Examination Boards

[DieselShaq]

I've been looking at some of the examination threads around and realised that none of you actually have examinations from the same examination board as me. How many of them are there? So far in the threads, I've seen AQA, OCR MEI, WJEC and EdExcel but my school uses EdExcel and CIE (UCLES).

Just out of interest, which one is actually the hardest/toughest?

[Technologic]

No idea, AQA is probably the easiest because it's like the one the government uses

[Immenseman]

Surely there isn't a "hardest" one as I guess they'd all cover roughly the same questions, dependant on the topic obviously. We use a variety of AQA, EdExcel and OCR. I have no idea which one is "better" and I have never heard anyone say a specific exam board is harder than another.

[colourpot]

My school uses AQA, Edexcel and WJEC :)

[GommeInc]

Surely there isn't a "hardest" one as I guess they'd all cover roughly the same questions, dependant on the topic obviously. We use a variety of AQA, EdExcel and OCR. I have no idea which one is "better" and I have never heard anyone say a specific exam board is harder than another.
Apparently GCSE exam boards vary in terms of difficulty. I remember hearing something like that at school. For A-Levels though they're pretty much the same.

I had AQA, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC (which I think might be the welsh one).

[Technologic]

Also, my school uses AQA and EdExcel, also a few people took an ICT exam which was CEA

[DieselShaq]

The thing is, one of my friends who left to the UK said that the EdExcel physics is really easy, even in the higher tier, since it requires more of measuring than writing and knowing the theory behind it. My school uses CIE for physics and it often requires lengthy answers, so I'm pretty sure there's a difference in difficulty between examination boards.

[Abbie.]

NICCEA

or CCEA

:]

[Catzsy]

Apparently GCSE exam boards vary in terms of difficulty. I remember hearing something like that at school. For A-Levels though they're pretty much the same.

I had AQA, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC (which I think might be the welsh one).

Yes WJEC is the welsh one. Although they also use OCR for IT etc.

[Josh-lives]

I think mine uses AQA and OCR but it will use others aswell, - i think.
just, i don't know about them xD

[Johno]

In Scotland we only have one exam/qualifications board which makes it much easier to understand whats going on, all this AQA and EDEXCEL stuff is just plain confusing.

So for me its SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority) :)

[buttons]

In Scotland we only have one exam/qualifications board which makes it much easier to understand whats going on, all this AQA and EDEXCEL stuff is just plain confusing.

So for me its SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority) :)
this one ^

[Kardan]

AQA for nearly everything. EdExcel for Geography, and WJEC for RE.

I'm not sure what my current school do for French, but when I took it in Year 9, I did that with OCR.

[Blue]

My school use EdExcel for Re and music I thinik
OCR for IT
and the rest are AQA afaik

[Geraint]

WJEC for most but EdExcel for Geography and PE. IT could well be EdExcel aswell, forgot what that is though.

[DieselShaq]

Woah, no schools in England using CIE?

[Xarea]

We use AQA, EdExcel (which I found out stands for "Educational Excellence" - boring fact there), WJEC and OCR.

[Soka]

I'm doing exams for AQA (Accounting, General Studies), Citi & Guilds (Key Skills Communications), Edexcel (Physics), and OCR (Maths, Further Maths).

I think my college uses all awarding bodies apart from the CIE one.

I don't really think there is a big gap in terms of difficulty between awarding bodies for a subject because otherwise colleges would always use the easier one, which means the awarding bodies would keep making the exams easier. There are variations in specifications for various awarding bodies which could result in varies in difficultness.

Even if it does seem to be a more difficult awarding body, remember that the grade boundaries are altered and set, so that a certain percentage achieve grade A's etc, and the government can say blablabala have improved.

[Caution]

SQA(Scottish Qualifications Authority) Easier to understand.

[cocaine]

edexcel, AQA, and OCR.

[Imp!]

NICCEA

or CCEA

:]

omg I use them too, their papers are way harder than AQA

[Abbie.]

omg I use them too, their papers are way harder than AQA


I FLIPPING KNOW LOL. well the niccea ones are always harder than english ones for some reason, shame all my alevels are niccea :@

[PaulMacC]

AQA, NICCEA, OCR.

[Nitrousic]

OCR and EdExcel are my main ones

[DieselShaq]

Nobody else's school uses CIE?!

[Imp!]

I FLIPPING KNOW LOL. well the niccea ones are always harder than english ones for some reason, shame all my alevels are niccea :@

Yeah I think our school does A Levels with CCEA, oh boooo, I just dont care anymore, if I fail it aint the end of the world :D but i think I will so even more of a ::D

[Dinosaurawrr]

my skl used
aqa nd ocr

im at college now
so my 1 is CACHE
cos im doing childcare :P

[Recursion]

Mostly AQA, then Edexcel and very rarely OCR. They are moving next year's (the current Yr 10's) English to WJEC though I think.

[luce]

AQA and Edexel i haven't heard of any of the others

[Abbie.]

Yeah I think our school does A Levels with CCEA, oh boooo, I just dont care anymore, if I fail it aint the end of the world :D but i think I will so even more of a ::D


the ccea gcse papers were messed up 2 years ago when we did it, most of my class, who are sitting on A's at alevel, couldnt manage an A at gcse, because it was the hardest paper in 10 years

and so far, all my alevel papers have been hard compared to the past papers ive done from previous years, it just hates my year group :( :P