We originally answered questions asking for tiering advice from teachers in 2014 when GCSE Mathematics 8300 was first launched.  Two years on, we have updated our answer with new information in October 2016.

Q. What tier should I enter students for?

With the change to the Foundation tier do you expect an increased number of candidates to enter at Foundation? Currently our set 4 manage Higher, but we are uncertain which tier will be best for them in the new GCSE.

You know your students best, and so it'd be wrong for us to try and advise on the right tier of entry. We can help you make the decision though. Topic tests, which are free of charge on All About Maths, are designed to look and feel like GCSE style questions, though not written by those who write the actual assessments. You can use these straight after you've taught a particular topic in the course, to evaluate how your students are doing on individual topics. These tests will also help students become more familiar with the language and style of GCSE questions, so that they're less daunting when it comes to the real thing.

We also have four sets of practice papers and a resource focused on AO2 and AO3 questions available. The practice papers have all been written by the team that write live papers, contain all new questions and represent the expected standard of the GCSE in 2017. Using these with your students, particularly as mock exams, will give you a sense of the right tier of entry.  The AO2 and AO3 resource takes questions from our legacy specifications, mostly the Linked Pair Pilot.  Split into AO and then into Foundation, common to both tiers, and Higher, we’d suggest that students who are unable to answer many of the common to both tiers questions, are not likely to have a good experience at Higher tier.

All that said, if the proportion of students getting a Grade C or better is matched across to the proportion of students gaining a Grade 4 or better, then there is a 'better' grade available to Foundation tier students in the new qualification, because it goes up to Grade 5. Also, the Higher tier papers will start with questions targeted around grade 4, a greater level of difficulty at the start than current Higher tier papers. Even the ‘allowed’ grade 3 available from the Higher tier represents a greater demand than the current grade D. As such, at the moment we're anticipating a shift in entries from Higher to Foundation. Most teachers we talk to are saying the same and are concerned that students who, in the past, would be able to have a good attempt at the Higher tier will really struggle to make progress at the Higher tier of the new GCSE