Hello. I'm a GCSE student, took the exam, and am here to be an egotist and offer you with a different perspective.

Now, let me explain. I thought that the question was easy. I took AS level Maths, then GCSE Further Maths, at 14, but had to take the regular GCSE after these more difficult qualifications. In my previous, more difficult, exams, this probability question would be easier than the easiest on the paper. It would be plainly obvious, and I'd answer with a smile.

In my incredibly simple, GCSE Maths exam I did not answer the question. Is that because I'm an idiot? No. Was I crumbling away due to stress? No. Was the question written badly? Not really. The problem was the shock.

Oh yes, the shock. You had to think, you're thinking. How terrible for you. However did you cope? Well, it's more complicated than that.

Think of it this way. You're 16, like me. You're trying to maintain an active social life, have sex, and follow the latest social trend. You're continually drilled with formulaic solutions to problems, and the past exam papers have been a matter of bleeding information onto a page for the past twelve or so years. Then, after answering eighteen of these questions about Timmy the tax collector, you're asked a question that is both disorientating and vastly different from any question that has ever come before. You're shocked. You answer the question in your head, outside the exam hall, but you're completely shocked at the time. You move on.

Oh my! is your next thought. He was shocked. Poor, poor guy

Well, the truth is that it really was shocking -- unfairly shocking. Yes, the standard of education is very low, but the answer to that isn't to randomly throw an entirely new form of question into a GCSE exam. You redesign the exam paper, then improve the standard while giving people the foresight that a shitstorm of mathematical thinking is going to come.

Maybe I'm wrong. I just wanted to give you a different perspective to what seems to be obvious.