Lessons Learnt: 3 GCSE Mistakes to Avoid in 2019
Recently in TES news, exam board AQA shared some feedback to teachers about what to avoid. What does this mean for students?
Here is what they said.
- Give adequate weight to all assessment objectives
One of the most useful skills you can develop as a GCSE student, of any subject, is to learn how to mark exam answers.
It is the single-most powerful method to understand what the examiner wants from you.
Most exam boards provide past papers and mark schemes for free, through their websites. Use them.
A great way to learn what the assessment objectives mean, is to do some research. There are many useful YouTube videos that discuss these. You may even find some exemplar work to view – mark it yourself and see if your final grade matches theirs.
- Practice the more ‘general’ questions
Many GCSE exam questions provide guidance on what to include in answers. Despite this, AQA found students struggled with the less structured questions.
Here is an example of a guided question (English Literature):
How does Priestley explore responsibility in ‘An Inspector Calls’?
Write about:
- The ideas about responsibility
- How Priestley presents these ideas by the way he writes
Here is an example of a less structured question:
Compare the ways poets present ideas about power on ‘Ozymandias’ and one other poem from ‘Power and Conflict’.
Neither of these questions are easy. The first does at least tell us what to write about, though. The second is a lot more open-ended and therefore harder. Approaching them needs to be practiced.
- Make the most of mock-exam support
I am going to tweak this one slightly and translate it to: ‘practice past papers’.
Learning the topics is one thing. But understanding an exam question, recalling your learning in its context and writing full-answers in timed conditions, is no mean feat.
The more you practice, the better you will become. If you are starting to time yourself, try and assign yourself 1 minute per mark. So, if a question is worth 20 marks, it should take you no more than 20 minutes to answer. You won’t be able to achieve this a first but, if you practice, you will be surprised at how quickly you improve.
Sumantha is an education and training specialist with over ten years' experience in developing and delivering adult and secondary level education. Her professional journey includes a six-year stint as a secondary school teacher. She is currently a freelance content writer and learning and development consultant. Sumantha also has a portfolio of private students who she teaches up to GCSE level.
