Lessons to be learned from the summer's GCSE exams - Paper 1 overall commentary

Over the next week or so I am going to share a series of blogs that summarise key parts of the examiner reports.

The examiners reports are a really useful tool to help inform your teaching, and in particular where to focus your efforts on. However, they tend to be very detailed and often a bit unwieldy, meaning that many teachers who have good intentions, never actually find the time to read them properly.

I am hoping that by highlighting key comments and breaking them down into manageable chunks, they will become much more accessible for all.

This entry is just focusing on the overall comments from Paper 1 - tomorrow we'll have a look at the three sections in a bit more detail.

Frustratingly much of this is the same as last year's examiner report, and the one before that, and the one before that - which shows just how important it is to be familiar with examiner feedback!

What was done well?

• The paper seemed to be accessible to all students - AQA stated that the reading age of the paper was 14
• There was a clear understanding of assessment objectives by teachers and students
• Time management was not an issue – the majority of students finished the whole paper within the time given
• There were fewer rubric errors this year – most students knew which part of the paper they had to answer based on optionality
• Improvement in exam skills (based on last year’s feedback, particularly with photographs)
• More use of case study evidence, even when not specifically required
• Better elaboration in 2 and 4 mark questions
• Good deconstruction of 6 and 9 mark questions – lots of evaluation seen
• Less able students attempted more questions than in previous years

Areas for improvement

• Handwriting was more of an issue than in previous years – with some papers illegible (this was actually discussed quite a bit on social media and highlights the need to remind student that they need to be really careful with handwriting, but also to try to encourage those who are eligible for a laptop, to actually use it in the exams)
• Many students still confused key command words such as explain, compare, suggest and discuss, and a minority misunderstood terms such as economic/environmental and physical (as opposed to human) factors
• Some students regurgitated case study material and didn’t apply it to the specific demands of the questions
• Students need to understand that extended writing questions need evaluation, not just knowledge and understanding
• Lower ability students often ignored the resources provided
• Students performed worse on section C (UK landscapes) overall, and those who answered questions on glacial landscapes wrote slightly poorer answers than those who wrote about rivers and coasts

Overall advice for students

• Re-read questions and underline command words and focus
• Learn how to respond to 6 and 9 marker command words
• Be accurate and precise when writing, but also when reading graphs/images
• Learn how to work out key calculations
• Learn accurate key facts and figures from examples – and learn how to apply them
• Look at the marks available and use this to inform length of response
• Practise explanations and chains of analysis, e.g. ‘this means that…’
• Revise key words carefully, and learn processes
• ‘…and use your own understanding’ – don’t just lift from the source!
• Annotate sketches/diagrams if used as part of an answer
• Use comparative statements when asked to compare things
• Number questions carefully in the extra space section if used