AIBU to expect the current GCSE / Y11 cohort to get concessions too?

[andyetanotherschoolyear]

Due to the (negative) impact of the pandemic on learning, each cohort so far have been given concessions to try to make up for this (e.g. not sitting exams - 2 years; being provided with advance info - last year) and I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the current Y11s should be provided with some sort of adjustment too. They did, after all, lose out on class room learning for a significant part of their GCSE courses too.

Thoughts?

This. This GCSE years for current year 13's were shambolic. Unfinished syllabuses. Remote learning. Starting A levels in year 12 on the back foot with gaps in knowledge.And they've never sat an external exam.
A line does have to be drawn. After the summer exams of 2023.

I don't agree. There is no particular reason for the line to be drawn after summer 2023. There will then be another argument for the next cohort, and the one after that. Where does it end?

The exams should go back to normal in 2023. It's the fairest option. Kids who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic should be able to apply for mitigating circumstances. The rest of them are all in the same boat together.

I don't think exams should go back to "normal" at all. We had a chance to change the system and go with open book exams. At the moment, exams are just a memory test. They don't show who will do well in the workplace at all.

There should be numeracy and literacy tests at 16 and that's it.

A levels should be open book exams. You still need to know the stuff but I don't know for example why you need to learn poems off by heart so you can quote from them, or formulae that you could look up in the workplace (and presumably if they were essential to your job you'd soon learn them off by heart).

I think there are certainly arguments for reforming exams, at all levels. That wasn't really my point, though.

My point was that there do not need to be further special concessions for the current year 13s because of the pandemic. Yes, their education has been affected by the pandemic, as has the education of the 10 or so cohorts below them, but we can't keep applying "special" concessions forever.

Long term reform of exams and assessments wouldn't just be a special arrangement for the current exam cohort - any reformed system would presumably be retained for future cohorts as well. That's a different argument entirely!!

I have a DS who took GCSEs this summer, there were no real concessions, they missed a huge amount of school, even in Y11 there were huge periods of learning they missed due to isolation and also many supply teachers. The GCSE grades last year from what I know of (obv only in my circle of friends, although various schools) seem to reflect what the children were predicted and were expecting over the last few years. There will obviously be exceptions. In comparison to last year it seemed almost reasonable, last years results were a bit of a joke, I know people predicted 4/5s who got 7-9s and at A level predicted D/Cs and got A/A*s.

It needs to be back to normal next year (which is basically was this year anyway) however I do feel there should have been an overhaul as I don't think the exams are particularly fit for purpose.