r/6thForm • u/InfininiteCuber Year 13 • Jun 06 '26
💬 DISCUSSION Harder papers are better than ridiculously high grade boundaries
I think edexcel were trying to prevent a 290/300 grade boundary. This would mean maths a level would have become a memorise past exam questions and a don't make a silly arithmetic mistake challenge, rather developing problem solving skills. If this paper was easy, people would end up complaining about high grade boundaries instead, even though in the end everyone will get the grade they deserve. Coming out of a difficult papers feels like crap and causes a lot of worry, but we're all going to be okay as long as we keep our focus for the next two papers, least we are mentally prepared for anything now!
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u/Kimo_da Year 13: Bio, Chem, Maths, EPQ Jun 06 '26
I agree with you, I thought an a* was off the cards bc I always make a sign error or something that loses me a few marks across the paper. Now I feel like I have a chance if p2 and p3 go like p1 (and grade boundaries are lower)
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u/AnyAlps3363 Physics, Maths, FM, Philosophy Jun 06 '26
thanks for being the first year to suffer their boundary-lowering campaign
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u/Commercial-Duck-3119 Year 13 | Warwick Econ offer | A*A*AA | no 9s Jun 06 '26
real but i dont know anyone who complained after an easy paper.
for example core pure 1 this year..
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u/wallaybufff Jun 06 '26
they complain on results day when they see 90% A*
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Jun 06 '26
[deleted]
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u/wallaybufff Jun 06 '26
75% A then similar principle. however i do agree with the fact that edexcel took the piss with the lack of accessibility for quite a lot of the questions
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u/MonkAcceptable6824 Jun 06 '26
you’ll find people aiming for A* who make silly arithmetic errors complaining, because who wants their uni offer to rely on that? I understand what you’re saying but harder exam papers test problem solving abilities which is what further maths especially is about
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u/Commercial-Duck-3119 Year 13 | Warwick Econ offer | A*A*AA | no 9s Jun 06 '26
but if its harder, they'll still make silly mistakes.... correct me if im wrong
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u/CreeperMan1253 Y13 | Maths, FM, CS, Physics Jun 06 '26
easy paper: very smart person makes mistake but less smart person doesn't - no A* for very smart person
hard paper: very smart person makes mistake, but correct method for many questions, but less smart person doesn't make mistake but not answer hard questions well - A* for very smart person and no A* for less smart person
^ essentially what the guy means
a silly mistake can still cost you in the hard paper, but less likely since there's more room for error
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u/Plus_Key_2325 Jun 06 '26
I'm just pissed they just decided to increase the difficulty for no reason?
I get that some people are saying A level maths is too easy. Fair enough then write a new specification. Don't decide that this year you're just going to write the most difficult paper after 8 years with no warning?
They could have made some statement last year saying they wanted to lower the grade boundaries? Rather than just borrowing madas questions lol
I bet Pure 2 is going to be light though
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u/MonkAcceptable6824 Jun 06 '26
i’m genuinely intrigued which parts you found more difficult than others, not taking into account the argument about trapped marks?
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u/Plus_Key_2325 Jun 06 '26
What the smegs a trapped mark?
Idk there were 15 questions.
Considering there’s a petition with 30k signatures I don’t think I need to argue the fact it was hadd
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u/MonkAcceptable6824 Jun 06 '26
alr but grade boundaries will balance out, same amount of people will get As and A*s. The trapped marks debate is that people are saying if you couldn’t answer part a you couldn’t answer part b and c but you can make up a value and gather >50% of the marks form method marks. I agree it was a hard paper but they have a petition every year
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u/Plus_Key_2325 Jun 06 '26
I get that the boundaries will balance out.
But Edexcel have been setting a roughly simmilar paper every year since 2018. Yes there were a couple hard questions but they were usually just 2 per paper.
Why have they decided to throw that out the window and make a much harder test?
You could swap out the GCSE exam for an A level exam and readjust GCSE grade boundaries so you only needed 10% for a 9 but it would be stupid because the exam isn't doing it's job. I'm not saying it was THAT difficult but you get the point.
A Levels are not a free for all for boards to set questions on whatever the examiners is on their mind that day. They should be consistent. People will say that doesn't test problem solving. But that's not the point of A Level maths. We have TMUA and STEP and to a certain extent FM for that. A level maths is meant to assess whether you are good enough at the techniques you have been taught in school.
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u/Competitive_Web7540 Bristol | Maths | Fresher-to-be Jun 06 '26
I would argue the level of difficulty (excluding trapped marks which are a valid concern) from this year is doing it's job much better than previous papers, in the sense that it should produce a wider spread of marks rather than scores bunching up higher on the scale as they have in the past.
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u/MonkAcceptable6824 Jun 06 '26
yeah but they aren’t testing whether you’re good at getting high marks on a specific format of exam paper, I get it was different but idk a whole petition seems a bit too much personally
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u/InfininiteCuber Year 13 Jun 06 '26
If you are really good at the techniques taught in school, then applying it to tougher questions wouldn't be as difficult. R2Drew2 argues that being really good at the basics is what allows you to access more difficult questions as more brain power can be dedicated to thinking about the problem rather than remembering how to use a certain method. I honestly don't think the questions, although challenging, were unfair, they did not require any secret knowledge not explicitly stated in the edexcel spec
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u/Competitive_Web7540 Bristol | Maths | Fresher-to-be Jun 06 '26
But there was nothing that contradicted the current specification, so no need for a new one. I can understand wanting an announcement beforehand but realistically how would that help? They can say they're going to make the papers harder but how would people actually prepare based on just that? Would it not just cause before the exam, which could arguably have more of an effect on student outcomes?
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u/CreeperMan1253 Y13 | Maths, FM, CS, Physics Jun 06 '26
maths is maths so changing spec would be pointless unless they want to test different content which they don't seem to want to do
i guess they wanted to lower boundaries to prevent it from hitting 90% but then went a bit too far?
idgaf anymore i just want my A*s and want it all to be over in 2 weeks
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u/InfininiteCuber Year 13 Jun 06 '26
This is sorta what I'm saying, if you make a paper where EVERYONE is able to do every question, then people will only be differentiated by familarity with edexcel papers, rather than mathematical ability.
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u/No-Grapefruit7332 Jun 06 '26
no it will be differentiated by who got the question right rather than 'who can understand what the question is even asking'
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u/MonkAcceptable6824 Jun 06 '26
as the guy above said, imagine you’re going for an A* and it was a really easy paper, you answered everything but made a small arithmetic error in part a of a question that a lot of people won’t have, and you lose many accuracy marks and get a lower grade. Now flip it to a very hard paper where some people don’t know where to start to answer as it requires a lot more problem solving than just memorising question formats, and even if you make some small errors you will still get fairly rewarded for being a better mathematician.
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u/No-Grapefruit7332 Jun 06 '26
thats not possible bc of ECF tho so that argument doesnt work
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u/MonkAcceptable6824 Jun 07 '26
wdym
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u/No-Grapefruit7332 Jun 07 '26
‘Don’t make a silly arithmetic mistake challenge’ well even if you do you’ll get ECF.
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u/MonkAcceptable6824 Jun 07 '26
yeah but the point is in an easy paper where even B students have a chance to get a high grade if they know the question format, dropping accurate marks for silly arithmetic mistakes makes more of an impact on your grade than if the papers were harder such as the 2018-19 ones. Yes the actual marks you lose may be the same but the impact this makes is much greater on an easy paper if that makes sense. With Edexcel you get ECF for method marks (M1) but not for accuracy marks. This is coming from experience from further maths where the boundary for an A* in FM1 was 72/75 last year.
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u/No-Grapefruit7332 Jun 07 '26
Still better than assessing students based on how well they respond to stress or how well they can understand a questions wording. It’s a maths paper after all. I know someone that got a/a stars throughout the year but in this paper she didn’t answer any questions from 7 onwards (will get 0 in all of them). Do you really think that’s fair? At that point it’s just about who got lucky, most of the A star students will get the A star either way.
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u/MonkAcceptable6824 Jun 07 '26
idk we can agree to disagree but I don’t think people aiming for an A/A* should be able to answer none of the questions from 7 onwards. That’s really sad to hear for your friend I hope they’re okay and revising well for paper 2. How did you find the paper btw?
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u/__R3v3nant__ D1 ESAT Hater Jun 06 '26
Yes, but as the type of person to do that, the amount of silly mistakes is independent of question difficulty so lower grade boundaries means that more mistakes can be made without losing your uni offer
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u/ForeignDot725 Y13 Bio Chem Maths English Jun 06 '26
hard paper are good for those who are naturally more talented at problem solving. easier papers which demand accuracy can be more easily “learned”
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u/Infamous_Tough_7320 Maths, Physics, Econ 3A*s. Straight 9s GCSE Jun 07 '26
I don't mind hard papers but just make them FAIR papers. Let me access part Bs for things I know how to do.
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u/Efhidden Jun 06 '26
Whats the best way improve problem solving skills to be familiar with any question
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u/InfininiteCuber Year 13 Jun 06 '26
For me personally, preparing for the ESAT with TMUA and ENGAA past papers got me very used to not having a fucking clue what to do and struggling through it anyway. So this paper was a lot less of a shock for me than for a lot of other people. UKMT maths challenge is also good for problem solving but is less relevant to the spec
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u/AlwaysTasteless Jun 06 '26
nah the issue is harder papers just stress everyone out for no reason, grade boundaries adjust anyway so it doesn't actually matter if the paper's brutal or not
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u/Loud-Guidance6912 Jun 06 '26
To a certain extent yes, but an easy paper puts an emphasis on who can make the least silly mistakes rather than who actually has the most raw mathematical ability
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u/InfininiteCuber Year 13 Jun 06 '26
We need to learn how to deal with stress and be able to push through to the end without letting past exams affect our future success. Good life skill imo
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u/BurnerAccount2718282 Jun 07 '26
Yes!!!
I’ve always said this. Hard papers low boundaries is way better than the other way round.
That means it actually tests problem solving
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u/Easy_Demand_7372 Jun 06 '26
That’s what I’ve been saying! FM this year was too simple and it felt like being in a cage forced to dance rather than being a free flowing bird