Cheating in GCSE exams

no doubt @BluebelllsRosesDaffodills would consider that more ‘tough shit’!

It happens in private schoolsnas they aren’t as regulated

But don’t know how common

That’s not the case actually. There is a process in place for a student who has done some of the exams to be awarded a grade based on that if they miss through unavoidable illness.

And tough shit? Nice. So two entire cohorts should have been held back to take exams one or two years later? And what - universities would just take no first years in 2020 or 2021 and then a triple cohort in 2022? How on earth would that work? And why should YP have to put their lives on hold for two years?

ETA and I haven’t even considered GCSEs there, just A levels.

I guess you are just looking for an argument

Not to mention getting them marked - we have more than 500,000 candidates for my exam in any given year. We simply couldn't mark double that number in the time

Normally teachers predict students a better grade, if anything.

They want them to get good university offers.

They should have had to sit them after the pandemic, any student who normally missed exams for illness/ bereavement etc would not normally be awarded them based on predicted grades.

Tough Shit.

You do realise some degrees are entirely coursework based?

Ive met people who can barely speak any English who have managed to get 2.1 degrees from UK Unis.

GCSes and a levels are important for ensuring that they can actually speak English if nothing else!

And how would schools have coped with two year 11s and two year 13s?
space? Number of teachers? Timetabling?
or would that have also been ‘tough shit’ as you so eloquently put it?

I don't consider it pandering to say 'thirty mins left' and 'ten mins left' .

Surely we all WANT the kids to do as well as possible.

They should have had to sit them after the pandemic, any student who normally missed exams for illness/ bereavement etc would not normally be awarded them based on predicted grades.

Tough Shit.

Normally teachers predict students a better grade, if anything.

They want them to get good university offers.

They should have had to sit them after the pandemic, any student who normally missed exams for illness/ bereavement etc would not normally be awarded them based on predicted grades.

Tough Shit.

@Catlady007007- there may be 180 kids in a hall- we can’t pander to their every need re timing. Unless they have specific additional needs they should be perfectly capable of reading the time and looking at the end time of the exam and working out how much time they’ve got left. If the invigilator was asked and then gave the wrong answer that wouldn’t be great either.

I would assume the teacher’s qualifications went beyond gcse and a level. If my child’s teacher didn’t sit their a levels in 2020, but then went on to study at university and completed their degree and pgce, then no it would no bother me in the slightest.
The issue with cheating is only one person benefits. The alternative covid arrangements affected the entire cohort.
how do you think the covid/exam situation should have been managed?

I would assume the teacher’s qualifications went beyond gcse and a level. If my child’s teacher didn’t sit their a levels in 2020, but then went on to study at university and completed their degree and pgce, then no it would no bother me in the slightest.
The issue with cheating is only one person benefits. The alternative covid arrangements affected the entire cohort.
how do you think the covid/exam situation should have been managed?

not in my experience. If teachers over predict, the student may get more offers but that’s pointless if they don’t meet the offer. As a parent I’m interested in actual results achieved, not university offers received.

Modified ones aren’t they same as just not taking the exam and being awarded the qualification.

It absolutely DOES matter that there are a load of people walking around with qualifications they haven’t really got (I.e done an exam for).

Otherwise, what’s the problem with cheating? Would you be upset if you found out your child’s teacher hadn’t done any of their exams and was awarded their quals anyway??

Normally teachers predict students a better grade, if anything.

They want them to get good university offers.

Modified ones aren’t they same as just not taking the exam and being awarded the qualification.

It absolutely DOES matter that there are a load of people walking around with qualifications they haven’t really got (I.e done an exam for).

Otherwise, what’s the problem with cheating? Would you be upset if you found out your child’s teacher hadn’t done any of their exams and was awarded their quals anyway??

I would much rather be judged on what I actually produced in an exam than what teachers predicted I would achieve. There’s bound to be human bias in that, plus I was the type of student who did little work all year and then buckled down to ace the exams.

it wasn’t an ideal situation, but what was the alternative?
Does it really matter now? When you have passed one set of exams and move on to the next, those exams become less significant. My Dd took her GCSE’s in 2022 and some of the papers were modified and content adapted due to covid. Did it make the exams easier for her? Possibly. As she had not taken any formal exams prior to 2022 it’s impossible to say.
However she is now in her second year at university so the fact that the history of medicine was removed as content from her history gcse and may have made the exam easier for her is largely irrelevant and cant imagine its of interest to anyone.

I would much rather be judged on what I actually produced in an exam than what teachers predicted I would achieve. There’s bound to be human bias in that, plus I was the type of student who did little work all year and then buckled down to ace the exams.

Are you me? No, this was my class in the 70's! Yeah, the very idea of wasting many minutes away from our exam paper unless in a total emergency would not have occurred to us.