To think some GCSE exam timetables should be more spread out??

[ChocolateAddictAlways]

My 16 year old has 2 exams on Friday, 2 on Monday, 2 on Tuesday and 2 on Wednesday. After the half term it slows down. The last exam and penultimate exam have a 6 day gap. The penultimate and the one before that have a 4 day gap. All his friends seem to be in a similar boat. A huge flurry of exams this week and next and then things go very quiet!

I understand the logistics of planning these exams must be insane given the number of exam boards and modules and other variables and I am not actually suggesting the system be overhauled (because I suspect it can't be) rather that it seems a shame to have 2 exams a day for so many consecutive days. I can imagine some teenagers feeling really bamboozled the night before such a day. And then that feeling repeats for several days!

He did joke that probably he would be most prepared for those last 3! 😁

Similar for
my DC- it turns into an endurance test- also I had hoped the half term break would be a break but ds just collapsed and never really got back into the swing of
it.

Sorry to hear that 🫂

It just doesn't seem reasonable to have them sit so many exams in such a short space of time. There will inevitably be more exhaustion, mental overload and anxiety when the written papers are condensed in this way.

I found with my DS last year there are just so many exams, it’s relentless. I think he had 22, almost all in the 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after half term.

i think yours must have a particularly unlucky subject combination that’s given him so many double days early on. How are his later ones so spread out though? There’s still a lot of compulsory subject ones near the end - in the week of 8th June there are two sciences and a maths

But they have to get through all the exams in a set time. It sounds very unfortunate that your child has them like this, but exam boards can’t know what every combination of subjects every child has chosen and therefore what will be when. The core exams are spread out, and then it’s just luck as to what is when depending on their choices. Don’t forget there are also loads of exams that your school don’t even do that will be going on on those days yours aren’t doing any.

I agree with a PP when one of mine did theirs half term really messed up the swing of things. I thought it would be a time to regroup, revise but also mean that the slog of exams would be interrupted for a week. In fact it was a great disruptor and they would have rather just cracked on!

That is so intense! It's almost setting up them up for a hiccup! How did he feel at the end?

Mine has a few at the start of June which are better spread out, there is one week when I think he just has 3 long written papers and that feels much more reasonable. He has a few academically strong friends who are doing 11/12 GCSEs and the extra modules of those additional exams have resulted in them having just one or two days when there is nothing (except for half term) otherwise every day thet have either a spoken, listening or written module.

I have no clue how mine ended up with such long gaps between the last 3 papers. It's so odd. I think it's to do with his options all being squished before half term whereas his core science ones are after half term. The silver lining for my son is that his least favourite subjects are the ones at the end and they have many days between each module so he's feeling happy to have solid chunks of time between each of those to re-revise. But I expect some stress next week!

But they’re so short these days - an hour and a half, typically - two in one day is hardly that arduous.

Some are shorter than others that is true.

Both his Friday exams are just under 2 hours and although he has finished his revision for both of the modules I think he's not thrilled to be going over 2 lots of flashcards/notes for them tomorrow evening (there's an exam tomorrow as well 🤣)

It's not great if they are too spread out either. My youngest did his GCSEs the first year they restarted exams at the tail end of the pandemic and if I recall rightly there had to be a 10 day gap between papers in the same subject. The idea was that if a pupil missed one paper because they had Covid then they'd be able to do the next one and the grade would be based on that. Makes sense I guess but crikey that exam period went on for a long time and it was very hard to keep the momentum going. I think DS would have preferred to have got it all done in a shorter time period as it just felt like it went on forever and he started to find it difficult to focus by the end. Plus they didn't get that lovely long post GCSE holiday as the exams went on much closer to the end of the school year. (Then to add insult to injury poor DS got Covid just as the exams finished and whilst all his mates were finally celebrating, going to prom etc he was ill in bed!)
In an ideal world it would be steady with all the exams evenly spaced but unfortunately that's just not possible given the multitude of possible exam combinations. To give decent gaps between most exams you'd end up with a much extended exam period and from comparing DS's experience to that of his siblings I'd say that whilst it is without doubt hard going there are some plus points to getting it all done relatively quickly.

Hasn't it always been like that? I did 9 O-level papers in a week back in the day..

I did my final uni exams in one week i remember - 9 exams over 5 days - 3 hours each

OP there are a fair few core GCSEs after half term so I think you must be mistaken? There are 4 science papers and 2 maths. Pretty sure an English too. That's 7 exams in 11 days (not including weekends).

My DD has an exam a day with a couple of free days over the whole 4 weeks and 1 day. Just luck in what she picked. All the usual traditional subjects. What I would say is that some school are still insisting on too many options. 8 or 9 GCSEs is more than enough. I'm tutoring a fair few doing 10+ and they are all talking about having 1 they are 'sacrificing'. What on earth is the point?

It will be a hellish 5 weeks but then they get the most amazing long summer (hopefully).

I know it’s unfortunate but these exams are set nationally. The timetable runs the same for every child in the country. It can’t take into consideration what options your child chose, which exam board your school chose etc. The timetable is set by the exam boards and it’s luck of the draw how your child fits into it.

It's already more spread than it was pre covid, particularly the core subjects. It sounds unfortunate that his options are all before half term but that's life.

My grandson had three exams- four papers in one day and his friend who had extra time had to be supervised overnight and take one the following morning so two in one day is pretty normal. Taking three is not that rare.

They are spread out more than they were when I was at school (early 2000s). I remember having 2 exams most days throughout, and was surprised when my children did theirs that they took over 4 weeks

Trust me, by the muiddle of June you wont be wishing these were spread out any more!

Its already a marathon.
Personally id aim for less exams. So collapse the maths down to 2 slightly longer papers. See if the sciences could be less than 6 papers - especially for the combined science kids.

Are you joking?

The longest paper they will sit is 2 and a half hours, 3 hours 7 mins for extra time. It's English Literature, there's an exam in the afternoon.

It was like this back in the early 90s when I did mine. I had loads of double days. It’s hard but they will survive! A lot of them are quite short too.

When did you find out the timetable for the exams? My DD is in y11 next year and already stressing (self imposed) about her revision plan...

It’s always been like this.

Yeah 3 hour exams is what I remember. I did multiple consecutive days of 3 hour paper in the morning and 3 hour paper in the afternoon. Was a slog but I was well prepped revision wise so I wasn’t relying on having to revise in between exams. Just a quick flick through my notes and then onto the next exam. If I had to do that now though I’d struggle as I’m well out of practice with revising and exams! Not to mention my memory is a lot worse!

The exam board- or JCQ I suppose - have shifted a huge clutch of exams earlier, but I don't know why.

Ds has his this year and we are lucky they are quite well spread out throughout the time. He has a few days at the end when others have exams and he doesn’t as he isn’t doing a MFL.

There are so many different combinations of exams that for some kids they'll be more evenly spread than others. My DS has only got three days in the whole period where he's got two exams. Other kids are all front loaded.

If you spread them out more, you just spread out the stress more and wouldn't guarantee each kid actually has fewer all in one "lump".

I think we got ours in Feb.