In the Summer of 2018, current year 11 students will be doing their GCSES. However, this the first year to sit all the exams that incorporate the whole ‘new’ syllabus.

The first thing that is new to the new syllabus is the (9-1) grading system instead of (A*-G). A grade 4 is roughly equivalent to a low C grade, but not necessarily the same. Alexia Islik, a current year 11 student says ‘Generations of families and employers have been familiar to the A*-G grades and a sudden change will lead to inevitable confusion’ Also, the Government has planned to make the new courses ‘rigorous’ and have less coursework involved and more written work in the format of formal tests at the end of the year 11. This means students will be very stressed as they must remember the full 2 years of studying rather than in modules with exams along the way. Alexia Islik also comments that ‘2 years of consecutive studying is a lot to remember in a series of tests- Especially when you have 10 subjects!’.

The content will be more demanding which is being currently developed by the government and exam boards. You will only be able to resit English Language and maths each November if necessary.

For Maths, the new GCSE syllabus entails 2 types of examinations based on academic ability- Foundation or Higher. The new foundation course includes previous higher tier course material and the new higher tier course includes previous A-level course material. You also must know extra mathematic formula for the new Higher Tier course. Also, there is a lot more ‘problem solving’ meaning using skills in real life scenarios.

For English the new GCSE speaking a listening do not count as a final grade, there are also no controlled assessments and they are only examined at the end of the course only. The literature that is to be studied is English only. In all the literature exams it will no longer be open-book meaning students will have to learn a sufficient number of quotes from poems, novels and plays. Tom Wisten says how ‘Previous year groups has been able to have their book with them during the examination equally giving them less stress about learning about 400 quotes’.

The government has assured people that the current students going through the examinations will have as many opportunities as their older brothers and sister if not more and a higher standard of education. As the added rigour inspires resilience in young minds.

BY ELEONORA BRODEN-BARBAREAU