Whatever subject you teach, you will already be well into your preparation for this summer’s GCSE exams. Here, a member of AQA’s relationship management team (Gail Nielen).
Give adequate weight to all assessment objectives
In GCSE science, for example, many schools are strong on AO1 (“Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of: scientific ideas; scientific techniques and procedures”), but less strong on AO2 (“Apply knowledge and understanding of: scientific ideas; scientific enquiry, techniques and procedures”).
In GCSE science, for example, many schools are strong on AO1 (“Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of: scientific ideas; scientific techniques and procedures”), but less strong on AO2 (“Apply knowledge and understanding of: scientific ideas; scientific enquiry, techniques and procedures”).
Perhaps that’s why some students took to Twitter after their exams last summer, complaining that they’d been asked a question about osmosis using carrots, when they’d used potatoes during the course.
Practise the more ‘general’ questions
Students commonly struggle the most with the less “structured” elements of exam papers – these are often the questions they will need to practise most.
In MFL, for instance, students are usually well prepared for the role-play and photo-card tasks in the speaking test, but they often struggle with the general conversation. But half the marks (30 out of 60) in the speaking assessment are for the general conversation, so it’s really worth spending time on this, using strategies to help students stretch their vocabulary and range of language.
Get the tier right
Writing recently in Tes, our head of curriculum strategy offered some adviceabout how to do this. Looking at how students perform on questions that are common between the tiers can be a good guide to help you make these difficult decisions.
It’s also worth thinking carefully before changing your strategies. Maths teachers have generally made the right tier decisions over the past two summers. However, we’ve heard from a number of schools that had good success in 2017 and so increased their higher tier entry last summer – only to see a significant drop in outcomes as a result.
Make the most of mock-exam support
That’s why it pays to make mocks as effective as possible. Exam boards have a lot of resources to help you with this, but it’s not just past papers. Make sure you familiarise yourself with the resources offered by your board and really make the most of them.
Know your key deadlines
The school year is busy, so you really need to be on top of your key dates for GCSEs. Here are some upcoming dates to be aware of:
- 31 January 2019: the last date to request modified papers for pupils who are partially sighted.
- 21 February 2019: the deadline for entries for summer 2019 exams. This is also the final date to process applications for access arrangements.
- 21 April 2019: the last date to change tiers (free of charge) for all tiered subjects (MFL, maths and sciences).
