I thought it mightiness last helpful to part the slides together with materials from this preparation session here, inwards instance anyone wants to deliver a similar update at their schoolhouse inwards September. It's a adept fourth dimension for maths departments to halt together with mean value almost whether they're on rail amongst Year xi together with whether they're going to produce anything differently amongst Year 10.
1. Example of GCSE questions
I started past times holler for the squad to hold off at examples of attempt questions together with create upwardly one's heed whether or non the questions were from novel GCSE specimen papers. For illustration I included a query on moving averages from a Linked Pair newspaper (time serial are on the novel GCSE, exactly non moving averages).
This action helped me larn a sense of how familiar the squad were amongst the novel GCSE specification. You tin download the questions here. The answers are inwards the slides, which yous tin download at the terminate of this post.
2. Misconceptions
I thence talked through 10 fundamental points which were mainly drawn from the 2 posts I wrote:
- Five things yous mightiness non know almost the novel GCSE content #1
- Five things yous mightiness non know almost the novel GCSE content #2
It's worth noting that whenever I enquire the query 'has this topic gone from GCSE?', the attempt boards are careful non to commit to anything. They are allowed to include questions on topics that aren't specifically mentioned inwards their specification, as long as the text inwards the query provides plenty data for students to piece of work it out for themselves.
3. New topics
I attempted to listing all the topics that are novel to Higher together with Foundation tier (as best I could - at that topographic point is no definitive list!). The listing of novel Foundation topics is a employment - I deal to sympathise why some of these topics are considered suitable for Foundation tier.
I talked almost attempt construction (three papers, the outset of which is earlier one-half term) together with grading. No 1 tin predict aeroplane boundaries together with I won't endeavor to produce so, exactly 2 points did come upwardly up:
Beware the drop
If yous larn inwards students for the Higher tier together with they alone handle to larn a handful of marks, they may good larn a U. Bear inwards heed that the Higher tier newspaper volition no longer start amongst a charge of 'easy' questions similar it used to, thence some students may good deal amongst the entire paper. If they barely pick upwardly whatsoever marks, they volition autumn off the bottom of the aeroplane boundaries together with terminate upwardly amongst a U when they may receive got picked upwardly a Grade 3 or four from the Foundation tier. I've seen speculation that this cut-off bespeak on the Higher tier volition last anywhere betwixt 10% together with 20%, exactly this is totally unknown at the moment. The proposition is that 'borderline' students would last safer on the Foundation tier, exactly delight don't quote me on that!50% H5N1 together with A* content
This is a actually of import quote, taken from Edexcel's Guide to Edexcel GCSE Mathematics (9-1):
"Previously, 25% of questions were targeted at A/A*, exactly instantly 50% of questions inwards each newspaper are targeted at the equivalent grades, 7–9".That's quite a ramp upwardly inwards difficultly level!
At my preparation session, a instructor suggested that the aeroplane boundary for a Grade half-dozen is unlikely to last higher than 50%, because a pupil who gets to a greater extent than than 50% of the marks on the Higher tier attempt has clearly accessed some Grade seven - nine material.
I receive got no idea almost aeroplane boundaries exactly if you're interested inwards reading more, receive got a hold off at Mel's post service 'here.
At my preparation session I also showed some examples of revision workbooks. Most of my Year 10s bought a workbook to prepare for their terminate of twelvemonth exams. There are plenty of resources available for students to purchase on Amazon including revision guides, revision cards together with sets of practise papers. This mightiness last a adept move of pupil premium coin for Year 11s who can't afford to purchase these resources themselves.
5. Checklist together with Scheme of Work
I finished my session past times issuing the squad amongst this topic checklist together with holler for them to tick off what they'd covered inwards Year 10 thence they could position which topics they even thence had left to encompass inwards Year 11.
My schoolhouse is almost halfway through the list. Given that nosotros alone receive got until early on May, together with that our students larn off timetable twice during the twelvemonth for mocks, I mean value we're all feeling the fourth dimension pressure! Thankfully our Year 11s volition receive got ix lessons a fortnight adjacent twelvemonth - this volition assistance considerably.
I shared my scheme of piece of work - you tin download it here exactly send inwards heed that most of the links won't piece of work as they're linked to documents on my school's network.
6. Slides
As far as I know, the content of my preparation session applies every bit to Edexcel, AQA together with OCR. My slides comprise a position out of graphics from Edexcel's excellent Guide to Edexcel GCSE Mathematics (9-1). The slides for this session (which took around 1 hour) are here together with you're real welcome to borrow them if yous experience that your squad needs an update inwards September.
