At DD's school, they have started doing exams 4 times a year.
I'm all for monitoring progress and raising standards but this is getting ridiculous. DD is getting obsessed with her Levels/grades and making progress. Some of this is, of course, a very welcome attitude, but I am worried about the constant level of stress she is under. It's putting strain on the whole family.
The cycle starts with a build up of revision with lists of topics and DD getting anxious that she won't have enough time to revise everything, then we have the exam week followed by anxiety over what the results will be. Last week was exam week and all this week she's constantly evaluating her performance and speculating as to how many marks she's dropped in each question or analysing what grades she'll be happy with and at what level she will be disappointed. Revision lists for the next set of exams have already been put up online and she is already starting her next revision schedule.
If she was getting into this state for her actual GCSEs then I would be slightly concerned but take it as part and parcel of external exams, if it was end of year exams, then again it would be acceptable but 4 times a year?
I actually wonder how the staff manage to get any teaching done with all the lessons 'lost' to revision, exams & analysis and whether the students will have 'burnt out' before they get to their external exams.
Is this constant assessment with this level of pressure the same in all secondary schools or is DDs school particularly bad?