too many GCSEs for too long

[lianath]

My son has been doing GCSE's now for at least 3 weeks and still has 8 more exams to go with his last one on 19th June. I find it cruel. I was brought up and educated in The Netherlands. We had all our exams in 2 weeks (max 2 per day). Over and done.
Does anyone agree with me that GCSEs are too many weeks of endless exams?

My eldest seven DC have all taken either eleven or twelve GCSEs as linear, all in one sitting. That was about 26 exams I think, perhaps a couple less. But most exams were an hour and a half, maybe two, so really not long. The problem hasn't been with the number, but with the silly length of time that the exams are spread out over. Exam fatigue has kicked in for a number of them a few days after the half term break when they've pretty much given up on revising, especially if it's been sunny outside.

DD is 14, in Y9 and has just taken 2 short course GCSE modules, so that was 2 exams and now has 3 exams for her GCSE Classics, spread over 2 weeks. Madness. And her school have decided that giving kids a rest after all the testing is no longer viable, so they're starting Y10 work the week after the exams finish, so they don't 'lose momentum'. I've told dd to turn up to class, nod and smile and not worry too much if she doesn't get it. There are 6 weeks of holidays and everyone will forget everything over that period, so the school will have to backtrack then anyway. I've also told her just to focus on the exams that matter and to remember that all she needs is 5 GCSEs, grad A-C including maths, English and science. The rest is gravy.

I'm just so cheesed off with her getting stressed out because she only (ONLY) got a B in a subject or because she got a A but her friends got an A*. Poor kid. I used to tell her she should do her best in everything, but maintaining the effort required for that would drive the best of us to insanity. So I've told her...focus on the exams. Think about what's important and put your effort in there. In terms of day to day classes, you can't possibly put in 100% all of the time. It's just not humanly possible, so don't beat yourself up for any lapses. I wouldn't say it's stopped her being stressed completely, but she knows now that we're not expecting perfection. Unfortunately, school don't give the same message. And we wonder why the mental health of young people is so poor.

Exam fatigue is at an all time high. The content of exams isn't the problem, it is the sheer length of time it all drags on. Bit by bit they (we) lose the will to carry on and turn into shuffling insomniac zombies. There are kids in my dc's school who are self harming. Thankfully we have avoided that, but it all makes me so angry.

If I have to listen to someone older bleat on about O Levels and how it was all so much more challenging in the old days I will surely push them off a very high cliff.

Wake up politicians to the misery of children!

I've read in the news that there has been an increase in mental health problems in children. My Y11 top set this year have certainly suffered. I don't know whether it's because they are top set with the extra pressure that brings but CAMHS have been involved with a few of them and others have really been struggling too. It's unlike anything I've seen in my ten years of teaching.

Littleham whether you want to push people off a high cliff or not, O levels were harder, but taken by a much smaller % of the population. The exams are spread out to allow the large increase in subjects, including BTEC's etc to try and minimise clashes. 30 exams spread over 3 weeks is an average 2 hours a day, with a week off in the middle - hardly hard work.

My Y11s had their first exam on the 5th May and will have their last on the 19th June. That's spread over 7 weeks, not 3.

It has been pretty relentless for them, and the strain is definitely showing.

"My eldest seven DC have all taken either eleven or twelve GCSEs as linear, all in one sitting"

How on earth did you deal with the stress? Or does it just wash over you after the first two or three years?

"If I have to listen to someone older bleat on about O Levels and how it was all so much more challenging in the old days"

I don't think they were more challenging in that expectations weren't as high. DD is doing history GCSE this year and I don't think it is any easier than history O level circa 1975. The only difference was that we got one bite at the cherry and DD gets three bites - coursework and two exams.

I think that in recent years it was easier to get good marks from getting extra help doing coursework, but all of DD's coursework has been done at school as controlled assessments, so no extra help at all.

7 weeks of exams here too noble. But if you count the mocks, the Easter Holidays, the half term it is even worse. Never ending. Then it all starts again.

hardly hard work Would you like to come round my house for the next set of exams? They ARE working bloody hard. They are working much harder than I did for O Levels. Everything seems to have to be A* or A these days which is ridiculous.

My friends dd is coming home after the exams and cutting her arms open. She is from a stable family background. If she is doing it then all our children are vulnerable.

I did 10 subjects spread over rather more than a month and was very grateful for all the time between exams to focus final revision on just one or two subjects at a time. Cramming all the exams into a short time is exhausting and pointless. My son is currently doing nine internal school exams in 3 days and it is not a good idea, at least for him. So I certainly do not agree with the OP! What worries me is an increasing tendency for schools not to give kids proper study leave. So they have to come into school, invariably spending too much time travelling or chatting rather than studying and being forced into a revision timetable that is not adapted to their own exam schedule nor to their personal areas of strength/weakness. It's fine for schools to offer optional sessions but weeks of compulsion is out of order.

I think schools are doing that because not all children study at home. If they do study then the SL is really beneficial but if all they are doing is roaming around town then compulsory sessions at school might benefit them.

The government also cracked down on authorising study leave because some schools were chucking out their Y11s earlier and earlier so they were just roaming the streets and causing problems instead of being in school causing problems.

I'm surprised that schools aren't planning carefully to give a revision timetable in school that matches the exam timetable. My ds is still in school full time but his lessons have been moved in such a way that he is having structured revision.

Shall I obligingly stand on the edge of a cliff then?

I thought that direct experience of the previous system, that is so very similar to the new (everything in education being cyclical, it seems) might just be reassuring, or at least useful.

Clearly not.

(And of course, CSEs were usually by terminal exam too, but people usually refer just to O level to avoid any confusion should people think you've missed a 'G')

I do vaguely remember an interview a while ago, when someone was claiming how it meant children nowadays were both cleverer and better educated because 12+ subjects was the norm for so many pupils (rather than being freakishly rare). Now that there wheel has turned, and the GCSEs that came in under Thatcher are now vanishing, will there be a new take on desirable number of subjects and what it is said to mean?

The previous system, while having superficial similarities, is nothing like the new system for students.

Just as schools are heavily scrutinised and pressurised to get results, so too are students. They have target grades, predicted grades, currently working at grades. Our staffroom has a target board up of kids who might miss a C in maths or English or both so that teachers can be constantly on their case. They are taken out of lessons, lunchtimes and after school for 1-1 tuition. Kids who are not making enough progress across the board from KS2 are assigned mentors and similarly tracked even if they will get C's. Kids were in over half term having hours of revision sessions. Kids were in school yesterday doing more revision for Monday's maths exam.

Nothing like when we were at school.

Littleham that's the thing. I did exams a very long time ago, being older than the average mum, but there was no pressure on us to achieve anything. Unless you had that mum that wanted you to do a specific thing, you weren't pushed or pressed to achieve top grades. Now it's all people talk about.

Self-harming is definitely an issue. My dd, 14, has always been described as very mature, academic and level headed girl. She's came home the other week and said 'I'm not clever any more. I used to be, but I'm not now.' What she meant was, she's being told that she's never good enough. If she gets an A, she's told she needs to push for an A*. If she gets a B, you'd think she'd committed murder, the amount of guilt her teachers subject her to. Add to the fact that her peers are running around comparing grades and inadequacy becomes a constant feature of life.

Any wonder our teens suffer from mental health issues more than any other generation of teens has? And that's without the social media pressurising our girls to look a certain way, dress a certain way, be a certain weight, shave this, pluck that. Insanity. It's been constant testing since she joined secondary school and that's not ending any time soon.

What is it we say when our kids are little? We just want them to be happy. Well, fat chance of that happening in the current climate and exam insanity is at least partly responsible for that.

Today's teen suffer no more pressure than previously - they are far more molly-coddled and brought up to expect life to be easy. It isn't. life is hard and they need to learn to deal with it. The present is better for everyone in this country than 30 years ago.

What is your basis for saying that caroldecker? Do you have teens of your own or are you a teacher?

When I was badgering DS about revision and how much I used to do, even he told me that it was necessary in my day because O-levels were so much harder And he's never heard that from me, TBH I never really believed it.

I don't understand study leave (and didn't when I was at school either). All but the most motivated student would be better off in school doing revision classes than at home (or roaming the streets) pretending to revise. And the teachers are still being paid...

Caroldecker Words fail me. Do you know any teenagers?

30 years ago both my parents were teachers with automatic annual pay rises, no targets, little paperwork and final salary pension schemes

My DS is doing GCSE's this year.

I think caroldecker is being deliberately goady. I felt far less pressured doing my O levels in 1975 than DD does doing a couple of GCSEs this year. She feels under pressure to achieve nothing less than A*, and this is from the school, not from us. Next year will be worse as she will be doing 18 exams for 8 subjects.

I was just happy to get a pass.

I do think that some kids seem to take an insane number of GCSEs. Maybe that was fine when the modular system was in place, but now exams are bunched up at end y11 I think it must be too many for many pupils. It's one thing coping with the general workload over the 2 years, but then revising 11+ subjects seems too much.

In the 80s I took precisely 8 O levels, and still got to Oxford/Cambridge (trying to pretend I'm not identifiable).

I have a mid-ability DD doing GCSEs this year (mainly expecting Cs). I think that for most subjects the difficulty is about right - certainly not too easy to get a C, if anything some are on the harder side of what I would expect.

The pressure is utterly ridiculous and I really really feel for my students.

When I first started teaching, in 1997, one year 11 girl was prescribed anti-depressants in the run up to GCSEs and it was a massive deal. In my current school, a much larger number are referred to CAMHS, or are known self-harmers. It makes me sad and angry in turns. I am angry with the government for creating this situation. We don't give study leave at our school, for the reasons outlined in previous posts. However, from this Monday, students will be on part time timetables as many subjects are finished. My practical exams were early May and coursework deadlines 15th May, but I've had students in class when timetabled on and off since then, depending on exams and revision sessions for other subjects. It has got increasingly difficult to tell them to revise for other subjects when in my room if, for example, they've just completed one exam. Last Friday,Business studies GCSE was fist thing, and the rest were in 2 hours of maths revision, then they had 2 hours of science revision before the biology exam. I had the kids who were not doing additional science, and therefore were not in the revision session. Most had just finished the business exam. I let them play cards rather than forcing more maths revision on them. Everyone needs downtime.

It makes me cross that the government is putting them in this situation and then bleating on about schools teaching mindfulness.