On Wednesday 15th July at 2pm, The Science Community Representing Education Group (SCORE) published its report on the 2008 GCSE science papers. You can read the full report here.
In my opinion, this report confirms what many science teachers have been saying - the exams are poorly written and too easy.
Here is my summary of the key findings:
Knowledge Required
“There were a few instances where neither knowledge of science nor of How Science Works was needed to answer some parts of some questions. Of particular concern were questions which appeared to be general knowledge… A related finding was that some multiple choice questions had poorly constructed incorrect answers. In some cases only the correct answer made grammatical sense, and therefore the incorrect answers were unlikely to be selected by the student simply on the basis of grammar”.
Accuracy of the science
“Previously, concerns have been raised over the accuracy of the science in GCSE examination papers. In this project it was found that in the vast majority of questions the science in the examination papers was correct at the level examined. Where inaccuracies were identified, they were generally poorly worded or edited questions, rather than inaccurate science… the workshop participants expressed concerns that in some cases some of the allowable answers given in mark schemes did not reflect correct science”.
Question Type
“In the written, structured, papers, the two tiers clearly each had a different mixture of question type. Foundation papers had mainly multiple choice/very short answers and short response answers. Higher papers had fewer very short answers but more extended responses. This is particularly of note regarding the comparability of candidates on the border of the two papers. The fact that there were clear differences in the proportion of marks associated with multiple choice/very short answer questions between the foundation and higher tier papers could suggest that examiners and awarding bodies believe that this question type is more suitable for lower demand questions. It was also noted that very short answers and short responses could be marked by clerical or non-expert markers. There were substantial variations between awarding bodies with some specifications having as few as 2% or 9% of marks available through extended response questions on structured papers. This is of importance as extended response questions provide an opportunity for pupils to demonstrate the full extent of their understanding and ability ina deeper sense than is possible in multiple choice or short response questions. This issue was also raised in Ofqual’s March 2009 report”.
Mathematics
“Science is a quantitative subject, and so one of the areas we considered was the type and the quantity of mathematics tested in the examinations… There were indications that the demand and type of the mathematics within the papers was limited. Some awarding bodies set out in their specifications what mathematics could be examined, and in some cases this did not correspond with the mathematics found in the examination papers. In particular, the more advanced mathematics detailed in the specifications was not present in the examination papers… These results give preliminary indications that the use of mathematics within the context of science was examined in a very limited way. It was limited in terms of the type of mathematics required by students: the full range of mathematics skills/ techniques included within the specifications was not examined. It was also limited in terms of quantity: the percentage of questions requiring mathematical knowledge was low”.
How Science Works
“There were significant differences between awarding bodies regarding the amount of How Science Works in examination papers, with a range of 0% to 26% identified… Wide variations in the amount of How Science Works were found when comparing foundation tier papers across awarding bodies, and also when comparing higher tier papers across awarding bodies. These variations suggest that there is a lack of parity between awarding bodies in terms of the requirement for students to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of How Science Works within the written examination papers”.