Review of examinations

Andrew Taylor, AQA's Head of GCSE Mathematics, provides some thoughts on results of the new GCSE Units. 

Firstly, I hope that the results have arrived safely and that, having analysed them, you feel they represent a fair reflection of ability. I'd be very interested in hearing your thoughts, and have set up a new Discussion thread relating to the November results. The Senior Examiners for Unit 1, which had a much larger entry than Unit 2, were generally impressed by the calibre of answers seen, particularly as this unit has a high proportion of questions covering Assessment Objectives 2 and 3, which emphasise application of techniques and problem solving. The table below gives a overview of how learners coped with the new assessment objectives.

Mean performance (%) by Assessment Objectives

As you may expect, performance in the Assessment Objectives is skewed by the relative position of questions in each paper. For example, AO3 performance on Unit 1H is low in comparison to the others, but the majority of the AO3 questions on that paper were towards the end and were linked to some of the more challenging content, so it is not surprising.

Overall, I think the picture is balanced and reflects the hard work you have put into preparing students for this new style of assessment. In all four examinations, the mean mark of the paper was close to 50% of the total, which is encouraging for the first papers of a new specification.

One of our aims for this specification is to balance the demand of the three units so that performance in unit 1 and 2 is a good indicator of likely overall GCSE success. Compared to module 1 in the outgoing specification, unit 1 in this specification has a greater percentage weighting, covers more content and has a high proportion of questions targeting AO2. It is pleasing to note that candidates entered for unit 1 this November appear to have risen successfully to the challenge with over 60% achieving grade C or better. In this unit, 60% of the entry was at the Higher tier and we were concerned that large numbers may have struggled to access the paper. I am very pleased to report that these fears were largely unfounded. Almost all candidates appear to have been able to have a go at most questions and there were very few with very low marks.

As ever with results day, there are a number of services that you may wish to use. These are summarised here to help you get there quickly. If you'd like to speak to me or any member of the maths team, please call 0161-957-3852 or e-mail us at maths@aqa.org.uk

With best wishes,

Andrew Taylor