GCSE standards!!!!

You are the one who said that it should be easy to get an A*, not me. How is that statement ever going to be accurate? I did the higher maths paper and it was by no means easy to get an A. Hence my B.

Obviously when 'easier' papers allow you to get some of the grades you can get in the higher papers, the percentage boundaries to get those same grades in the higher ones have to be lower. Eg. 16% to get a C in the higher paper, 50% in the intermediate.

Is this really the best you can do? I'm ashamed to say I've even conversed with you.

Who the fuck are you, anyway?

He's Wor jackie. He'll fuck you up!

im jackie from the flats. who the fuck are you?

It should be easier to get an A because:

1. Students chosen to sit the higher papers are generally considered to have the ability to achieve an A* or A.
2. The boundary for achieving an A is only 48%.

I understand your final point too, but would you not look at a 16% exam score as poor, regardless of the grade?

I agree with you that 16% isn't considered a good score but i never said it was. You said that if you are doing the higher paper, it should be easy to get an A* or an A. As if somehow, people who are doing the higher paper get some sort of handicap over everyone else when in reality, it's generally considered very hard to get an A*.

The grade boundary for an A* must be somewhere around 60% on the higher paper, surely? 60% in an exam is very poor, regardless of the subject and exam tier.

If only I'd discovered my motivation for studying at GCSE level...

not for Doctor Hew. The had to invent the A* grade especially for him.

Based on what?

60% doesn't sound like much for an A but if that is what it is, loads of people still don't get it do they. To me that suggests it's harder to achieve than it is to say 'it's easy to get an A*' on a message board.

In general, the grade boundary for an A is 80%. Talking about a Higher Maths paper, it much be around 55/60% for an A*, if an A is 48%. I stick by my statement that failure to achieve 55 or 60% in an exam is a poor performance. In most exams, 60% would be a C. To not achieve that in an exam would be pitiful.

It only takes a quick look at the amount of people who come out of these exams with an A* to realise how much your statement is off.

Maybe the percentage boundaries are a bit odd yeah, but im sticking by my statement in saying that an A* is not an easy grade to achieve.

You did kick yourself in the arse there Doctor Hew, by proclaiming that you would have to be a 'complete retard' not to get an A*!

This is the last time I'm pointing this out: I claimed that anybody sitting the higher paper would be a complete retard not to get an A*. I stick by this, as the boundary for an A* in such paper is about 60%, as I have now said about eight times in this thread.

Well you can say it a few more times if you want, but it'll still be bollocks.

That paper is probably the hardest GCSE exam by quite a margin. Some of my friends got all A's, including maths. Are they retards? No.

Whats the actual percentage of A*s for it this year?

is everyone on here actually retarded?

16% might be hard to get, depending on the questions!

i don't get how people think todays grade boundry's are comparable to their own when they took 2 totally different exam papers, with different marking criterea/scoring

Dr Hew you're talking bollocks. hows it easy (or easier) to get an A* just because you 'only' need 48% to get it... the questions on the higher paper are obviously a lot harder, making it harder to get a higher %.

no wonder you failed your GCSE's

Nail, head, etc.

example intermediate question:



example higher question:



see my point?

After looking at those, quite how I didn't manage a B in Maths is beyond me

Anyway, yes, I appreciate that the questions on the higher paper are harder. However, I direct you to my point that only students considered able are entered for the higher paper. It's all relative; students sitting intermediate tier are taught what will be on the intermediate paper, students sitting higher tier are taught what is on the higher paper, and thus, failure to achieve 60% in an exam that you have been taught how to pass is a poor performance...

Those questions are an absolute piece of piss compared to Maths O level. And I don't care who disagrees with me.

lets see your answers with full workings out then