[JenniferJames]

Hey,
How did everyone find the paper 1 today? Quite liked it generally but my weaker kids struggled with the American west sources questions. I'm amazed there was a 19th century surgery question. Makes me think the paper 2 is on 20th century surgery.
Any other comments?
J x

[Sally Thorne]

Those AmWest sources were a bit left field and I found some of the questions a bit obscure - Roman treatment of Boudicca, juries in the Middle Ages and women on the Plains are all quite minor bits of the courses, at least when I teach it...

I didn't much like question 4 on crime, either - it was a bit vague, especially the part A: "Describe the contribution of any one individual to crime and punishment"....

But overall, happy! Kids seemed happy on the way out, too, in spite of telling me we had never studied Boudicca, those liars!

Wondering if the crime paper 2 will be the usual Robin Hood or something completely random now, like the impact of war or women and crime. Thankfully we've got two three-hour revision slots scheduled for next week.

[Elle]

JenniferJames, on Jun 3 2009, 08:03 PM, said:

I'm amazed there was a 19th century surgery question. Makes me think the paper 2 is on 20th century surgery.
Any other comments?
J x

I am also now worrying about that.

I thought the Germany paper was ok, apart from source A which I have never seen before... Where are they getting the sources from? Because I had not seen the Germany picture souce from last years paper either.

[JenniferJames]

I'm getting flashbacks to last year where I persuaded myself it wasn't on Will Harvey because it was the 'obvious choice' but it WAS still on him! The OCR Investigations book is on Simpson. I'm trying just to focus on looking at how to answer source questions rather than the topic but it really affects the kids confidence

Jen

[JenniferJames]

Re: paper 2
Ah, Surviving Surgery...
As expected and not too hard. LOVED source B! Done that source a million times! Though the Fleming source on surgery surprised me! Some kids struggled as always, but I thought it was fair
J x

[Elle]

The three students I spoke to thought it was a great paper (phew!), and one of them told me she actually enjoyed the exam!

[JenniferJames]

V encouraging. One boy told me he 'Clocked it' :-)

[Sally Thorne]

Sally Thorne, on Jun 4 2009, 11:41 AM, said:

Wondering if the crime paper 2 will be the usual Robin Hood or something completely random now, like the impact of war or women and crime. Thankfully we've got two three-hour revision slots scheduled for next week.

I should be a bloody prophet

No idea what it actually looked like though, or what the kids thought, as was out today and again tomorrow for marking.

[Belinda Moore]

I thought that the AW paper was okay, however, I was displeased with the way that the questions were worded. The weaker kids were a little thrown - winter of 1886-7- contributing to the development of ranching - lay down misere, had it been asked the other way around! Guess they're the discriminating questions. Oh well, time to cross my fingers and hope that the kids who belted it over the 2 yrs reap deserved rewards!!

This post has been edited by Belinda Moore: 12 June 2009 - 04:13 AM

[JenniferJames]

Sally Thorne, on Jun 11 2009, 09:47 PM, said:

Sally Thorne, on Jun 4 2009, 11:41 AM, said:

Wondering if the crime paper 2 will be the usual Robin Hood or something completely random now, like the impact of war or women and crime. Thankfully we've got two three-hour revision slots scheduled for next week.

I should be a bloody prophet

No idea what it actually looked like though, or what the kids thought, as was out today and again tomorrow for marking.

Sally, I hope you used your prophetic skills in one of the three hour revision slots! :-)

[ToriW]

Did anyone's classes sit the Crime and Punishment paper 2? How did you find it? I was disappointed with the question about the ducking stool. The students were asked whether a source published in the early modern period and clearly about the early modern period was useful for telling them about the treatment of women in the Middle Ages. Now as a teacher I know what they are looking for them to say but I thought the question was illogical and a bit unfair. The questions overall were quite difficult and everything that I would expect them to have thought of as 'own knowledge' was included somewhere on the paper. Even as a teacher I couldn't think of much else they could have written.

This post has been edited by ToriW: 22 June 2009 - 05:01 PM

[Don Fear]

ToriW, on 22 June 2009 - 06:00 PM, said:

Did anyone's classes sit the Crime and Punishment paper 2? How did you find it? I was disappointed with the question about the ducking stool. The students were asked whether a source published in the early modern period and clearly about the early modern period was useful for telling them about the treatment of women in the Middle Ages. Now as a teacher I know what they are looking for them to say but I thought the question was illogical and a bit unfair. The questions overall were quite difficult and everything that I would expect them to have thought of as 'own knowledge' was included somewhere on the paper. Even as a teacher I couldn't think of much else they could have written.

Having received the exam marks and the breakdown I am appalled. The grade boundaries have been raised massively this year. Last year you needed 110/200 to get a C grade - this year it's 121! The worst bit is that the grade boundaries on Paper 1 were raised the highest. Traditionally, our kids have done well on Paper 1 and less well elsewhere, but this year not one student scored the 60/75 necessary for an A on Paper 1, and loads dropped below the 43 needed for a C. I thought the whole point of criterion-referenced marking was to ensure a continuity of standards year-on-year. It seems to me that OCR have panicked at how well kids have done and raised the crossbar massively so that not too many pass. As it is, my Department has suffered. On last year's grade boundaries we would have had 60% A-C and 20% with As, which would have put us right up with the top departments in the school. As it is, it's 40%, with only 8% with As, and we're bottom of the heap and facing investigation by SMT. It isn't fair!
OK rant over.

[Sally Thorne]

We also noticed a massive discrepancy between papers 1 and 2 - some kids got a B or C on paper 2 and a D or E on paper 1. I'm sorry, but that's obviously not right - if you're bright enough to be getting a B in one paper you are obviously not only worthy of an E in what is traditionally our stronger paper.

Meh. More faith lost in the system. More non-teaching jobs being looked at.

[JenniferJames]

Sally Thorne, on 10 October 2009 - 05:36 PM, said:

We also noticed a massive discrepancy between papers 1 and 2 - some kids got a B or C on paper 2 and a D or E on paper 1. I'm sorry, but that's obviously not right - if you're bright enough to be getting a B in one paper you are obviously not only worthy of an E in what is traditionally our stronger paper.

Meh. More faith lost in the system. More non-teaching jobs being looked at.

Boo! Sally, you don't mean it do you?!