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Original poster

too many GCSEs for too long

130 replies

lianath · 06/06/2015 20:35

My son has been doing GCSE's now for at least 3 weeks and still has 8 more exams to go with his last one on 19th June. I find it cruel. I was brought up and educated in The Netherlands. We had all our exams in 2 weeks (max 2 per day). Over and done.
Does anyone agree with me that GCSEs are too many weeks of endless exams?

OP posts:
NotCitrus · 06/06/2015 21:28

I found it reduced the pressure after the first couple, and the first few tended to be pretty easy ones. 10 subjects, 2-4 exams of 45min-2 hours over about 5 weeks. (1990). A-levels were 2 or 3 papers of around 2 hours over about 3 weeks then special papers - I guest there's fewer subjects to fit in.
I wouldnt change the system except I was at boarding school and not allowed to have post-exam leave until after my last paper, which bizarrely was 2 weeks after all my others and was Computer Case Study, solely about a 40-page booklet on Shropshire County Libraries. I'd pretty much memorised the bloody thing by the day of the exam!

The opposite extreme was university finals, with 70% of my whole degree riding on 7 three-hour papers in 3 1/2 days. Bloody ridiculous and we all concluded the reason men outperform women is because they have stronger finger muscles. Turned out I'm also hypermobile and couldn't write more than a few pages then.

InstitutionCode · 06/06/2015 21:12

DS is 2 years away from CGSE. I didn't realise the exams are shorter these days. That, at least, is good for him as he is hypermobile and his hands tire easily from writing. No-one ever writes, with a pen, for 3 hours straight anymore...I'm not sure I could do it.

BrilliantDayForTheRace · 06/06/2015 21:10

I think they had to get rid of 3 hour exams because some students need 25% extra time, and a 4 hour exam would be ridiculous.

But the result is this, a billion short exams.

InstitutionCode · 06/06/2015 20:55

I did 8 O-levels and that was because I was considered "academic". Most people at my school did 6 or 7. Most subjects had only one paper. So it wasn't always like this in UK either.

DS1 who is decidedly average academically, will do 13 GCSEs. Madness and I really worry that he'll end up not getting the magic C in any of them.

BrilliantDayForTheRace · 06/06/2015 20:42

Totally! The system here is bonkers.

Too many subjects, and too many exams.

Where I was brought up you did 5 or 6 subjects and 5 or 6 exams, and I guess they took about 2 weeks.

Also we only studied them for 1 year, not 2 years.

But seeing as I don't want to move back home, guess my DC are stuck with this bonkers system :)