Views from the students’ desks: How students experience and comprehend demand and difficulty in GCSE mathematics examination questions

Abstract

This study investigates students’ understanding and experience of factors that create “demand” and “difficulty” in GCSE mathematics examination questions.
Around 600,000 students in England take GCSE examinations each year. The results of these high-stakes assessments affect students’ future prospects, as well as schools’ status and recruitment. The performance of the examination system is, therefore, highly significant, but the effective working of its assessment methods lacks systematic academic scrutiny.
Examiners manipulate factors relating to the “demand” (i.e. cognitive load) of examination questions, and these questions are experienced at different levels of “difficulty” by students. If the link between “demand” and “difficulty” cannot accurately be predicted by examiners, this poses a threat to the validity of inferences made from examination results. Existent research into demand and difficulty in examination questions has predominantly focused on the work of examiners: students’ voices have not been heard.
In this study, questionnaires and focus group interviews gathered the views of 224 secondary school GCSE mathematics students in 5 comprehensive schools in North East England. Reflexive thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2022) was used to investigate students’ responses and their inferences in relation to learning theories including cognitive load theory and taxonomies of learning.
The voices of students in this study reveal insights into question demands and difficulty. Students discuss recall, reasoning and application of knowledge. Many students associate question length with difficulty. Question clarity inspires student confidence. Context in a question introduces an unreliable element, motivating some and confusing others.
Students’ insights have implications for examiners, teachers, and students. The thesis concludes that there are compelling reasons, in terms of teaching and learning, improving question design, validity, and public confidence in the examination system, to listen to students’ views.