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.

I also didn’t experience the UK education system and I strongly disagree with GCSEs. In my schooling, I was assessed throughout the year in all of my subjects. This gave me plenty of experience in studying for regular tests and in completing coursework and homework. I was graded on these results and had a clear understanding of what I was good at and what I wasn’t good at. This regular assessment is far better aligned with the real world where regular output is valued,
instead of one off high stakes exams. I did well at university and have had a professional career in the UK, so none of this held me back in life. GCSEs should be scrapped.

This is simply untrue. O levels were before my time but my Mum went to Grammar school in the 1960s and passed 6 of them with high grades. She was unable to help my eldest with his top set maths GCSE homework a few years ago.

It's curious how you only think O levels in the 1980s(?) A levels in the 80's(?) and presumably a degree in the early 90s were the most difficult in history!!

Good on them for making something of themselves. But these are the exceptions and not the rule.

My school didn't do any coursework based GCSEs, and no modular subjects. I did come across some people at university who had gone to private school and cheerily admitted they were only their because their school helped them a lot with their coursework

My kids didn’t struggle, but I still think that 10-15 exams a week for a month, to decide their future is ludicrous. No other state of life requires this, so why are we expecting 15 year olds to do it? Teachers are already doing ongoing assessments for their data points, why can’t these be used, alongside ongoing coursework?

Continuous assesment was removed because they found it was gamed a lot. I think at some point, kids should just suck it up and study.

I’ve never said anything of the sort.

But the reason it was removed is nothing to do with the question of whether there are too many exams to sit. It is a situation that is unprecedented, easy to dismiss when you are older and it's not going to impact you.

You didn't have to!

That doesn’t tell you anything. 6 O levels is not many, it would have been a long time since she did them, and the syllabus will be different.

Yeah I hardly need say anything with you here to invent it all.

Maths is taught completely differently now to how it was when I was at school in the '80s, let alone '60s.

I had to learn how to help my kids in reception with number bonds and so on, as I'd never heard of them.

Absolutely agree. I grew up in Germany and went to a top Uk uni and didn't have to go through any if the madness my daughter has to go through. 25 different exams, different exam boards, papers 1, 2, NEA etc etc. all seems mad to me.

Particularly, the different exams boards I find the crazy. 🤪 I think it's like the Truman show - when you're in this system you don't realise it's mental.

Perhaps it was seven, not particularly unusual at her Grammar school by all accounts. My MIL went to a Grammar school in a completely different part of the country and she undertook the same number. The both took Maths and achieved high grades.

It is laughable and ludicrous that you think your particularly year was the most rigourous of all. You do realise that some who sat O levels in the 60s, 70s argue the same as you- that they were easier in the 80s.

Stress is a part of life.
That kind of stress should not be part of a 15 or 16 year old's life. It's ridiculous 4 weeks with 1-2 exams per day. Expectations for bright academic kids all 9s with perhaps one or two 8s thrown in.

My dc is at a very competitive grammar school in top sets throughout. It is still a gruelling experience. There is no need for so many exams in such a short time span.

My eldest did 14 and got all As and As. All my other kids handled their 10+ GCSEs well *👏good for them why can't all young people be like your relaxed and academic children right?

The 80s is a 'long' time ago as well- Illogical argument to suggest you can compare to your exams when they happened 40 years ago!

I've never found modern GCSEs fit for purpose. I grew up in a more enlightened time when they first appeared and the focus was equally upon exam results and contunual assessment. In some cases like my English GCSE there was no exam at all and I secured an A within the first year.
The current model of 100 percent exams is purely a test of recall which I totally sucked at and favours pupils recall skills and not their actual abilities!

You’ve invented a position for me in your head and are arguing with that.

I have never said, as you seem to think, they were harder in the 80s than before. They were always academically challenging for the age group. Indeed I specifically disagreed that they were easier in the 50s, using my parents as an example.

The whole point of phasing O levels out was to get rid of the 2 tier system whereby students who were not deemed academically capable of O levels sat CSEs instead. The merging of the two was intended to make the exams accessible to all, so of course they had to be easier.

Higher Tier paper in Maths makes that distinction. A grade 9 is categorically not easier than O levels grade A.

My DD had 25 exams for 12 GCSE’s. It was too much. She is so much more relaxed doing her 4 A levels right now which seems crazy to me (and she’s on for 4A*)

I’d hope it would be roughly the same. But they don’t have to do calculus.

Looking at my old school GCSE results this year - 94% of entries gained 8 or 9,
80.5% of entries awarded a 9 grade. It doesn’t suggest any great struggle to get 9s.

Don’t be ridiculous. That is a very unusual %. Try having a look at the national statistics.

Last year, 5.1% of pupils in England were awarded a Grade 9 in Maths, which suggests your old school is a pretty high achieving, privileged one- a bit disingenuous to make out that's the norm!

Not to make too fine a point of it, but to everyone saying “what’s the alternative?,” you are aware that other countries exist, right?