GCSE Results Fall Again

"Methody" Methodist College Belfast. Once again, Northern Ireland pupils obtained better results than their counterparts in England and Wales. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The GCSE results for 600,000 teenagers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, released today by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), show a small, but significant drop in the number of A*-C passes.

Grades have fallen for the second year in a row with 68.1% of exam entries being graded between an A* and a C - a fall of about 1.3% on last year. In maths, the fall was 0.8 percentage points from 58.8% to 58%.

The overall proportion getting the top grades A* or A fell from 22.4% to 21.3%. And the overall pass rate also fell marginally, for the first time since the GCSE exam was introduced 25 years ago.

One factor that may have contributed to the drop in grades is the increasing trend for schools to enter pupils for certain GCSEs - particularly maths and English - one or even two years early. The JCQ have criticised this approach, claiming that pupils are missing out on the chance to gain better grades - and on the extra years of learning.

In addition, there is a trend for pupils to be entered for more than one exam in the same subject, whether it be for different boards or different tiers. There has also been a marked increase in the number of pupils taking the IGCSE, as well as the traditional GCSE. In these ways pupils can take the best result, but the overall statistics are skewed downwards.

Critics say that these trends are a result of schools chasing places in league tables, including the new English Baccalaureate, which rates schools on the number of pupils getting good GCSEs in a range of core subjects.

There was a big fall in pupils getting top grades in the science subjects, following the introduction of new syllabuses and exams.

Brian Lightman, head of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that schools, students and teachers are working hard in a constantly changing and turbulent environment. He also pointed out that piecemeal changes to the exam system make it impossible to compare grades from one year to the next.

Last year the grading of the English GCSE resulted in a legal challenge by some schools, when the grading standards were deemed to have changed between the January and June exams.

Only in Northern Ireland was there a rise in grades. A total of 28% of entries were graded A or A*, compared with 21.2% in England.

With the modular system soon to be scrapped in England, Northern Ireland still has to decide whether or not to continue with modules, or follow England's lead with a single end-of-course exam. Wales has already decided to continue with a modular system for GCSEs.

A-Level Results Show Slight Fall in Top Grades

More than 300,000 A-Level students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have found out their A-level and AS results today, and join the scramble for university places.

The results, published by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), show that there has been a fall in the proportion of A-levels awarded top grades for the second year in a row, after three decades of steady increases. 26.3% of all entries were given A or A* grades this year, a slight fall from 26.6% in 2012. Previously, the proportion getting top grades had risen each year since 1980.

The national pass rate rose marginally to 98.1%. This has also risen for about 30 years.

Continuing recent trends, more students are taking A-levels in maths and science and there is a continued fall in those taking languages. Maths rose by just under 3% and further maths by 4.5%.

Girls are still ahead of boys when looking at the top grades, A or A* (26.7% for girls compared with 25.9% for boys), but boys this year were more likely to get the A* grade (7.9% of boys' entries, compared with 7.4% for girls).

The university admissions body Ucas has said that 385,910 students have already been accepted by UK universities, 31,600 more than at the same point last year.

The UK government claims its reforms to make it easier for universities to take on the students that they want to recruit have sped up the process of accepting students. Under these changes, universities in England are being allowed to admit as many top-performing students (gaining ABB or more) as they want to. For students with lower results, universities are allocated a quota of undergraduates they can recruit. Last year, thousands of course places were left unfilled.

The change was introduced to allow the most popular universities to expand. It came in alongside higher tuition fees, which rose to a maximum of £9,000 a year from autumn 2012.

Students in Northern Ireland continue to perform best. 83.5% of entries here scored between an A* and a C and 30.7% were awarded the top grades of A or A*. In Wales, these figures are 75.2% and 22.9% respectively and in England 77% and 26.3%.

From 2015 the government plans to introduced major changes to A-levels. The AS-level will no longer count towards the final A-level grade and, with modules being phased out, all exams will be taken at the end of the two year course.

Congratulations to all those who gained the grades they were looking for today - and best of luck to everybody looking for a university place.

Happy Birthday Andrew Wiles

Happy 60th birthday Andrew Wiles, eminent British mathematician, most famous for his proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.

Andrew Wiles. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

In the summer of 1986, based on the progress made by fellow mathematicians, Andrew Wiles realised that a proof of a limited form of something known as the modularity theorem might then be in reach, which would be a crucial step to a proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. In secrecy, Wiles dedicated all of his research time to this problem. In 1993, he presented his proof to the public for the first time at a conference in Cambridge. In August that year, it turned out that the proof contained a gap. Wiles tried to fill in this gap, but found out that the error he had made was significant. The key idea for circumventing this problem came to Wiles on 19 September 1994. Together with his former student Richard Taylor, he published a second paper explaining this work-around and in doing so, the proof was complete. Both papers were published in 1995 in a special volume of the Annals of Mathematics.

Fermat's Last Theorem had thwarted and tantalized mathematicians for 350 years. Hundreds of attempts had been made at its proof, both by professionals and amateurs. Until its proof, it was probably the most famous unproven result in all of mathematics. When Fermat published his conjecture, that

has no integer solutions for n>2, he also wrote in the margin of his book that he had discovered a truly remarkable proof, but that he did not have enough space to write this proof down. We still do not know what was going through Fermat's mind at this point, but it is likely his proof was flawed. One thing is certain: it was not the same as Wiles's proof, which relies on an enormous amount of twentieth century mathematics that Fermat had no access to.

Paul Erdös 26 Mar 1913 - 20 Sep 1996

Happy birthday to Paul Erdös, who would have been 100 today if he were still with us.

This Hungarian mathematician, was one of the 20th century's top math experts and pioneered the fields of number theory and combinatorics. The type of mathematics he worked on were beautiful problems that were simple to understand, but notoriously difficult to solve. He loved to set problems for others to solve and would often offer cash prizes as rewards for correct solutions to the problems. These rewards ranged from $5 to $10,000 depending on how difficult he judged them to be.

At age 20, Erdös discovered a proof for a classic theorem of number theory that states that there is always at least one prime number between any positive integer and its double. In the 1930s, he studied in England and later moved to the USA. His Jewish origins made a return to Hungary impossible. However, he was affected by McCarthyism in the 1950s and he spent much of the next ten years in Israel.

Having written many hundreds of papers Erdös became history's most prolific mathematician. He wrote over 1,000 research papers, more than any other mathematician. The previous record was held by Arthur Cayley, who wrote 927.

Pi Day Live

Thursday is the annual Pi Day (because Americans would write the date 3.14).


This year, Marcus du Sautoy is hosting Pi Day Live. It's a free interactive online event that is open to all.

The number pi has intrigued mathematicians throughout the ages and this fascination has shown no sign of stopping. In recent times mathematicians have employed super-computers to calculate pi to over a trillion decimal places.

In Pi Day Live, Marcus du Sautoy will be asking whether the techniques used by the ancients to calculate pi can still be used today. And if so, which ones are best? As a part of the interactive audience, you will be a part of answering these questions and more.

To take part, visit the event's online lecture theatre, or go to the event's big screen to watch online. All you need is access to YouTube to get involved.

Brightest Shine Less Brightly At 16

Institute of Education (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A new study has highlighted the differences in mathematical ability between the children of different countries at different ages. According to researchers at the Institute of Education in London, England's brightest primary school pupils are on a par, mathematically, with the those from Taiwan and Hong Kong. But by the time pupils reach 16, the comparative performance achieved by the top 10% falls. Overall the English pupils came 28th out of 65 countries at this age.

When looking at the average scores of the entire cohort, the pupils from east Asia performed better than those from England at all ages, but the gap didn't widen as the pupils became older.

What is going on here? There is no doubt it is disappointing, but what or who is to blame?

a) The curriculum? Is the curriculum too narrow at secondary school? There is no doubt that the very brightest pupils in UK schools will absorb everything they are taught. So are we simply not teaching enough? Do the top 10% need extra challenges?

b) The teaching? There is a long-standing debate over whether, as a society, we value the work of teachers enough. Would increasing the average pay of teachers encourage better, more inspirational teachers into the classroom? Would this really make a difference in educational standards?

c) The culture? Is there enough of a culture of learning in our schools? Are there schools in which pupils learn little or nothing mathematically? Are there schools in which the poor performance and behaviour of a section of the cohort is adversely affecting the chances for the brightest to progress?

d) The basics? Interestingly, the Institute's report's recommendations suggest taking a new look at the way mathematics is taught in our primary schools, despite the brightest pupils apparently being close to the top of the world rankings at this age. Are we failing to build the foundations of a successful mathematics education with our primary education?

We would be very interested to hear your view. Email info@mathsbank.co.uk .

Is Gove's GCSE U-Turn Enough?

Another week, another controversy in the Department for Education.

After criticism from teaching unions, academics and fellow MPs, Michael Gove has withdrawn his plans to replace the GCSE with English Baccalaureate certificates in key subjects from 2015. The Commons Education committee had said that Mr Gove had been trying to implement "too much too soon". In his Commons speech reversing his plans, Gove did, however, say that he has asked Ofqual to ensure new GCSEs would be in place by 2015 in seven subject areas: English, maths, the sciences, history and geography. GCSEs for all remaining subjects would be reformed by the following year.

Now, the head of England's exam regulator Ofqual has warned that these changes may be too rapid. Glenys Stacey has replied to Mr Gove, saying that she will delay the education secretary's GCSE changes if there are problems with the timetable. She continued "The timetable for qualifications development that you have set out is challenging." She expressed concerns about maintaining the quality of qualifications if drafting new curricula within such a short timeframe and pointed out that she would be conducting her own consultation with the exam boards.

Other criticism has come from the head of the Mathematical Association, Peter Ransom. He pointed out that "The 2015 schedule for implementation is so ambitious that no time will be available for piloting, reflection and refinement."

Dr Kevin Stannard from the Girls' Day School Trust expressed concerns that many aspects of Michael Gove's Baccalaureate plans may still be pushed through in the GCSE reform "on the mistaken assumption that the DfE has done a U-turn."

The Department for Education maintains that it will act quickly in order to address a loss of rigour in GCSEs.

All of this comes on top of stories about bullying by Michael Gove's special advisers and controversial plans for the privatisation of academies.