Gcse maths test

[Electric_Andy]

The content is fine I think. But it's how it is taught and ultimately how the teacher tailors the learning so that everyone understands it. My sister was intelligent but never "got" maths. But she had some awful teachers. She failed maths GCSE twice and finally got a C on the third try, went on to become a primary school teacher, head of English, Head of year and then deputy head. If you can't see how x interacts with y then it's always going to be a case of just learning the process and what formulae to use where, but never really understanding why

 

[DaveReading]

7

Frightening if that's the level

Last question is vague, well not clear.

It's certainly a good test of practical trigonometry. I love the "not drawn accurately" note.

 

[steverob]

I did A level maths back in the 90s. We had two separate classes.
The students doing physics tended to do mechanics, where as the students doing, biology, economics or geography tended to do stats.

Taking A level maths was a big mistake for me. Having found GCSE easy, the jump to A level was too big.

Same here. I absolutely crushed GCSE maths, cruising to an A without any difficulty (on one of my mock papers I only got 99% due to a silly labelling error on a graph that lost me one mark and I'm still upset about it today 32 years later!) but A-Level maths completely flummoxed me.

Actually it was Pure maths that was my nemesis, while Stats I was still quite good at - while they didn't give you a break down of your grade, based on my mock exams, my "E" overall was probably a "U" in Pure and a "B" in Stats. What I should have done was after the mock, go to my teachers and tell them I was going to drop Pure and only do Stats at AS-level instead (which was an option), but I didn't have the guts back then and tried to stick it out.

 

[Dogtrousers]

If you can't see how x interacts with y then it's always going to be a case of just learning the process and what formulae to use where, but never really understanding why

I was pretty good at maths at school but I hit exactly that barrier at university. And dealt with it by rote learning.

Teaching must be difficult. I'd hate to beat teacher.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Same here. I absolutely crushed GCSE maths, cruising to an A without any difficulty (on one of my mock papers I only got 99% due to a silly labelling error on a graph that lost me one mark and I'm still upset about it today 32 years later!) but A-Level maths completely flummoxed me.

Actually it was Pure maths that was my nemesis, while Stats I was still quite good at - while they didn't give you a break down of your grade, based on my mock exams, my "E" overall was probably a "U" in Pure and a "B" in Stats. What I should have done was after the mock, go to my teachers and tell them I was going to drop Pure and only do Stats at AS-level instead (which was an option), but I didn't have the guts back then and tried to stick it out.

I had the same problem

I was so good at maths at "O" level that the maths department were trying to persuade me to do the Maths and Further Maths "A" levels

but when I started just doing the normal "A" level meths the pure maths just confused me
I think it was partly the teacher who would solve the problem on the board
then when I went and told him that I couldn;t do it last night for homework he just pointed to the solution

He didn;t seem to be able to understand that I knew everything he said
I just had problems working out how to start in the right direction


anyway - I ended up with a D
which also meant I had to do an extra maths class in the Chemistry department at University
who had a teacher who was even worse

in fact one day he was going through some "A" level type maths with us "remedial maths class" people and none of us had a clue what he was talking about

so after we went to T2 coffeee bar (where we pretty much lived when not in Chemistry labs) and were talking about it

I ended up saying lets just ignore our notes and look at the actual problem he was solving

we could ALL do it - he was actually explaining something we already knew and understood
and we still could not understand what he was saying



all of which helped me a lot when I became a teacher many years later
I knew to always try to find out WHY a pupil doesn;t understand
and not just explain it again

 

[Gwylan]

My finest hour was 22% in algebra. I'd revised the wrong paper and thought I could walk it.
Monstrous rollicking, I was in the A stream and lazy and never had to work up until then.
A few years later picked up a degree in Maths with physics.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

My finest hour was 22% in algebra. I'd revised the wrong paper and thought I could walk it.
Monstrous rollicking, I was in the A stream and lazy and never had to work up until then.
A few years later picked up a degree in Maths with physics.

My actual finest hour was in final year "O" level

I was basically in the bottom set - due to late development not being thick (!) as I was always top in it

but in the 5th form - Year 11 in metric - we were put into specific maths sets
and I went from bottom set to top set

my friend was always in top set and had a look of "what the hell is he doing here" on his face when I walked in first time
a lot of them regarded me as being in the wrong place

we had an exam at the end of the first term - subject calculus

when the exam results came out the teacher did it brilliantly
he handed the papers back in result order


which started with me - 98%
my other friend - also from bottom set - 96%


then down the results including all the "top set" people

but without the slightest intonation of change in tone or anything
just totally blanked it and showed zero surprise or anything


I noticed the look on some of the "in set" who had been snotty with us
open mouths the lot of them


I should say - the maths teacher was out form teacher the year before and knew me well

he aced it!