Hey you! … yep, I’m back as promised. This time I’ve cracked open the Edexcel Foundation Paper 2 examiner’s report. As you know (well, I’m assuming you know but why else would you read this shiz??) … it’s a calculator paper and it would seems that the theme this year is “having a calculator is great, but only if you actually know how to use it”.
The Good News
Students seem to be well-prepared for the basics. The first half of the paper had some lovely, high-scoring moments:
- Basic Skills: Finding 10% of an amount and rounding to the nearest 10 were absolute bankers for most, but why wouldn’t they be … they’ve been doing this for YEARS!!
- Fractions & Percentages: Multiplying fractions and ordering FDP went down a treat.
- Data Handling: Pictograms and frequency trees were very well done. Again, common sense topics that should be nailed down.
- Algebra Basics: Simplifying straightforward expressions was a massive success.
The Stuff That’s Hard to Take
On a calculator paper, simple errors cost massive marks.
- Calculator Clumsiness: On the mean question and number machines, kids seem to be just typing long strings of numbers into their calculators without using brackets or the equal sign before division. It would appear that lots of students got the wrong answer on the mean question because they didn’t hit equals before dividing!
- Ignoring the Question: This drove me mad reading it. One question explicitly asked for the final answer in pounds, but kids left it in pence. Another asked for a fraction, but they wrote decimals. If the question asks for a specific format, anything else is an automatic zero.
- Real-World Context Failure: In one question, students had to get to an answer of 8.75 and because of the real-world context, they needed to round down to 8. Naturally, tons of them mindlessly rounded up to 9. Doh!
- Vocabulary Confusion: A lot of kids are still mixing up square and cube numbers. Asked for a cube number many gave a square number as the answer and they also completely confused vertices with edges on 3D shapes.
Remember in the previous post for the foundation tier … I asked the question as to how many of our issues nationally are a year 11 issue? That still stands!
The Crossover Killers
The crossover questions later in the paper appear to be absolute carnage.
- Diagonal Reflections: Total disaster. Mirroring a shape across a diagonal line completely throws them – tell them to literally turn the exam paper so the mirror line is vertical!
- Bearings & Map Scales: Lots of completely blank responses here. They measured distances instead of angles for bearings.
- Quadratic Sequences: Asked to find the first two terms using the nth term, many had no idea they just needed to substitute n=1 and n=2.
- Compound Interest: They actually started this well, allegedly because of the formula sheet! I’m not convinced … we beat the “Edexcel Average” on this question (we actually beat it on most of the questions on foundation tier … just a little flex!) and I doubt if many (if any!) of mine used the formula unless it was out of desperation and a last-ditch attempt. We do it year by year and add it on, because for most of the kids I teach, I want to guarantee one mark rather than zero marks by using the wrong decimal in the question.
- Vectors & Polygons: Interior angles of polygons and column vectors were barely touched. Negative components in vectors completely ruined their chances.
Other things worth noting:
- Ditch the Mess: The examiners explicitly noted kids are writing down multiple methods and not crossing out the wrong ones. Tell them: if you change your mind, cross it out! If two methods are left, they get zero marks. It’s called “choice of method” and will really catch you out … you need to really understand this and not just give marks willy-nilly when marking your mocks.
- Calculator Use: Do regular drills on using brackets for multi-step calculations.
- Reread the Question: Make a habit of underlining the final unit or format requested (e.g., fraction, pounds) before writing the final answer.
Right, that is it from me for today.
There… I read that sh!t so you didn’t have to!
They aren’t really sh!t and if I can get more of you reading them (even if only via me), it’ll be a good thing!
Found this useful? Leave me a comment below!
Mel
