If your dc at grammar school-what do their end of year exams look like?

Really when you were in year 7 you had three hour exams?

I was at a girls' Grammar School some years ago. All our exams were 2 and a half or 3 hours long.

When DS was in Y8 last year, they had 2-3 exams per day in the week before the May half term. These were all held in their class rooms (this year, Y9, it's in the hall) and they only had to sit the subjects they were continuing into Y9 which I thought was sensible. They do also do lots of end of topics and other ongoing, smaller assessments so they're used to being tested.

Highly selective independent school.

Our son went to a state grammar and they had their first "exam week" just before Christmas in year 7, so basically after 10 weeks or so of tuition! That was strict exam conditions, separated desks, etc.

But, I suppose he'd already done that by taking the 11+ which was truly the first "real" exams he'd taken. It's a long time ago, now, but that was 3 exams, all done in one morning, with only a short break between, so maybe 45-60 minutes for each exam?

From what I remember, that first "exam week" in year 7 was a full-on week of pretty short exams, usually an hour if I remember rightly as they did one before morning break, one after morning break and one after lunch, so 3 per day, 3 hours in total. I can't remember him being too stressed about it. The only vivid memory was his first test on one language subject where he did VERY badly on one section, scoring something like 1 out of 10, due to not memorising a grammar/sentence structure due to him not doing "rote learning" as part of his revision - he never made that mistake again so it "worked".

As the terms and years passed, it was just normal school life and by the time GCSEs came around, he was very blase about them, no sleepless nights, not particularly anxious, they were "just another school day" for him!

It's too long ago to remember my own school days (70s) with any clarity, but I do remember exam weeks back then where seemingly the whole school were doing them at the same time.

I invigilated a mock A-level exam last year and it was the first time the students there had been under exam conditions in an exam hall, as they didn't get to sit GCSEs due to Covid. In that sense there is a lot to be said for starting exams early on so they are more used to it when the formal exams come round. At my comprehensive school we did a few internal exams in the hall, but not until year 9.

I went to a comp and we had exam weeks which were back to back exams all week. That was in the 80s.

Son went to a grammar, and they had very similar but more, exam week at end of each term, mid Dec, mid Mar (depending on Easter dates) and finally end of June. In year 7 they were pretty basic, but in years 8 and 9 they were past questions from past GCSE papers and in years 10 and 11 they were doing past papers with proper "mocks" at middle and end of year 10 and middle of year 11.

As a result, DS was never stressed about his GCSEs nor A levels - he was used to doing them, exam room conditions, revision techniques etc. He's now doing his finals at Uni and is still pretty relaxed about them, however a couple of his flat mates are really struggling with stress as he says they didn't do much exam practice at school, missed their A levels due to covid and first 2 years of exams at uni were online, so the only "proper" exams they'd ever done were mock and real GCSEs.

I think lots of practice and exam experience is a very good thing. It worked for me in the 80s and it worked for DS. Perhaps the more old fashioned ideas were best after all!

My Y7 son had two or three exams every day the week before half-term, all one hour long apart from one which was 1.5 hours.

Our private, selective school has exam week for all years after half term (apart from GCSE and A level years of course) with an afternoon off in the middle. Very intense, but it is good practice. I think about 13 exams in all.

We had similar here and Exam Week was definitely a thing for all year groups from Y6.

Good for most DC to get used to being in the hall, that slightly strange exam atmosphere, planning ahead to revise subjects in the right order and cover all of the content, and also preparing work to revise between sessions.

It was a tiring week but usually finished with a BBQ lunch on the Friday and an afternoon of fun activities.

DD has three a day in her high achieving state school (non-selective). Given the way they have constantly tested and assessed through year 7, it’s now very clear how they get their top grades.

I don’t recall doing a single test at secondary until year 10, apart from a fake one which was implemented by a science teacher to prove we didn’t pay attention to instructions. He was right.

Yup, it’s to prep them for the rigmarole of formal exams and mostly I do think it works (dd doing a-levels and at super selective Kent grammar).

Mine was like this 25yrs ago. It was intense.m but I did feel well trained and prepared for GCSEs when they happened. Much more so than friends at other schools.

In KS3 they have formal exams at christmas and end of year. Usually 3 a day

If they have 4 exams a day they can't be very long.

Ds is in Y7 grammar. He is doing 9 hour long exams this week. 3 a day. Plus language listening test.

Inner London comp. Full set of exams at the end of each term since Y7. She's in Y10 and calls it 'light work' now.

DS was in a superselective yesterday exams in the hall under exam conditions from yr 7.

My son is in y7 in a comprehensive and this is standard and happens twice a year.

DD in a high flying state grammar. Yr 7, no exam week at all. They constantly give them little assessments throughout the year though.

DD is in Y7 at a grammar, and they had 'exam week' just before half term. Two or three exams per day, but they were all short (30-45 minutes), with revision time in between. They were all carried out in their form room, apart from art. On the Friday afternoon there was a choice of fun activities.

It didn't seem pressured - DD did very little revision, saying that they had done lots of revision in lessons the week before. Time will tell whether that was a good decision!

There is also an issue with fitting exams in around the formal GCSE and A levels with only so much space in one school for them to be taken. DS1 (L6th had his end of year exams straight after half term and DS2 (yr10) 2 weeks later to get them out of the way in time.