Surely she will end up sitting 30 odd exams?

[MoominmammasHandbag]

The other night we went to my DC3s GCSE choices evening. We discovered that, by the time she sits her exams, new government guidelines will dictate that she has to sit them all at the end of 2 years rather than spreading them out over that time.

Fair enough I thought, that's how mine were 30 odd years ago and fortunately DD is bright and capable of intensive studying. But when I counted things up I realised she will have 9 for triple science, 4 for history, 4 for Latin etc. She will be doing 11 GCSEs. How on earth will they fit in all the exams?

At DCs school, the current year 11s are taking 9 science exams in the summer.

Books Not all DC will need to drop subjects. But when terminal exams were standard for all, many DC with SEN did not take exams, and this move will prevent them doing so again. Not because of their intellectual ability, because their disability.

In the case of my own DS, he is very unlikely to be able to manage this many exams in such a short space of time. If he is entered for all the subjects he is studying for it carries a high risk that he would not complete them leading to failed marks. Consequently, he will probably be entered for selected subjects, so he can pace himself. IMO that is not just a problem, it is grossly unfair and has potential consequence for his future life.

At DCs very academic schools they advised most to take 9 GCSEs, 10 if you really wanted to but definately no more.
They stressed the work for the extra subject and then revision time of a whole extra subject was better spent relaxing or doing sport/music/whatever else.
DS did 9 and is at London medical school, DDs did 9 too and are at Bristol and Durham.
Many of their peers are at Oxbridge and did 9.

Also, yes DC had around 25 exams each in the summer as the school did not do modules. It was fine, by the time exams come they want to get them done and most are only 45 mins- 1.5 hrs so its not like they are in exams solidly all day.
I hope they do change it to one or two exams per subject as it seems excessive but who knows.

It's quite a test of endurance

and that's what education should be about, I guess?

Stupid system.

My dd is sitting igcses which have no modules/coursework. She is doing 12 and this will add up to roughly 30 exams too. Not too abnormal I don't think

lljkk exams are always a test of endurance, amongst other things.

I'd be fine with my DC doing nine or ten Happymum though that would narrow their options at a very young age (especially at our school, which starts the GCSE courses in Y9). The sport/ music/ bumming about argument is fine, with the caveat that all the students at the DC school seem to manage sport/ music/ bumming about on top of eleven or twelve linear GCSEs.

DDs school is not massively academic but 11 GCSEs is the standard number they take. She has actually been put under loads of pressure to do music as an extra GCSE with a luchtime and twilight session. The school were most put out when I said "no". Who needs 12 GCSEs for goodness sake?

GCSE English Lang is currently 2 hours 15mins - not what you would call a short exam.

English is the exception though really.

It's not a question of 'needing' them though Moomin so much as giving a broadly based education prior to sixth form. That makes sense to me. I really don't see the issue as being how few subjects can one get away with to get to a decent uni or job. That said, ten would probably still do, or eight but with a much broader syllabus.