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    What are difficulty levels?
        Contents

        What are difficulty levels?

            Article summary

            We use Homework Difficulty Levels to describe the difficulty and complexity of each Objective in Sparx Maths. You will be required to set an Initial homework difficulty level for each class in Class Manager which we will use to help set the difficulty of homework for new students in their first few weeks.

            Once a student has been set a difficulty level by the Sparx Maths algorithm this will be remembered each new academic year, but we'll still ask you to set a difficulty level for their new class in case any new students join that have never used Sparx Maths before.

            Use the following descriptors to help you choose the best level for your classes:

            Key Stage 3

            1. This level should be suitable for students who need a significant amount of extra support.
            2. This level should be suitable for students who need some extra support.
            3. This level should be suitable for students who meet the expected standards for their age.
            4. This level should be suitable for students who need more challenging material.

            GCSE

            1. This level should be suitable for students expected to take the Foundation tier paper who need extra support.
            2. This level should be suitable for most students expected to take the Foundation tier paper.
            3. This level should be suitable for students on the borderline between the Foundation and Higher tier papers.
            4. This level should be suitable for most students expected to take the Higher tier paper.
            5. This level should be suitable for students expected to take the Higher tier paper who are aiming for the highest grades.

            OxfordAQA International GCSE

            1. This level should be suitable for students expected to take the Core tier paper who need extra support.
            2. This level should be suitable for most students expected to take the Core tier paper.
            3. This level should be suitable for students on the borderline between the Core and Extension tier papers.
            4. This level should be suitable for most students expected to take the Extension tier paper.
            5. This level should be suitable for students expected to take the Extension tier paper who are aiming for the highest grades.

            Cambridge IGCSE

            1. This level should be suitable for students expected to take the Core tier paper who need extra support.
            2. This level should be suitable for most students expected to take the Core tier paper.
            3. This level should be suitable for students on the borderline between the Core and Extended tier papers.
            4. This level should be suitable for most students expected to take the Extended tier paper.
            5. This level should be suitable for students expected to take the Extended tier paper who are aiming for the highest grades.

            Edexcel International GCSE A

            1. This level should be suitable for students expected to take the Foundation tier paper who need extra support.
            2. This level should be suitable for most students expected to take the Foundation tier paper.
            3. This level should be suitable for students on the borderline between the Foundation and Higher tier papers.
            4. This level should be suitable for most students expected to take the Higher tier paper.
            5. This level should be suitable for students expected to take the Higher tier paper who are aiming for the highest grades.

            Edexcel International GCSE B

            1. For certain topics content is available at this level for students who require a lot of extra support to access the course.
            2. For certain topics content is available at this level for students who require some extra support to access the course.
            3. This level should be suitable for the lowest attaining students taking this course.
            4. This level should be suitable for middle attaining students taking this course.
            5. This level should be suitable for the highest attaining students taking this course.

            Fundamentals

            1. This level should be suitable for students who need a significant amount of additional support to access secondary material.
            2. This level should be suitable for students who need additional support to access secondary material.

            AQA Level 2 Further Maths

            1. This level should be suitable for the lowest attaining students taking this course.
            2. This level should be suitable for middle attaining students taking this course.
            3. This level should be suitable for the highest attaining students taking this course.


            Find out more about where difficulty levels are used in the following articles:



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