Year 7, 8 and 9 exams

[elmoh]

I have just been told by my son's school that they will no longer be doing exams in year 7, 8 and 9 and it is 'not common in the UK anymore' to have end of year exams until year 10. Are your children in year 7, 8 or 9 doing exams this summer? Just a simple yes/no is fine. Thank you!

Yes, end of year exams in years 7, 8 and 9 here too and no plans at all to stop doing them.

Our son finds them very useful. The classes for a couple of weeks beforehand are all about revising the harder topics they've done in the year and teaching them how to revise.

They've also highlighted some weaknesses - in some subjects, he'd been getting good marks & reports throughout the year but then got a really crap mark in the end of year test. When that happens, it highlights a problem which can be addressed - things that had never been noticed during normal lessons throughout the year, so very useful indeed!

Yes, formal exams in all subjects in Y7, 8 and 9. It's so important to prepare for the more important ones in the following years.

Yes, examinations in most subjects @ super selective grammar schools & state academy in my area for Year 7, 8 & 9 done in April/May 2016.
Results available in July incorporated in the students' Annual Reviews. The results of Year 8 students will be used by the schools to set their Maths, English & Science ability groups in Year 9.

Oh yes most definetly. How will the school know how well the pupils are doing if they don't test them. It's too late when they get to Y10.

Well, it looks like your son's school is in the minority, and perhaps a little misguided.

Yes, indeed. And it certainly doesn't seem true that 'very few' schools in the UK do end of year exams as I was told. Thank you all for your responses. I feel I have much better information to go and discuss with the school now.

Bog standard comp here, end of year exams from year 7 for everyone. Pretty high stakes too, setting for next year depends on it.

Yes. Just look through the threads on here talking about revision for year 7 exams. Certainly, all our local secondaries do them.

Just to be different - no our comp don't do end of year exams. They test at end of modules, DS currently in year 9 so will find out in two years if it works

Bluebells DD's school does end of topic tests, end of module tests and end of year exams.

State school - years 7 8 and 9 all have a week of end of year exams in May / June
Year 7 - just in English Maths and Science
Year 8 - in all subjects and English Maths and Science done in hall under GCSE conditions
Year 9 - same as year 8 I think but daughter not got that far yet ( she year 8 at mo )

They have end of unit assessments very regularly in all subjects in all years

Yes all subjects Y7 in June, state SS

We have a Yr 7, 8 and 9 assessment week. No formal exam timetable and the assessments are taken in class. But they cover the whole year's work and students are encouraged to revise properly for them.

We have tests at the end of each module, roughly once a term. Then we have an end of year test where everything is examined. You need both.

Sorry not roughly, exactly.

Yep. Yr 7. Told to revise 1.5 hours per night. Good habits need forming for GCSE's.

Yes

Yes. Eoy exams for every year group. State grammar. Revision timetables, the whole shebang....even yr.7. I'm trying to downplay it, because I know for a fact that there is no need to stress about yr 7 exams. Some parents are in panic mode and passing it on, I think.

I grew up in Sydney. Our nearest equivalent to GCSE at that time meant exams only in English and Maths and your school allocated grades so the actual tests didn't really affect you. It was common for those to be the first exams state school students had ever experienced, and then the first tests that actually mattered were the final ones in year 11 and 12.

My school gave us an exam week twice a year from year 7 so it became absolutely routine. We had a significant new intake at year 11 which taught me how scary exams could be if you had got to that point without experiencing them regularly.

Definitely talk to the school about it!

Yes, all three years. No stressful coaching in our school but plenty of notice and an expectation of home revision.

Another "no" here - didn't realise how common exams were. They do have termly assessments in every subject so will continue to have those (but only on recent work, not the whole year's work).

Yr 9 indy school here. Yes, final exams every year since DC started. It's one full week, three exams a day, some of them 90 min long. Two exams for maths on different days (calculator and not calculator). Modern languages listening exams are also taken on different days to the written ones.
Plus side is he's getting really good at revision and accustomed to spending half-term studying.

YR7 - independent selective and yes, whole week straight after half term - 12 subjects covering all the work covered to date. We're in Portugal - can't see too much revision happening on holiday so DS needs to crack on with it this week. Maths already in set groups - end of year exams will set English & Science for YR8 so no pressure then! I'm taken back at how full on it is already at YR7 that I'm already thinking that we need to curtail the week's holiday we normally take at summer half term in future years to accommodate for revision.

Our school does end of year exams for years 7-9.

Yes - in all subjects I think (y7, London/Surrey borders; state school) - they are being told to revise 3hours/day over half term, and 2hours/night from next week in term time. Exams help determine their expectations and setting for next year.