Is History the hardest GCSE?
Posted 12 December 2010 - 06:19 PM
Posted 12 December 2010 - 09:37 PM
Posted 12 December 2010 - 10:30 PM
I know that quite often the ALIS predicted grades at A level are a notch or two down on some other subjects which must say something.
Clearly the reason why many academies ditch History for things like Media Studies and Humanities is because it's easier to get higher grades in those than in GCSE History which requires a higher level of literacy/comprehension skills, not to mention a massive bulk of knowledge to learn over 2 years that modular courses don't have. That's also why languages are sinking. It's all about the drive to get more higher GCSE grades on the league table.
The Russell Group decided several years ago that there were 5 more academic subjects than some other A levels: Sciences, Maths, Eng Lit, Languages and you guessed it - History. I think they also published a list of about 25 soft subjects!!
If you ask students and do a survey/questionnaire most will put History among the most difficult.
Not particularly scientific - sorry - but pretty convincing when added together.
Posted 13 December 2010 - 03:03 PM
Posted 13 December 2010 - 07:33 PM
Posted 13 December 2010 - 07:54 PM
Posted 13 December 2010 - 08:50 PM
I take the point about tiered papers but what is bugging me now is that in our place several subjects are modular (and their results have improved) while we are not allowed to go modular in case it affects the results in Science, Maths and RE (the main modular ones). We are a Science/Maths specialist college and a RC school so there is logic in there somewhere but you cannot seriously compare loaves with fishes as Rachel says above.
Attached: this is a dense read, but I have been taking comfort in it (for the last three years), that History is indeed harder than certain other subjects.
Posted 14 December 2010 - 09:53 AM
Posted 02 January 2011 - 12:39 PM
Every August we see 7years olds receiving good grades in subjects like Maths or ICT - never History! There is a reason for that!!
This is a demanding subject!
I wonder how many data managers are not scientists or mathematicians? They can deal with data, targets and predicted grades, not people!
I understand the need for predictions, but remember we are trying to predict the actions of 16 year olds!
We have now gone modular and hope this will lighten the revision load.
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