Exam overload - what exactly is the point??

[Notcontent]

My year 10 dd had some end of year exams in years 7 and 8, but they were only in core subjects and other exams were spaced out. No formal exams in year 9 because of covid.

She now has 10 exams in one week. On one of the days she has 3 exams, all covering different, quite demanding subjects.

It’s only Tuesday and she is already exhausted. I understand that they need to practice for GCSEs but this seems a bit much?! They would get much better results if the exams were spaced out a bit more, so is this to scare them?

That sounds really tough!

Sounds normal for Y10, they cram them into a week as they can’t drag on, other year groups have exams, the hall is needed for lessons etc.

Y11 mocks will probably be even more intense.

My Y10 is about to do this as well

I know it’s probably “normal”, but I just don’t think it’s good for their mental health or a good way to get students to perform their best!

GCSEs are also tough, intense and dragged out over a longer time period. If she struggles with Y10 exams then it is probably better that she finds out now and comes up with ways to cope, rather than find out in the middle of the real thing.

To be fair op, my ds2 who was the last year to do GCSEs had 7 exams in a week twice; a friend of his had 10 in the first week. And that was actual GCSEexams that really counted (tho if course these mocks may count!).

So maybe it is a good idea for her to get used to the load. It will be intense.

In Y7-10 DC's had end of year exams in a week, getting more intense and GCSE like each year. Y11 mocks were the same only worse. They didn't get study leave and all crammed into a shorter period than the real thing. As long as the content of the exams is representative of the learning to date then I don't see an issue, the exam practice is invaluable so they don't get completely overwhelmed in Y11.

I think it is representative of what university can be like for certain courses. Exam week of every term at vet school was 6 hours of exams every day (9-12), (2-5). You get your head round it a are unable to perform - just part of life.

My year 10 is doing tests all this week. They are told what areas they will be tested on. It's hard going for her, she's found them difficult to revise for since year 7, but she's definitely coping better with the demands as each year passes. Mocks in Year 11, I remember being more brutal than the real thing for DD1.

@WelcometoJam

My year 11 was informed by the education secretary that GCSE’s were cancelled. She has had 17 ‘assessments’ since Easter. You’d think they would prioritise actual teaching having been locked down with crap online provision for months on end. To say I am fuming would be putting it politely to say the least

If you don't think your DD should do assessments, what would you like her teachers to base her TAG on?

GCSEs have not been cancelled, the public exams that usually provide the grades for GCSES have been. Every single Yr 11 and U6 student should still receive a grade for every subject. This has placed an enormous amount of pressure on teachers to generate these grades for each and every Yr 11 and U6 student they teach.

Rather than just 'fuming', would you like to propose an alternative solution?

I think it's preparation for life.

We have to be challenged as adolescents as adulthood is going to come as a shock.

It's all about learning to be organised, so being fully prepared for the hard slog in the exam room. They won't all get this message at Year 10, but they have to start somewhere.

We would be doing our children's long term mental health no good at all if everything was easy.

I’m pretty sure this has been ‘normal’ since we were in school. The y10 exams are there to allow pupils to get used to this sort of pressure. They’re probably being taken more seriously than ever by staff though as they know they might also be used for CAGS in the future.

The issue is with the outdated style of linear GCSEs (thanks Gove) not with your child’s school.

It’s normal.

That doesn’t mean it’s not a crap way to do it.

But the schools only doing what they have to within the parameters set by the government.

This years “no external exams, so we’ll force you into a position where the only way to gather the evidence needed is a shit tonne of assessments” (exams by any other name) is a joke on the kids and teachers.

@TheJackieWeaver yup. I did my gcses in 1989. Had exams every year before them and did about 15 exams in GCSE year. ''Twas ever thus.

This is what my DC have always done, but when it got to Y11s mocks they space them out to be more like real GCSE. It seems quite early for Y10 assessments though.

My Y11 DD has had two weeks of solid "assessments" sitting in a broom cupboard just her and an invigilator. On the plus side she's avoided exams in a broom cupboard during hey fever season. It could always be worse.

Year 10 mocks for Ds1 took place straight after the GCSEs finished as the sports hall was still set up with the desks and chairs. They only did 1 paper for English lit (hadn't started the other book) and 1 for English lang but apart from that they had covered a lot of content and wanted to test them on it properly, in an exam setting and they sat one set of past papers.

If your Dd is struggling you need to help her learn coping strategies because Ds1 sat 24 exams for his GCSEs and he only took 9. He had 6 exams in one week and it happened twice. Plus the booster classes set by school.

On an actual GCSE exam day Ds had a pre exam booster at 8am then the morning exam, then normal period 3 in school. Then he had lunch, followed by a pre exam booster for the afternoon exam followed by an after school booster. And he was a grade 7+ student, all students had to do this.

GCSEs are 2 years worth of content, this is the half way marker to see how well their revision is working. Yes it is tough but so are the relentless exams when they sit their GCSEs for real. Plus Ds had 2 sets of year 11 mocks, November and February. Yes it is shit, but sadly this is how it is done.

I believe the mocks were over 2 weeks.

My son has just completed his assessments in year 11. He's had 52 tests since Easter. He'd have been better off having the actual exams!

As per others, it's so they can schedule them all in. I agree it's exhausting.

DS had 3 exams most days for 7 days during his mocks, so he would have been overjoyed with a "mere"10 in a week! They were all full length GCSE papers as well with about 30-40 minutes break between them. It was noticeable he did less well in the "third paper of the day" cases.

@willowsmumsy DS is pretty much the same. 2 weeks of mock exams straight after Easter and then at least 2-3 assessment papers a day since then. GCSEs would have been less stressful (both for him and his teachers!)

If they spread the exams more, then they'll be doing more "ordinary lessons" inbetween. I'm not sure it helps to have them spread out if they're also being taught new material at the same time. If it's only a week or so, then they can probably keep the lessons between to revision / getting exams back.

There's also a practical issue if they are using halls/gyms, as those facilities are out of use for the PE department while they're full of exam desks. DD's school have a cross-country week in November when they have mock exams on.

Hard to do it any other way and still prepare them for next year’s exams. If you spread them out, you lose too much teaching time.

@willowsmumsy

My son has just completed his assessments in year 11. He's had 52 tests since Easter. He'd have been better off having the actual exams!

Yep, how this years y11 jave been treated is nigh on abusive. They havent known since the beginning of the academic year how their cohort was going to be assessed. Dd says everydau has felt like an exam day because any piece of work could be retrospectively included (which they were) In some cases teachers told them a certain test definitely wouldnt be included and it was. Dates of mocks were pushed back twice and yhen never happened. Then 6 weeks of ICAs, often 2-3 a day, mostly sat in masks. Kids have permanent headaches and dd said some have been falling asleep at school!

I think it's really hard. In more normal years kids build up exam stamina from the beginning of secondary - I remember DS having more exams each year than the last until the peak of GCSE's. Between Dec and February of Y11 he had 2x 2 week periods of mock exams with 2 papers a day. He took 11 actual GCSE's and had 28 exams over a 4 week period (thank god for half term in between), on 2 days he had 3 papers. Unfortunately the uncertainty over this years GCSE has led to more or less constant testing for Y11's and adding the disruption to current Y 10's and uncertainty over how next years exams will pan out has possibly made schools more rigorous in their internal assessments.
Makes university seem positively easy going