of what?

 

This is a TEACHERS opinion - can you grasp that? It's not just my opinion (though that is my opinion as well). How would you know what exams and classwork were like 15 years ago?

Edited August 22, 2008 by Chard

[beatingisbest]

Definitely easier these days.

 

This is from a lady teacher on a forum that my wife is a member of - they have a current thread about these GCSE's too :

 

I mark exam papers for A levels and I can definitely say that my subject in particular at A Level has easier exams than say 15 years ago - I have my old exam paper that I took still to prove it! You compare it to the exam papers I mark today and its soooooo much easier today - not just in terms of content but in the way the questions are structured! I think its evident in 25% getting A's at A Level - what on earth is that all about?!?!?!

 

Although I'm not so sure that its happened to the same extent to GCSEs - but nowadays we do teach them to pass exams as opposed to improving their overall knowledge, which is sad but the pressure on us to achieve A-C's is immense. If we don't meet our targets we're in trouble (all teachers have targets for every subject, every class and every pupil and its constantly monitored and now the results are out its being even more closely looked at), and so is the school....think special measures!

 

So there it is - targets, targets, targets

 

COURSEWORK!!!! She didnt mention that at all! Im sorry but if they had to spend 8 months on one single piece of coursework like i had to aswell then fair enough, but did they? Coursework these days take up most of the marks of a grade, not all down to exams.

 

Im fed up with older people always going oh well they are easy these days not like they used to be, its utter nonsence! Its almost getting down to jealousy to be honest.

 

 

Dream on.

 

Jealousy? Jealous of what?

 

I know of adults in their 40's who used to have perfect records at school that took GCSE's and failed the lot

[Chard]

Definitely easier these days.

 

This is from a lady teacher on a forum that my wife is a member of - they have a current thread about these GCSE's too :

 

I mark exam papers for A levels and I can definitely say that my subject in particular at A Level has easier exams than say 15 years ago - I have my old exam paper that I took still to prove it! You compare it to the exam papers I mark today and its soooooo much easier today - not just in terms of content but in the way the questions are structured! I think its evident in 25% getting A's at A Level - what on earth is that all about?!?!?!

 

Although I'm not so sure that its happened to the same extent to GCSEs - but nowadays we do teach them to pass exams as opposed to improving their overall knowledge, which is sad but the pressure on us to achieve A-C's is immense. If we don't meet our targets we're in trouble (all teachers have targets for every subject, every class and every pupil and its constantly monitored and now the results are out its being even more closely looked at), and so is the school....think special measures!

 

So there it is - targets, targets, targets

 

COURSEWORK!!!! She didnt mention that at all! Im sorry but if they had to spend 8 months on one single piece of coursework like i had to aswell then fair enough, but did they? Coursework these days take up most of the marks of a grade, not all down to exams.

 

Im fed up with older people always going oh well they are easy these days not like they used to be, its utter nonsence! Its almost getting down to jealousy to be honest.

 

 

Dream on.

 

Jealousy? Jealous of what?

 

I know of adults in their 40's who used to have perfect records at school that took GCSE's and failed the lot

 

 

I don't

 

I know my lad was shown a load of GCSE **** when he was 9 and he "passed" it then

[Edward]

I got my escort for 3 As in my 3 GCSE science modules, well I got the gun havent recived the grades yet (haveing them posted) and seeing that i havent had 3 As in my entire school carrer (only 1 i think), tis highly likly that im going to have to start repaying my mum £300

[commonkeeper]

when i got my results a couple of years ago i got 4 B's 3 C's 2 D's 1 E but all i neededd was 5 C+'s im just finishing a ND in gamekeeping

 

 

commonkeeper

[poontang]

I know of adults in their 40's who used to have perfect records at school that took GCSE's and failed the lot

 

 

 

 

 

That's not possible. GCSE's were introduced in Autumn 1986, with the first exams taken in 1988. That would make the first people to sit a GCSE exam 36 today, certainly not in their 40's.

However, they may well have failed all their exams, as you say, but if in their 40's they would have been taking their 'O' levels not GCSE's.

[Dunkield]

The fact remains you can only take what is in front of you, there are what they are, you can't request more difficult exams because you think you may be cleverer than the rest, so there is nothing the kids can do about that.

 

And BiB is right, I forgot about the coursework, certain subjects have a mountain of coursework that has to be completed.

[beatingisbest]

That's not possible. GCSE's were introduced in Autumn 1986, with the first exams taken in 1988. That would make the first people to sit a GCSE exam 36 today, certainly not in their 40's.

However, they may well have failed all their exams, as you say, but if in their 40's they would have been taking their 'O' levels not GCSE's.

 

When did i ever say they had perfect records in GCSE's? I said at school not GCSE's

[poontang]

[darebear]

congratulations and well done to all who did well

[Nial]

Im fed up with older people always going oh well they are easy these days not like they used to be, its utter nonsence! Its almost getting down to jealousy to be honest.

 

Nonsense?

 

Jealousy! (where's the smiley for laughing your b0110cks off?).

 

Things aren't _easy_ these days, you just get a vastly inflated grade for the same/worse performance.

 

I'm fed up with youngsters these days bleating on all the time about how hard they've worked.

 

What do you think we did 20 + years ago, fanny about all year then do our exams? And they were a one time test, we

weren't able to re-do modules to get a better mark if we wanted/needed (although that could be A levels).

 

 

Nial (old ***).

[Maiden22]

.

Edited March 9, 2009 by Maiden22

[Ferret Master]

We do many old modular GCSE papers in preperation for the actual exams as it gives us a good idea of the type of questions that will be coming up and we can be shown where we went wrong.

 

I'm half way through my GCSE's and we don't control the education system, all we can do is try our best and it's pretty **** listening to people knocking any results that we get or the manner in which we achieve them. If the people putting down our grades were made to sit all the papers that we have, then their results would be interesting to say the least.

 

FM

[tiercel]

I'm half way through my GCSE's and we don't control the education system, all we can do is try our best and it's pretty **** listening to people knocking any results that we get or the manner in which we achieve them. If the people putting down our grades were made to sit all the papers that we have, then their results would be interesting to say the least.

 

FM

 

Unfortunately FM there is a flaw in your argument. For them to sit the papers that you have to sit, they will have to have had the same education that you have had for the last four years.

Personally I do not think that the exams are getting easier, I think that the pupils are getting better coaching in passing exams.

 

That said, with a 39% increase in the last 10 years then it must follow that more pupils are either working harder or getting better coaching. The exams can only be set on the work that the pupil has done.

After all, all that exams show is that you have the ability to absorb information, retain that information and produce it when required.

[Floating Chamber]

Well done that lad!

[Mungler]

For the old farts, calculus was on my "O" level paper, but now can only be found on an "A" level paper

 

None of that matters however, the measure of the day to any prospective employer or university is lots of passes with good grades - that doesn't change.

[Chard]

None of that matters however, the measure of the day to any prospective employer or university is lots of passes with good grades - that doesn't change.

 

Except that more and more universities want to have their own entrance exam, because they have no faith in the current system either. Armies of kids waving fistfuls of A* passes doesn't seem to be impressing them too much.

 

Nobody's knocking the kids, but I'm afraid that if the old **** took these modern exams they'd pass them without trying. End of story.

 

And the reason why old **** insist on taking a poke is that they get fed up with the implication that we were all thick because we just got C's and E's instead of A*.

 

As far as I'm concerned, if the teachers say they're easier (see earlier post), then they're easier, not negotiable

Edited August 27, 2008 by Chard