I love to hear the feedback from the exam boards each year. The NCETM put out a podcast in October in conjunction with the main exam boards. In this podcast Edexcel, AQA and OCR gave feedback from the GCSE maths papers 2022; common errors, what went well, where marks were lost and gained. The podcast begins with each exam board being asked for the main headlines from the exams. All exam boards reported that students were overall very well prepared for the exams. In terms of issues, Edexcel reported two big issues. Firstly, students did not seem to have the appropriate equipment available to them (rulers, calculators, protractors etc). This is a massive drawback in a maths exam. Students need the standard maths equipment available to them. It is best if they are using their own equipment so there is no confusion about how anything works. But if equipment is forgotten they should ask to borrow equipment. Most schools keep a supply of equipment for exams. Secondly, Edexcel reported a consistent issue with legibility of answers. This is preventing examiners from awarding marks. It is crucial that answers can be read. Examiners will do all they can to read the answers and send for review anything they can’t read. However, ultimately if the answer cannot be read, then the marks cannot be awarded. For some student’s neatness and structure comes naturally, for others it is a skill which needs practice. Structuring answers in clear, logical and legible steps is a major factor in good exam technique.
OCR reported issues with students struggling on the non-calculator paper. This can be due to students developing an over-reliance on calculators or using their calculators when practicing the non-calculator papers. It is important to always practice the non-calculator papers without a calculator. The flip side of this however, is that the exam boards report students not using calculators effectively on the calculator paper.
AQA reported the greatest difficulty with questions which required reasoning. In those questions the maths itself was not necessarily difficult, but the requirement for reasoning prevented students from applying the maths needed.
All exam boards discussed the impact of online education, and whether or not this has impacted students’ ability to present a well-structured answer in pen and paper. There were issues such as not fully labelling diagrams and of course legibility was raised many times. This again comes down to the ability to apply good exam technique and structure solutions clearly and logically.
Questions requiring reasoning were identified as an area students do not do so well on. Such questions when covered in class time benefit from lots of discussion about what the question is asking and what might be required to solve it. Improving performance on reasoning questions relies on practice.
Another important point to note is that the exam boards noted a dip in performance from about midway through the papers onwards. This is not surprising and is most likely a two-fold issue. Students are beginning to tire, and the questions are increasing in difficulty. Completing an entire paper is a bit like completing a marathon; you have to practice building up your endurance. Schools may do one or two mocks in year 11, but there is nothing to stop students downloading a paper and completing it in timed conditions. This will help with endurance and allow students exposure to those mid-end of paper questions.
I think it will please most parents to know that one of the types of questions reported to be particularly well done were questions involving best-buys i.e. value for money. Edexcel reported a very noticeable improvement in this. That’s quite reassuring given the cost-of-living crisis. The Edexcel paper contained a question on comparing fuel prices in Wales. The exam papers are written a long time ago, so it was quite a coincidence that this question appeared as fuel prices were rising sharply. According to Edexcel, students completed this question very well. They also reported receiving many tweets following the exam with captions such as “me driving to Wales to fill up on cheap petrol”. Nice to see that students come out of the exams with their sense of humour intact.
If you would like to listen to the full podcast the link is below. It is well worth a listen. https://www.ncetm.org.uk/podcasts/lessons-from-gcse-maths-exams-in-summer-2022/
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