As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve recently been doing some freelance work in a local school. The role is short-term and has an interesting mix of aims, but one part is to work with Year11 students on data analysis questions. Now, obviously I’ve taught these skills before. But I’ve not previously used the OCR B specification before, which features a final data question worth ten marks. I know this is running out soon but thought it might be worth sharing what I’ve created.
Firstly, a plea to all exam boards. When you release Examiners’ Reports – which are really useful, please keep doing it – can you combine them with the markscheme for easy reference? It’s something I’ve done for a while but it would make much more sense for you to do it.
2014
- exam paper 2014 P456 H Qs p26-29
- combined markscheme and examiner’s report 2014OCRBGatewaySectionD
2013
- exam paper 2013 June H p30-32
- combined markscheme and examiner’s report 2013JuneOCRBGatewaySectionD
- Stopping distance card sort
Specimen
- exam paper specimen P456 p28-31
- markscheme with blank column SpecimenOCRBGatewaySectionD
Predictably, the specimen paper isn’t a great example to use. I’ve not included the 2015 paper because many schools will be using it for preparation in controlled conditions. The links above are to my own copies in case OCR rearranges their site with the new specifications, and I’ve added the Section D page details to the filenames to make life easier for colleagues.
It seems a good time to remind you all that in the past I produced quite a few resources for looking at past exam papers, mostly AQA. The tags on the right should make it fairly easy to find them.
When we used these in class, one of the outcomes was that students put together a list of “things to try if you’re stuck”. Now, for many pupils this will have been built in to their teaching, but we all know that kids don’t always absorb what we’re hoping they will. I think the real value of this is to generate a list with your own students, but for your interest:
- Highlight or underline numbers in the question
- Draw lines from the axes at specified values so you can find the corresponding value
- If the question is about differences, you’ll need to add or subtract
- If the question is about rates or uses the word ‘per’, you’ll need to divide or multiply and you might need to think about gradient or slope
Comments and suggestions welcome, as always.
Teaching Science 