Foundation Or Higher Tier For Post-16 Gcse Maths Retakers

As a teacher of GCSE maths in further education college to learners that are retaking the GCSE course over 1 year, I often get asked the question, Should I do foundation or higher? Sometimes it s not even a question. Some learners tell me that they did higher at school and they want to do higher again. Many learners are convinced that it is easier to get a grade C in the higher tier exam than it is in the foundation tier exam.

Even though only about 35% of the available marks are required to gain a grade C in the higher tier exam compared to about 70% in the foundation tier exam, I still strongly believe that for the majority of C/D borderline learners that got a grade D in their previous attempt and are now retaking the course in a FE college, the foundation tier exam is probably the most appropriate and here are my reasons:

Foundation contains fewer topics so that makes revision easier.

Foundation excludes the most demanding topics.

Higher tier provides an introduction to more demanding topics that learners will need to know if they are going on to study maths at more advanced levels (AS, A2, level 3, physics, engineering ). Learners that are NOT going to study maths beyond GCSE level do not need to tackle these topics.

Unless a grade B or above is required for a learner to progress then there is no need to study higher tier.

Higher tier has a higher weighting of algebra and geometry topics (50%) compared to foundation tier (35%). Learners that have already attempted GCSE maths and come out with a grade D tend to be weaker in algebra and geometry, so it would be better for them to take the foundation tier exam which has more number, ratio and proportion questions.

Just because a learner took the higher tier exam at school, that does not necessarily mean that they do so again at college. Let us not forget that if someone got a grade D then it suggests that there are gaps in their knowledge. Better to focus on a smaller number of less demanding topics and focus on learning them in detail.

In further education colleges, maths and English are being taught alongside a vocational programme. This means the maths tutors typically only have 32 weeks x 3 hours in the academic year to teach the GCSE course. This just isn t enough time to include to teach all of the foundation tier material and most of the higher tier material as well. If, as teachers, we know that many students taking the higher tier exam won t be able to access up to 50% of the paper, should we really be entering them in the first place.

If further education maths teachers want to make the choice of exam tier as objective as possible, assess learners before Christmas, and only enter them for the higher tier exam if they already demonstrate strong number skills and a sound grasp of algebra and geometry. In my experience of teaching GCSE maths to C/D borderline learners in vocational education, this would result in the vast majority of them being entered for the foundation tier exam.