To think GCSE are wrong for many kids

[Mountainsuccess]

I see the level of parental involvement and stress many parents go through when the kids are doing GCSES.

I think if there is so much parental involvement needed surely GCSES are not the right thing for many kids. The number of exams and pressure is completely crazy for a 15/16 year old. Do they actually remember anything after the exams? Or is the UK education system just an exam factory?

The government put so much pressure on schools and schools on teachers, parents, kids. It is just all about results. I feel there is so much micromanaging from the government. Why is this? Why the Government doesn’t trust teachers and parents? Is this ever going to change? Isn’t this supposed to be an advanced country?

Please enlighten me. I am not English but raising kids here.

Exactly this. There should be 2 systems

I definitely agree with OP.
Approx 30% failed either maths or English gcse in England last year. Only approx 66% passed both.
My daughter passed one gcse (English) and achieved Functional Skills maths.
she went on the achieve top grades at level 3 (DDD*), and Distinction in HND. She’s about to graduate from a competitive uni in a creative subject. She’s had work within her industry.
She did not fit the gcse model at all but is an intelligent, hard working, talented young lady.
I really feel for youngsters having to sit GCSEs when they can’t reach the expectations set by them.

That is what I had Teachers assessment? Growing up overseas. There was a national exams at 18 but nothing like GCSE or A levels

There’s a huge amount of stress surrounding school and learning in Japan and Singapore! It’s a hugely competitive environment in both of these countries and long daily hours of learning. Be careful what you wish for. Competitive parents the world over pour on the stress!

Here, some universities do take GCSEs into account and nearly every other type of education and employment will too as they are gateway exams. I believe dc should have a blend of subjects at this level - it’s general education. They absolutely should be expected to learn a MFL, read books for English and preference do an art as well at sciences. They should not just do what they like or we have a poorly educated population. With CSE and O levels years ago, a broad mix was expected and you didn’t get a wide choice.

I do feel that, as they are today, GCSE's are unnecessarily stressful. English for eg - why the need to commit so much to memory. How does remembering and being able to regurgitating and insane number of quotes from 3 set texts and however many poems from the anthology, show understanding. Back in the dark ages of the mid 90s we were allowed texts/anthologies with us. We still had to use them appropriately to answer the questions. It is no more than an excessive test of memory. Combined with the sheer number or exams (definitely more than I had) it would stress out many 16 year olds

What’s the alternative?
My daughter stressed out so much, crying, revising etc and achieved all 8s and 9s - she has gone on to study biomedics

my second daughter couldn’t care less and did zero revision and still achieved 7s and 8s - she’s gone on to be a hairdresser with hopes of owning her own salon and people have said she is wasting her brain which is insane to me.

my son on the other hand also didn’t care less got mostly 6s and some 5s and he then did his a -levels and randomly decided he wants to be an architect and got 2 A*s and an A.

my point is GCSEs are a load of shit they are simply just to check you can survive a -levels or capable of passing maths and English for any job that doesn’t require a degree

Yes agree. Would contininous assessment and fewer high stakes end exams be a better option?

Modular assessments as BTechs are, would be better for a lot of kids, and less onerous to mark.

I also think that for kids who don't get a 4 in Maths and/or English going straight to the functional skills tests (which are grade 4 equivalent) would make much more sense than having to resit the same format of exam that you didn't 'pass'. They are modular.

Currently, providing resit classes for so many kids is a complete drain on school and college resources, especially given the low refit pass rate.

But each year a third of students fail Maths and/or English

And if they cant?

The problem with the two systems approach is that you go back to an era where children who have taken the less academic exams (CSEs as they were pre 1988) are stigmatised for being less academic.

You may think that doesn’t matter if you want to become a plumber or a sparky but it’s much harder to redo those exams if you change your mind in your mid 20s and decide you do want to go to university. Its like going back to the 11+ era. Pugeonholing children as academic or less academic is very limiting.

I agree that GCSEs have become burdensome and stressful for a lot of kids but I don’t think going back to a two tier system is the answer.

Congrats to your DD
What a lovely outcome 😊

Parents seem way more ‘involved’ in their kids GCSEs these days than when I took mine 20 odd years ago.
i didn’t get involved in my own kids exams, asked if they were getting revision done, woke them up in the morning and celebrated with them on results day.
I read on here recently that parents were suspending their entire lives from about January, no holidays so as not to take them away from revision, suspending all chores so they had time to focus, being on hand to cater to every snack whim, not having family round at weekends because it disturbed the revision timetable, just felt ludicrous. No wonder kids are so stressed when their parents make their school exams into this huge deal.

I think for most subjects , 100% of your grade being dependent on the exam is not optimal. Coursework or assessments throughout the year might work better....but i dont know how that would be possible with teachers workload

Exams are 1.5-2.5 hrs of memory testing what you can remember from the previous 2 years.
If you dont work well under pressure, or felt unwell in that small time frame that impacts 2 years work where you might have worked to a high standard.

I say that as a parent of a child who got all 8s and 9s at GCSEs. She says she didnt understand most science (she got 3 9s) but just memorised everything. My second child is taking theirs at the moment, and predicted to get good grades, but I still don't think its the ideal way to assess.

I think a solution needs to be found for the coursework element, at least introducing some ongoing assessment. It’s hugely lacking in the overall GCSE assessment, and would remove the necessity for over 20 exams.

I was so relieved when DS1 didn’t have to do them due to Covid. He wasn’t ready at all. By the time he did his A-levels he was ready did well and went to university.

Some kids are very good at memorising things, have good short term memory which helps with exams and get good results but soon after the exams all us forgotten so what is the point of having to regurgitate all that information in tests.

Not really there are access courses for adults
And the the top grades of CSE,s were the eqivalent to grade C .

Lots of countries use modular exams. Having to remember everything you learnt over the last 2/3 years in one go for 10 subjects does not get the best out of most people.

If you are ill, or there's a family emergency, you get "consideration", no chance to retake - it's an all or nothing one time option.

DS is doing a BTEC at the moment. All merit/distinctions so far, end of Year 1. He would be unlikely to come out so well if he had to produce everything in exam format at the end of Year 2.

T’was ever thus. Ever since exams were invented there have been those for whom they weren’t suitable. In ‘the olden days’ there was no extra time, no calculators allowed etc. The difference now is that if kids don’t get 8 or 9 they seem to think their academic life is over. Which is patently ridiculous and schools and parents should stop making this out to be the case. A friend did her degree aged 60.

I did the old 'O' level/CSE system and, although it was fine for me, I had quite a few friends who were entered into both exams for various subjects because they might pass the 'O' level, but the CSE was some sort of back up.

Costly for parents who had to pay for the extra exams and more exams for the kids.

It also meant that it was more or less decided in the equivalent of Y9 (so when you were 14 or 15) what level if exams you would do, as that was the curriculum you were taught.

Take less subjects college only requires 5 GCSEs.

Sure, in theory, but universities frowned upon CSEs. It was basically a way of marking someone out as “not university material”. I don’t recall meeting anyone at university or among older peers who had done CSEs.

The good thing about GCSEs is that they eliminated this us and them distinction.

How are you going to rank children in terms of ability if you don't test them? Some will do better than others because they are better than others. Nothing wrong with that.

If there was a different form of assessment, some kids would still do better than others. So what then? Scrap that system too for something where everybody wins a prize?

And condiderstion means bugger all
My son isnt academic but he was expected to do better in GCSE, s then he did
He had a sudden medical emegergeny in the febuary of his year 11 and was in a critical condition and spent three weeks in intensive care and missed am entire half term of school
School applied for considerstion but it didnt mean mucj.