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Maths GCSE's

TheCatWoman

More people have passed thier GCSE's this year than last, well done them. But I was anazed at how many students are doing resits, maybe three or more times and still not passing the required grade. Apparently the more times you try the less likely you are to pass, this says to me that theres something wrong with the way these students are being taught, or they have an undiagnosed learning difficulty? I couldn't pass a GCSE at grade C which was the pass mark then I think they've changed from 1 -5 or something now.

How we all at maths?

How do you think it could be taught differently or better?

Are to many children not being picked up with learning difficulties and do we expect maths to be difficult and allow some children to fail? It seems that difficulties with reading and writing are picked up quite young, why not with maths?

Parents

  • Maths was a GCSE that I was worried about when I sat it over 23 years ago. I was in the top set and the idea was that everyone in the top set takes the higher paper, so you either come out with the A-Level entry criteria of A*-C (probably a 7-9 now) or you fail. I thought there was a good chance that I'd pass muster but I knew that I wasn't as quick on the uptake as my clever peers, who seemed to enjoy the subject. I've never 'enjoyed' Maths in the same way that I enjoy English, and the more literate subjects seemed to come more naturally...but then I did excel in Science, so I knew that I 'had the world at my feet', so to speak. I was relieved to learn that I was given a 'B' for Maths, though still distressing enough that it stood out amongst the slew of As and A*s. 

    The structure of formal education is something I've grown nostalgic for over the 20+ years of navigating vocational adulthood. In a way, it is something of a relief to learn that proto-geniuses like myself have crashed and burned in the job market - no malice intended at all, but purely on the basis of learning how having average to above average intelligence simply does not equate to proficiency in the world of work. I quit university at the same time that I finally managed to steel myself to reach out for help with student welfare services. I feared the possibility of autism (back then it most likely would have been 'Asperger's', which is incidentally how the psych termed it recently) and turned it all in on myself, blaming and torturing myself for being so deficient in aspects of existence that others just seem to navigate with ease. 

    As my brain degressively malfunctioned under the stress of living with whatever it is that I'm living with, I struggled to accept that I'd only ever furiously fight against what appeared to be my destiny to be an operative level employee, while my once youthful idealism and ambition forsook me. It's no surprise, looking back, that on the verge of 40 I'm just as internally wretched as when I was 14. Nothing bl**dy works. Pensive

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  • Maths was a GCSE that I was worried about when I sat it over 23 years ago. I was in the top set and the idea was that everyone in the top set takes the higher paper, so you either come out with the A-Level entry criteria of A*-C (probably a 7-9 now) or you fail. I thought there was a good chance that I'd pass muster but I knew that I wasn't as quick on the uptake as my clever peers, who seemed to enjoy the subject. I've never 'enjoyed' Maths in the same way that I enjoy English, and the more literate subjects seemed to come more naturally...but then I did excel in Science, so I knew that I 'had the world at my feet', so to speak. I was relieved to learn that I was given a 'B' for Maths, though still distressing enough that it stood out amongst the slew of As and A*s. 

    The structure of formal education is something I've grown nostalgic for over the 20+ years of navigating vocational adulthood. In a way, it is something of a relief to learn that proto-geniuses like myself have crashed and burned in the job market - no malice intended at all, but purely on the basis of learning how having average to above average intelligence simply does not equate to proficiency in the world of work. I quit university at the same time that I finally managed to steel myself to reach out for help with student welfare services. I feared the possibility of autism (back then it most likely would have been 'Asperger's', which is incidentally how the psych termed it recently) and turned it all in on myself, blaming and torturing myself for being so deficient in aspects of existence that others just seem to navigate with ease. 

    As my brain degressively malfunctioned under the stress of living with whatever it is that I'm living with, I struggled to accept that I'd only ever furiously fight against what appeared to be my destiny to be an operative level employee, while my once youthful idealism and ambition forsook me. It's no surprise, looking back, that on the verge of 40 I'm just as internally wretched as when I was 14. Nothing bl**dy works. Pensive

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