Strategies for Raising A* Grades in GCSE Maths

Effective strategies for raising the number of A* grades in GCSE Mathematics Charlotte Fell, Subject Leader Mathematics, Wycombe High School

Introduction Although the number of students taking AS Maths has risen steadily in recent years, the number of A* grades from students in Year 11 has not been correspondingly high. The two top sets, around 50 students, took GCSE Maths in Year 10 and the remaining 130 sat the exams in Year 11.

Evaluating strategies to increase the number of A* grades from Year 11 students formed the basis of my research and has been a focus this year in the Maths Department.



Minimal teacher input



Classes have the necessary learning skills



Goals are clear and worthwhile



Feedback is immediate



Tasks are intrinsically motivating

A report published by Ofsted outlining recommendations for schools to use in teaching Maths include:    

ensuring consistency of teaching providing an emphasis on problem solving developing the expertise of staff mathematical use of data to improve teaching.

Although many of the current recommendations are already implemented in the Maths Department, a number of strategies were devised for both the short term and for embedding in future practice.

Research In carrying out a review of current literature on the topic of raising the attainment of high achieving students, strategies such as providing rich tasks for depth of study were commonly found to be proven useful. A list summarising the main ideas follows: 

Tasks are appropriately challenging – based on Bloom’s revised taxonomy (creating, evaluating, analysing, applying, understanding, remembering)

I also surveyed students to ask them what they thought were the most and least helpful ways to reach their target grade. After analysing their results and combining them with current research and discussions amongst colleagues I implemented the strategies which were common to all sources.

Findings

Year 11 students had nearly trebled in comparison to the 2012 results.

I gave questionnaires to forty Year 12 students and some of the results are shown in the pie charts below:

Recommendations

What contributed to your GCSE result? past papers practice in lessons good teaching

Since the number of A* grades from Year 11 students this year were three times as many as the year before, the strategies which were used or that research indicates are successful will be embedded for the years to come. In summary, those are: 

All students to take GCSE Maths in Year 11, alongside Additional Maths if applicable.



Write home to parents after mocks outlining all the help offered.



Ask teachers to nominate students for A* support in extra classes.



Set smaller tests throughout the year.



Survey the students with a 1-5 scale on what they found useful and what teaching styles help them the most.



Maintain a dialogue in the department on useful strategies for engaging teaching, rich starting points and differentiation by task.



Re-write the Key Stage 3 scheme of work in order that solid foundations are built for future success.



Maintain the VLE with well-publicised, grade-specific resources.

mymaths textbook

What was most useful in helping you to reach your target grade? past papers practice good teaching mymaths

Students overwhelmingly liked using past papers and practising topics. Good teaching was cited by the students as another factor and in their comments, some of them expanded on this idea. The mymaths website was seen as a useful resource although interestingly it also made an appearance in the list of what was least useful in helping students reach their target grade.

The results from Maths GCSE in summer 2013 showed that the number of A* grades from

more

often