Dear all,
Out of curiosity and thought to base my opinion on facts, I have just completed both of the higher reading papers. I also did the Pre-U paper 2. In addition, I have spoken to some of my students who just sat Pre-U / AQA GCSE.
Here are my main findings:
1. Typos in Edexcel paper - 1) 问售货员 is in traditional characters and an answer word that is worth one mark; I think this mark should be awarded to all candidates. 2) At the end of section A it says “total for section B = 43 marks”. This confused me as I thought that I had missed section A somewhere. This may also confuse students under immense exam pressure.
2. AQA has 13 questions, Edexcel 10. The texts in AQA paper have been modified to be at GCSE level and in line with the specification and grammar/vocabulary list. The texts in Edexcel paper are advanced and authentic with many complicated sentence structures.
3. Question types in AQA are straightforward, although there are a good number of traps and tricks, as long as candidates can spot “没有时间/但是/不/多/少” etc., they should be able to find the correct answer. Most answers only require candidates to know the words, and the answer words are mostly key vocab on the vocab list. Overall, if a student has secure knowledge of all the required content and effective exam techniques, and is fully focused, calm and confident in the exam, they should do well and feel that the paper is a good test of their ability as well as skill. They could also hope for a good grade if the grade boundaries are fair and there aren’t that many native speakers taking all the 8-9s.
4. Question types in Edexcel paper included quite a few more advanced question words such as “ how do we know...; how does Lili describe...; what is the main / second reason...”. Some questions required inference skills and ability to analyse more than one sentence or, decode complex grammatical structures to work out answers. There are a large number of words and sentences that would be unheard of for GCSE level learning, and felt like they are from a dated Edexcel AS/A Level paper. They are, in my view, more difficult than those in the Pre-U paper. Given that there is a dictionary and more time allowance for Pre-U, this GCSE paper really is too unreasonably challenging for foreign learners and perhaps more suitable for native or bilingual students.
Kind regards,
Jing Keeler
Millfield School
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