Examinations

[Chippiewill]

My C3 went so well today !

Thank you OCR for the nice exam, think I've dropped no more than 5 marks which puts me in a nice position to get an A* (I find C4 easier than C3 too so I hope I can average over 90 in C3/4 )

OCR C3 was awesome today, fairly certain I aced it (Famous last words..).

[Matthew]

OCR C3 was awesome today, fairly certain I aced it (Famous last words..).

yeah !

the answers are up on the studentroom, I think I've dropped 6 marks (max) which will certainly be over 90UMS so its looking good

[Mr-Trainor]

what, do you think you've got less than a C in this one

Yeah definitely not above an E, worst a level exam I've had (never got below a C before) .

[Matthew]

Yeah definitely not above an E, worst a level exam I've had (never got below a C before) .

oh that sucks

was it really that hard?

glad i didn't take it

[Mr-Trainor]

oh that sucks

was it really that hard?

glad i didn't take it

A combination of that plus not revising for it much, because I had eco 2 days before which was a lot more important so only revised C3 the day before as I didn't really have to retake it . But yeah, everyone I've spoken to has said it was really hard (10+ people irl) and once thread on TSR opens and it can be discussed, I'll see what everyone on there is saying .

[Matthew]

A combination of that plus not revising for it much, because I had eco 2 days before which was a lot more important so only revised C3 the day before as I didn't really have to retake it . But yeah, everyone I've spoken to has said it was really hard (10+ people irl) and once thread on TSR opens and it can be discussed, I'll see what everyone on there is saying .

the general consensus on TSR is that the OCR paper was average, by no means easy but definitely not hard either.

I'd guess it'll probably be ~53/54 for 80UMS as the last question (8 marks) will have thrown a LOT of people (it was pretty hard)

[Mr-Trainor]

Posted by Arsey on TSR:

This was a very tricky paper. I appreciate there are a lot of upset and angry feelings floating around. However, I have read an awful lot of misinformed and inaccurate comments on social media sites. You can take or leave the following comments but they are my opinions.

There was nothing on this paper that isn't on current specification. Some questions required skills that are considered pre-requisite knowledge from Core 1/2 and GCSE Mathematics. Knowledge of GCSE topics such as Ratio, Similar triangles, bounds, basic trigonometry facts is expected knowledge and does not need to be listed on the specification for Core 3.


The final question isn't a Mechanics question. I would agree that the context of the question was in a Mechanics style but it was irrelevant as to what needed to be done to answer the question. The whole context was completely pointless.


The fact that it appears that a few centres have taken the original paper is really irrelevant to those who took the replaced paper. Their results will have no impact what-so-ever on the grade boundaries for the replaced paper. Also, it really isn't Edexcel's fault that some centres made this error. I personally read the instructions that they sent out weeks ago, so really some examination officers need to be made accountable for their error.


I have read comments saying that their teachers couldn't even do the paper, or that teachers took 3 hours to do it. I am sorry but a teacher should not be teaching students A-Level Mathematics if they could not answer every question correctly (barring silly errors) within the time. I completed the paper within 40min. That said, I did originally miss the second solution to the final functions question, but that was rather sneaky.


This paper was not written at the last minute, it is very likely it was written at the same time as the original paper by the same examiner and would have probably been used next year. That said, Edexcel state that they aim for their papers to be of comparable difficulty and alter the grade boundaries accounts for slight differences. I am very interested to see the original paper, I would be staggered if it is anywhere near as hard. I do think Edexcel need to work much harder to ensure that their papers are of comparable difficulty. There has been quite a significant difference in the difficulty of some of the UK and non-UK papers. Had UK candidates took the international M2 paper, I do think there would have been a huge number of complaints.


The best piece of advice I can give is to try to put it out of your mind; the grade boundaries will be really low and hopefully this means that the Core 4 paper will be a lot nicer. Put your energy into smashing Core 4.

I hope he's right about that last paragraph, although I've heard all the replacement papers have been very hard (M1/M2 and of course C3) so I'm thinking C4 is likely to be hard as well.. in which case I'm highly unlikely to even meet my uni offer :/.

[Paige.]

done my last exam today
finished everything now woooooooooooo bye school

[Cerys]

Done my last exam today.
It was maths ;/

ew

I guess it went OKAY-ISH. I made the most stupid mistake ever though - I thought a right angle was 95 *its 90 ye*. Luckily I noticed and had to redo the entire question in the last 5 mins

No more exams for a year!! + NO MORE MATHS. EVER. SFJKHVNB

[Empired]

Finished my final GCSE yesterday! Wow, I'm relieved