Exams aren't fit for purpose

[littlequestion]

I have two DC and both are doing exams - one A levels and one GCSEs. The older only had a few, low-key exams for his GCSEs so this is the first time for proper exams in my house.

I honestly can't believe how dreadful, stressful and ultimately pointless these exams are - they are not fit for purpose.

The amount of content they have to learn is insane. What on earth is the point of learning 15 poems almost off by heart? What skill does that teach? Most importantly, how is it useful for life?

My other bugbear is that the exams just don't give them enough time. If you've studied a subject in massive depth for two years, why not give candidates enough time to write a considered essay instead of having to rush it and decide what are going to leave out? Why not give them enought time to check their work?

That's what I do in my job - I don't just dash something off and hope for the best. I don't mean exams shoiuld take half a day, but an extra half-hour of planning/ checking time built in would make the world of difference.

I still have my exam timetable and papers from my O-level days. When I compare them to my DC's GCSE exam timetables and papers, I can see that typically they sat more papers per subject but the individual papers were shorter in length - so about the same number of hours overall per subject. Significantly, multiple shorter papers did mean they had fewer gaps to rest and recharge during the exam period compared with me.

Exams are not perfect but coursework is open to abuse and AI will only make matters worse.

Real life is often about juggling things and making decisions about where to really pull the stops out and where 'good enough' will do in terms of preparation and effort. To some extent that approach helps when faced with GCSE exams in particular.

Actually my son did need to memorise all his physics equations for uni. Never since though. It was ridiculous. Other dc at other unis were given their equations which is right I think. Why would you have to memorise them? But it's so unfair that some need to memorise and some don't. And once working no one needs to

@Natsku is that 43 exams over the who school year - or over 3 weeks? GCSE exams are over 3 weeks so it's an awful lot at the same time.

@Natsku and are the 5 six hour exams 5 in each subject? Or just 5 in total? Do they have to do more than one subject exam a day?
I assume they get a break part way through.

Precisely.

And to all the people saying we need rigorous exams to compete in the world stage.. why? Exams are not in the slightest reflective of the skills needed in the workplace. They are a completely random form of measuring people that tests them on skills that are not the skills we need in life. Memorising information and recalling that information in a timed environment measures exactly that. And that is something no one does irl in the workforce.

But @PerpetualOptimist O levels were only done by the top what? 1/3rd or so of pupils. Not all ability. GCSEs are fine for the top kids and even the middle. But they are not fine for lower ability kids.

@user1497207191 The main issue with the reading SATs this year was the overall amount of text which left little time for actually thinking & answering each question. Again less good for slightly slower lower ability kids.

@Alargeoneplease89 My DD2 had a MH breakdown at the start of Covid so missed her y11. This was due to a variety of reasons but y10 increased demands was a part of it.

Again the demands on the lower ability kids I think are too much, and there no longer seems to be as much flexibility there used to be for them. Whether this is budget issues in schools, and/or teacher retention and/or Ofsted demands I don't know. Pushing DC to achieve is great, but not so they break.

We had an interesting situation with English lit.

My son was in lower english sets due to severe dyslexia. They were only expected to sit Language and all their study time was spent on it. Then, suddenly, Gove changed the goalposts and said speaking and listening wouldn't be included in their grade. My son had or was expected to get an A grade for that element. He, and a few others in his set, were entered for the November Language exam held in just a few weeks time. Most managed to pull off the C grade.

Now the school had to do something with them! He wanted to do extra music but it didn't fit the rota so they put them in for Literature. This is a bunch of kids who weren't considered good enough for that exam but were now going to sit it in 4 months time! They studied just a small section of the syllabus enough that they could answer the questions but have little or no options. He got a D - reckon that's a bloody good win for the situation he was landed in!

God I love it when adults witter on about how easy they thought a few questions from a test aimed at 10/11 year olds were.

No, the GCSE and A level exams as they are at the moment do not help to educate the children if this is what you can call "the purpose". The current exam system causes an incredible waste of time, effort and human potential both for children and their teachers, not to mention enormous stress and appalling outcome as I am sure most of what is being learned for the exams is forgotten before the results are released.

There's nothing like studying for an exam to take away ALL your enthusiasm for learning a subject.

We've had very similar conversations here. Our DS has been a good, steady worker all through school, predicted all As and Bs. He suddenly became very ill in mid-February and hasn't been able to go into school since: we've been bounced around between three different consultants and he doesn't have a firm diagnosis, but he's struggling in to sit his exams with awful, permanent nausea, stomach pains, dizziness and headaches, he's now on medication for anxiety because he's become so terrified of throwing up in the exam hall, and while the school has been very accomodating in putting him in a quiet room and applying for special consideration, it's bound to have an impact on his grades. It feels as if 12 years of hard work could just go up in smoke, because for most of his subjects these exams are 100% of the grade. He can resit if it's really catastrophic, but that would put him a year behind his friends starting college. I wanted him to defer but he desperately wants to get them out of the way. It's so much pressure, though 😥

I just don't see how it's fair, but then again, it's so much easier to cheat on coursework these days than it was when I did my GCSEs.

I have twins doing their gces so I hear you!
Although did not need to learn 15 poems off by heart - just have an understanding of each and know 5 well and remember 3-4 quotes from these 5.

Admittedly DD did IGCSE English (and I might have misunderstood) but there was a big booklet of the poems/text extracts to go with the questions, apparently. I did quiz her about the absence of flashcards full of poetry/quotes

With hindsight, she chose her GCSEs reasonably wisely (since most seem to require application of knowledge rather than rote learning).

There isn't much opportunity to choose well or poorly. Once you've got the compulsory Eng lang/lit, maths, sciences, geo/history, a language there are only a few choices left

One of my twins dos Uk english and the other does the IGCSE and they are very different - my son had to remember quotes and my daughter (IGCSE) didn't - she also handed in two essays and then only did one english lit exam while my son did not have any coursework and sat two exams.

There hasn't been much coursework for dd. A couple of essays for English. Art obviously. Isn't that it? I don't think any of the sciences or maths or geography or languages had coursework

The exams are not that bad, if anything they’ve been dumbed down over the years and grades have correspondingly inflated.

I agree.

My DD has quite complex SEN and a couple of disabilities and is struggling big time with maths (she’s currently in the middle of retaking it for the 3rd time - 🤞3rd time lucky hopefully!)

She is currently doing a level 2 extended diploma course at college and is doing brilliantly (distinctions in every assessment and assignment) because they suit her style of learning, where GCSEs do not. She wants to move on to level 3 (college are desperate for her to do it because she is more than capable) but she can’t without GCSE maths.

She wants to go on to an agricultural college who are happy to accept Functional Skills level 2 instead

I downloaded the Functional Skills level 2 papers the other day and it looks like they’re more appropriate for her style of learning, but college won’t let her do it as she keeps getting grade 3 in her GCSE - I understand that this is due to the way functional skills are funded, so I’ve offered to pay for it (I’ve found an online course) but “it’s against admissions policy”

It’s so frustrating. She can’t move forward without it. College insist she does something that she patently can’t which is just having a negative impact on her motivation, anxiety and self esteem

That is in my opinion, rubbish.
Have you had a child go through the new 9-1 GCSEs?

The stress isn’t caused by the exams, it’s caused by the schools constantly messaging to the kids that it’s a one shot or your life is a smoking ruin. We have had to constantly counter this at home because it is so so damaging.

@alloalloallo Come and join me on my resit thread in Further Education

Yes, I have. They’ve just started their A levels.

By doing A levels they are in the top 50% for a start.
I did O levels. I honestly don't think the new GCSEs are dumbed down.

So you wouldn’t even let “lower ability kids” sit the GCSEs? What criteria would you use to tell children they’re not even good enough to take an exam and how would this reduce stress?

They're module exams so spread out over the year, though there was a higher concentration of them over the last few weeks as we get to the end of term but I don't think at any point there was more than 3 in a week. But these are 11 and 12 year olds, I expect exams will get more frequent and longer over the next few years (this year has been a big step up on 4th grade for instance, last year she only had 32 exams over the year)