DUMBING DOWN

Each year GCSE and A level grades improve and there are those who criticise the examiners for making papers too easy. One reason why grades are improving may be the way that questions are phrased to make them more understandable. Bear in mind that a broader cross-section of society is now taking exams and some of these pupils will have a worse grasp of english either because of poorer education generally or because english is not their first language. Real life examples of questions that perplexed pupils included the words "salient" and "expediency". By replacing words like these with simpler ones, or a phrase, access is broadened to what the question is actually asking. By simplifying the question more pupils will understand it and therefore have a better chance of providing a coherent and accurate answer.

BBC's Word of Mouth interviewed Angela Leonard and Ziggy Liaquat from Edexcel about examination questions.

HENCE OR OTHERWISE

"Hence or otherwise" was a phrase used in Maths and certain other subjects to add a supplementary part to the original question. The pupil could, or could choose not to, use what was given as an answer in the first part to formulate an answer to the second part. This phrase is no longer used and something along the lines of "using your last answer, solve..." is used instead.

It's a pity that real life can't be made easier because these students are going to find it tough when they start work.

A REAL EXAMPLE

The AQA AS Physics paper had a question about a cyclist decelerating from 16m/s to rest over a distance of 120m. You had to calculate the force on the cyclist that was slowing him down. The answer paper gave a value of -54N, which is correct, and then went on to say "or 54N", which is wrong. If the cyclist is decelarating then his acceleration is negative so unless his mass is negative too, from f=ma, the force slowing him down must be negative. I only hope that physicists and engineers involved in important things like aeroplanes and ships know when a force is negative and when it is not.

It's a pity that real life can't be made easier because these students are going to find it tough when they start work.