jowoodmaths.bsky.social
Former 2nd in dept with over 25 years experience of tutoring A level Maths. 'If you're going to remember something you need to understand it'.
41 posts
65 followers
74 following
Getting Started
Active Commenter
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Done
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Surely the simple solution was to have a replacement paper covering the same topics as the original (obviously the actual questions can be completely different) - I hope lessons will be learnt from this.
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Both groups seem to have been disadvantaged - 99.8% weren't tested on the whole breadth of the syllabus, 0.02% will never know if their grade boundaries are comparable to the majority.
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I think I read somewhere that about 70000 students sit Edexcel A level Maths - if this is right then 0.2% is only 140 students. Is 140 students a larger enough cohort size to set reliable grade boundaries???
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Assuming they don’t want to admit there was a leak AGAIN!
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And how can grade boundaries be set effectively for such a small cohort?
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Everybody sitting the same paper is the key point here. I hope he can put this to one side for a few days and smash paper 3.
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No problem - I've just done Paper 3. I think there may be a mistake on Qu 10 as I can't get an answer of that form - but I did do it very quickly and with a tired brain so might be my error. I think Qu 11 is a bit scary!
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Even if his paper was 'nicer/better/easier' he has still suffered discrimination and a small cohort could lead to unfair grade boundaries. I hope you get some answers.
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No need to apologise- you've every right to be concerned and to demand answers. I think the modified paper your son completed was actually more like what he'd have been expecting and together with paper 1 covered a greater breadth of the pure content (and was probably originally meant for everyone).
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Thank you once again - my students have found these really useful
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Thank you for doing so - it is important we find out what has happened. As a tutor rather than a teacher I don't have the same access to emails as you so it has been really useful to see that my original gut feeling about 'something fishy' going on was true.
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Surely any sensible exam board would set a contingency/replacement paper to cover the same topics but just with different questions - paper 1 and 2 have not tested the specification thoroughly this year and even if some pure is tested in paper 3 this still seems ridiculous.
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🤣
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This made me chuckle!
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That seems logical. I understand they may have had to change to the reserve paper if there was a leak but why not just admit that? And why not change the modified papers too? I’m wondering if we’ll get a bit more clarity after all 3 papers are complete?
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I’m with you on this - do they think we are stupid. Or perhaps they are stupid? You can’t possibly set reliable grade boundaries on just those doing modified papers
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From all the comments I’ve seen it was a replacement paper with modified papers still the original - hopefully Edexcel might confirm this soon to stop all the speculation which only worries students.
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Thank you once again
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Thanks again Tom - these are so helpful.
I think there may be a couple of mistakes on Paper 2B - I've commented on the blog site
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Thank you for sharing
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I was taught 'All Stations To Crewe' too but I did live nearby! I think its a better way to remember than CAST as at least you are starting in the 1st quadrant. Perhaps we need a new acronym for those not near Crewe???
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I prefer graphs but happy for them to use CAST as long as they understand why it works
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The two I saw that you had fixed were Qu 15 said mass 8kg rather than mkg.
Qu 16 had incorrect vectors.
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Yes that's the right way round
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No worries, happy to help - I was about to message yesterday with errata in Paper 2A but when I checked back you'd already changed it!
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A Level Maths: Edexcel, AQA, OCR
AS Further: AQA
A Level Further: AQA (M & D), Edexcel (M & S)
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bsky.app/profile/jowo...
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This not my list but should be reliable:
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Thanks - I have got one from another teacher which i will share, then we can compare?
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Perfect - thank you
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Thanks for this - really helpful. Are the questions from past papers or another source?
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Thank you so much
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I agree with your equation too and agree its possible AQA didn't actually work out the solution so numbers are difficult
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Thanks - I'm hoping mine has just remembered the bits he couldn't do and forgotten there was lots he could do too 🤞
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Thanks for the feedback - that doesn't sound promising for my student but just need to get him to focus on remaining two now. Thanks for your help with the topic list
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Thank you - this is really helpful
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Don't beat yourself up - how you manage to do all this while teaching too is basically a miracle!