GCSE and Alevel exams in England

[SmileEachDay]

Should they go ahead?

Given the wildly fluctuating attendance levels at school at the moment, the continued possibility of whole year groups having to isolate and the very different teaching experience this years Y11 and 13 are having?

YABU - Keep going! Exams! It’ll be fine! Tally ho!
YANBU - Cancel exams and use externally moderated assessment pieces, plus teacher assessment.

Wales currently having this discussion, England isn’t...

I don’t think exams should be cancelled...
...but I do think they should be significantly changed. I think that without any changes, it would be grossly unfair for exams to go ahead next year.

My eldest is in year 11 and currently self isolating again along with their whole year - second time this term. The school are doing a good job of sending work but it is no substitute for the real thing. Ofsted and the DoEducation need to take their heads out of their arses and recognise that the content of all exams must be reduced. Because some kids (including mine) have not been taught it by a teacher for the first time yet. This is different from last year’s cohort who had finished their courses before lockdown and were at the revision stage. It should be a principle that all students should all only be tested on what they’ve been taught rather than on (the arbitrary) total content of the curriculum that was designed well before any whisper of a pandemic or lockdown. I would prefer this to the total cancellation of exams but I would expect it to be significant ie. around 40-50% content. And done in such a way that would allow all students to only be revising from after Christmas rather than learning any new content.

Yes I realise that means exams need to be redesigned. Seems like a small price to pay versus the effort the teachers have to go to in order to individually and robustly assess each pupil at every school on an ongoing basis just in case exams are cancelled again.

Also there are larger issues at play here. I suspect around concerns for civil disobedience. If exams are cancelled, a cohort of young people will have nothing productive to do, as per last year’s year 11s and13s. The diligent or privately schooled will study for the next stage (increasing degrees of disadvantage in the system). The majority - abandoned by their schools who will have many other students to help catch up - will roam the streets and parks, hang out in groups, spread the virus, generally disrupt Boris’ plans for tiered lockdown.

Plus anyone who thinks exams should be cancelled, needs to recognise the risks that the more time this cohort spends outside of the education system, the less likely they are to progress within it. This again will disproportionately affect state school pupils with less support.

@Baaaahhhhh

Thanks noble. Still quite a small percentage of the total student number though....

That’s the number of confirmed cases, not the number of students at home isolating.

Lockdown or no lockdown, closure or no closure, I want exams to go ahead this year. They won’t be “fair” but there is no alternative system that I think is any fairer. The teacher predictions for last year weren’t perfect but there was a certain equity the amount of disruption schools had experienced up to that point. Any system of teacher predictions now would be a very different ball game. Some students have missed a lot more school than others, some will have had an easier time of working at home than others, some have not attended school at all since late February. Asking teachers to take all of that into account and come up with grades that are fairer than everyone sitting an exam in June is just impossible. Some teachers won’t ever have met some of the students that they are asked to provide predictions for and external candidates and home educated kids can’t be allowed to miss out again. I think the government may cancel them, but I would prefer them to find a Covid-safe way to run them, whatever happens. I personally think the government should have done that for June 2020 A Levels too.

It should be a principle that all students should all only be tested on what they’ve been taught rather than on (the arbitrary) total content of the curriculum that was designed well before any whisper of a pandemic or lockdown

For humanities subjects it would be very easy to design exams that allow for lots of optional questions on all topics, and allow the students to pick the questions on whatever they've done.

Languages are more difficult, but there are "topics" as well as the language element such as literature, plays and films, so they could introduce some element of choice.

For Maths and science I don't know - I get the impression in a lot of cases that topics build on each other, but there might still be some ways to allow optional questions. Also allow open book exams so eg you can take the texts into an English lit exam and formulae into Maths and science exams to avoid having to rote learn things.

Test the skills, not the knowledge.

I'm also really shocked that some universities have actually increased their entry requirements for next autumn. I assume they are too full from deferrals from this year, but at least two universities that my son has been looking at have increased their entry requirements from BBB and ABB to ABB and AAB respectively.

My DD is finding it sooo stressful not knowing. There is no room for screwing up any kind assessment at the moment in case the marks up being used towards final grades. She is working herself to the bone already. She will be so worried if she ends up having to isolate and misses school. I'm not sure it's sustainable to be like this through to June. It's such an unfair situation to put these kids (and their teachers) into.

CCEA (Northern Irish exam board) announced several weeks ago that exams were planned to go ahead, but contingencies were also being put in place in case that had to change later.

The vast majority of courses have had 1 unit removed. English Lang and Maths are unchanged and the full course must be examined as they are considered “passport subjects”. There is an upper limit of 40% by which a subject can reduced - this means that there are a couple of courses where a unit hasn’t been removed because each unit is worth 50%. (RS and Food & Nutrition being the two I can think of at GCSE off the top of my head)

They have also released specific guidance (or it’s about to be released) for this year’s Form IV pupils to ensure they are taught units in a specified order in case further disruption affects their exams in 2022 too.

The exam diet has also been pushed back by 1 week. (We can’t do 3 weeks here because exams would then go into July and our schools here finish for summer at the end of June so it wouldn’t work)

I was interested to see the news articles on Welsh board recommendations. It’ll be interesting to see how the 3 nations come to conclusions on this. Scotland is different because their whole system is different, but with England, Wales and NI all (pretty much) using the same system albeit with different exam boards there needs to be some kind of cross-body consultation. The vast majority of students in NI schools sit CCEA exams but some do sit Edexcel, AQA, Welsh board etc...

my ds is year 12 and he's already had to isolate multiple times we are worried about his exams in 2022 so those taking in 2021 should be encouraging their dc to do best in internal assessments/mocks in case they are cancelled. Its really tough on these dc as its their whole future at stake.

@cologne4711

It should be a principle that all students should all only be tested on what they’ve been taught rather than on (the arbitrary) total content of the curriculum that was designed well before any whisper of a pandemic or lockdown

For humanities subjects it would be very easy to design exams that allow for lots of optional questions on all topics, and allow the students to pick the questions on whatever they've done.

Languages are more difficult, but there are "topics" as well as the language element such as literature, plays and films, so they could introduce some element of choice.

For Maths and science I don't know - I get the impression in a lot of cases that topics build on each other, but there might still be some ways to allow optional questions. Also allow open book exams so eg you can take the texts into an English lit exam and formulae into Maths and science exams to avoid having to rote learn things.

Test the skills, not the knowledge.

Yes totally agree on the open book thing. But actually there is scope for optionality in all subjects. E.g. in GCSE triple science biology just do Paper 1 or paper 2 content rather than both. (Yes of course they’ll have to catch up if they go on to do it a A level but no need to cram it for GCSE)

[quote Hopegrows54]@TheDrsDocMartins ,I think for GCSEs having exams for English language, maths and science , centre assessed grades etc for other subjects might be the way to go.

However for A-levels, although students maybe capable of working from home and it may be a practical solution if all the right things are in place, like on line learning and other support... I don’t think it takes into account the impact that being away from school has on a lot of young people’s mental health, who feel isolated and unsupported and really miss the real world interaction with their teachers and peers. That’s a concern I have and have heard expressed.[/quote]
I think it would have to be centre by centre for year 12 but I think there could be some compromise on online learning/face to face.

@SmileEachDay

I’d be interested to hear from the 13% - genuinely.

Is there a way for the summer exams to be fair?

I am in the 13%.

I am very very troubled by the idea of exam results being awarded on the basis of feelings of fairness instead of on the basis of do you know this subject to the required standard.

I am an engineer. The laws of physics don't change because you didn't learn the relevant bit of calculus but everyone thinks you could have done well at it if the teaching had been available you but it wasn't so you didn't learn it.

The bridge will fall down if you cannot do the calculations correctly, no matter how unfair it is that you were deprived of the opportunity to learn how to do the calculations correctly.

If you want the bridge to stay up you will still have to take the extra time to learn how to do the calculations correctly, even if your exam certificate pretends you know already.

Would you want a doctor, car mechanic, hairdresser, accountant who passed the exams even though they have huge gaps in the expected knowledge?

I know GCSEs don't actually make you an accountant or hairdresser, they are just the start, but the principle is the same. We should not be telling children that exam results are a measure of how unlucky you were, how deprived you were, how ill you were. They are a measure of knowledge and application of that knowledge.

If a child can't get to the right level by May/June then, no, the child should not be awarded that GCSE. Definitely not.

It is what happens next that must change.

The child needs to learn more and take the exam later but our current system has to change to accommodate that.

Employers and further education establishments will know that Sophie and Sanjiv did their GCSEs a year late /6 months late not because of a personal failing but because they were hit by the pandemic education slow down.

It will be awkward to deal with two or even three year groups all studying at a similar level at the same time, especially as it will not be uniform across the country/demographics. It is not fair that disease has affected some demographics of children worse than others. Bloody unfair. That doesn't stop the bridge falling down. Throw resources at teaching them instead of faking exam results.

In this country we force children into a very rigid pattern of thou shalt do GCSEs in May/June when you are 16 then do A-levels in May/June when you are 18, then go to university. It is this rigidity that needs breaking. Yes it will be a logistical nightmare but the end result could be better for everyone in the end.

postit the error is thinking that exams as they are demonstrate a required standard.

Grade boundaries are set after the exams according to how pupils performed in order to ensure parity with previous years, not to demonstrate a particular mastery of a subject.

I’ve not rtft, but:

Exams are the fairest way to assess pupils.

Not having exams will disproportionately affect the already disadvantaged, the working class, the poor and people from BAME backgrounds.

There is simply no way to moderate grades between schools without a standardised assessment, we tried that in the summer and look at the mess we made of it. Grade inflation was through the roof; as it was politically unpalatable to downgrade predictions. With the best will in the world; teachers are going to inflate grades; especially when their pay rise depends on hitting targets. For every school doing it “fairly” there will be another chancing it.

If employers and universities can’t be sure that an A from one institution is the same as an A from another one, they are going to go back to judging on other factors such as where someone went to school, what accent they have, what job their dad does etc, even if they aren’t explicit about it. Like I said, this will impact disadvantaged students worse.

Most schools finish their GCSE curriculum in year 10, so students aren’t “six months behind”

And, this shouldn’t be a political thing. I’ve never voted Tory in my life and never will.

Most schools finish their GCSE curriculum in year 10

What?! No they don’t.

@noblegiraffe that’s true; but they don’t vary by massive margins so they?

Two A grade students from two different cohorts (or event the same cohort) ; might not know the exact same stuff; but their overall mastery of a topic will be similar.

The variation in grade boundaries, from my understanding, vary based on difficultly of the exam. So that the same student sitting the test in different years should come out with the same grade, so in that way; they do measure mastery don’t they?

While I do think more classes should have coursework, I think in this situation we need to think of what happens with students who can't complete it through no fault of their own.

This was an issue with BTECs this year, and I know some courses are trying to figure out how to squeeze in ones that were missed at end of last year so there can be results for next August.

@CyanSnake in 25 years of teaching GCSE and having been a GCSE examiner I have never (can speak for DH too as a secondary teacher) finished a GCSE course in year 10, even if the course was a 3 year GCSE course. Never.

Sorry to tag you again @noblegiraffe.

I admit I have a small sample size; but I know all four of the local secondary schools finish new content teaching in most subjects at the end of year 10; and use year 11 as a revision year. All of them have finished all content by Xmas of year 11.

they do measure mastery don’t they?

No, for example when there was the massive overhaul of GCSEs, the pass grade stayed the same for the first cohort to sit them and subsequent cohorts despite the first cohort being worse prepared due to fewer resources, teachers not being as experienced at teaching the new spec etc. This is well documented and called the ‘sawtooth effect’. The first cohort would have passed at the same rate despite not being as good at answering the papers.

@noblegiraffe

postit the error is thinking that exams as they are demonstrate a required standard.

Grade boundaries are set after the exams according to how pupils performed in order to ensure parity with previous years, not to demonstrate a particular mastery of a subject.

That's stupid of GCSEs then.

So if everybody scores no more than 20% then the highest grade might be awarded for 18%.

Manipulating GCSE results like this normally is wrong. It does the children no service. Their professional qualifications later will not operate on this basis. We are setting them up to fail with this fakery.

Some GCSE curriculum topics can only just be crammed into the two years, they are so content heavy, they won’t be completed by the end of year 10!

So if everybody scores no more than 20% then the highest grade might be awarded for 18%

Basically, yes.m

I know all four of the local secondary schools finish new content teaching in most subjects at the end of year 10; and use year 11 as a revision year. All of them have finished all content by Xmas of year 11

They will be schools who start teaching GCSE in year 9. Not all schools do that.

So if everybody scores no more than 20% then the highest grade might be awarded for 18%

In theory, yes. In the first year of the reformed A-level maths, the grade boundary for an A* was 76%, where the previous requirement was an average of over 90% on the A2 modules.

@CyanSnake

Sorry to tag you again *@noblegiraffe*.

I admit I have a small sample size; but I know all four of the local secondary schools finish new content teaching in most subjects at the end of year 10; and use year 11 as a revision year. All of them have finished all content by Xmas of year 11.

My sample size may be bigger. I’ve been teaching for 32 years, in a variety of schools (both independent and state). I have teacher friends all over England and Wales because I (and they) have moved around a bit. I disagree with the recent trend of 3 year KS4 as I think KS3 needs three years, but in every case where it’s been introduced it’s been in response to massively increased specifications. I know of no school which aims to finish the course before Christmas of Y11. The vast majority aim for Easter of Y11. Many don’t meet that target.