GCSEs pass the test

11:34am Tuesday 15th July 2008

Comments (4)   Have your say »

Year after year education leaders are accused of making exams easier and lowering standards to keep GCSE results at record levels.

The Argus decided to see whether exams really are becoming simpler. We asked some of the brightest pupils at Brighton College and people on the streets of Brighton and Hove to tackle a 1950s O-level and a 2006 GCSE.

Across the country thousands of teenagers are anxiously awaiting their results having finally come through the stresses and strains of their GCSEs.

Sadly when results come out on August 21 the focus will inevitably not be on the months and years of hard work the youngsters have put in but on the annual debate over whether standards have risen or exams become easier.

The results are bound to set records once again, as they have done each year for the past two decades.

Criticism of the exams regularly focuses on whether they are easier or harder than in previous eras.

As a test, two students at Brighton College were asked to take a maths Olevels just weeks after they had taken their GCSEs.

Sixteen-year-old twins Luke and Miles Holbrook, of Woodland Drive, Hove, have both opted to take maths at A-level and were predicted to achieve a number of A and A* grades in their GCSEs.

Luke, who said maths came fairly naturally to him, already has an A* for GCSE maths, having taken the exams a year early, and recently sat AS-level tests.

The pair both noticed significant differences in the tests but said they did not think one was more difficult than the other.

Luke said: "For the maths paper the way the old papers were worded was more complicated but they were mostly asking us to do the same thing.

"The way the questions were set out made it harder for you than the new papers and you didn't get any marks for showing how you worked it out."

Among the most obvious changes were that calculators and formula sheets are not only allowed for the more recent exams but actively encouraged. For the 1950s O-levels neither were around. Pupils had to do their calculations mentally and memorise their formulas.

Miles said: "We don't do work on basic things like that because you usually have a calculator to tap it into.

"I think we'd be able to do it but it would take some practice."

He said the presentation of the O-level paper was significantly different, with wordy questions packed into four-page A5-sized booklets.

The newer papers are spread over several pages, illustrated with diagrams and include spaces for working and answers. The GCSEs also have higher and intermediate tiers so pupils who cannot realistically achieve top grades can still pass. The O-levels do not.

Luke said: "Anyone getting an A or A* for GCSE would probably be OK with the O-level but if you are below a B there's a good chance you would fail."

Brighton College deputy headteacher Louise Kenway, who marked the papers and revealed both boys passed, said: "I don't think the O-level maths paper was any harder, it just presented problems differently.

"The boys took it without any preparation but I think had they had a couple of days, or less, with one of our maths teachers working on those kind of questions they would not have had any trouble."

Do you think GCSEs are much easier than 0-levels? Tell us below.