End of year assessments year 10, 10 subject assessments in a week

[whereonthestair]

My son has had 7 assessments in the last 4 days, 7 to do in the next 3- so 14 papers over 6 days. He gets extra time so no rest between times (he has 50% extra due to a physical disability in his hands/body plus a processing disorder due to the disability) and is coming home to revise for 3-4 hours revision after doing 5 hours of exams. His friends can revise in the day and obviously spend less time working, it is destroying him. He is really really tired. Is this normal to cram everything into a week. Life feels unfair enough as it is but this seems designed to destroy him. I know some might say extra time removes the disadvantages but in fact it alleviates some problems to replace them with another. What do other schools do?

The problem is that if they spread them more, then more teaching time is lost.

Assuming that there will be more mocks in year 11, I think it's worth discussing with the school whether there is a way to ease it for your son next time round. 50% extra time is unusual, so maybe they just haven't thought about it; 25% extra time fits more easily into the day.

Sometimes there are a couple of days at the end which are used for art extended exams and catch-up for anyone who has been ill, and perhaps one or two exams could be deferred until then. Maybe they could let him do one at home over the weekend. Maybe there's even a subject where they'd be happy to say "we know he's on track, he could just do half the paper".

thanks, we know 50% is unusual and 25% more normal, and there are some subjects where we have refused 50% (where there is less writing and more answers, multiple choice etc) but if you have a child who is has a real physical problem with even typing (think lack of control with muscles) and an obvious processing issue like dyspraxia on top of the physical issue how do you make it fair…? I get the point about teaching time, I really do but for us it is much easier to make up missed lessons (we do loads of that due to medical appointments) than trying to work through, I can put in12- 14 days but not sure my son can. I guess my question was is it really normal to do everything in a week. It seems inhuman to me for any child. I just wondered what the schools do.

Yes it’s normal to do everything in a week.

plus a couple of days for art, photography, graphic design etc as they have really long exams.

Over 6 days (ie a full week plus 1 extra day) DD had 11 exams. 2 days had 3 exams each, the rest either 2 or 1.

Gets them out of the way. Actual GCSes are spread over something mad like 6 weeks, which I think is far harder to keep up the momentum if revising.

personally I think the marathon of 6 weeks is much much easier, I have only ever had 2 exams a day even while doing my very intense degree, and my GCSEs were a lot of coursework. But it sounds like doing it all in a week is usual. 1 exam would be fine but 4 back to back days of 2 or 3 is the issue. When on earth do they get to revise? My son revises as he goes but wrting revision notes also involves writing and so we have had to find other techniques as if he writes to revise he can’t write the assessments. But it sounds as if this is normal. It wasn’t what we’re used to in any previous years but it sounds like it’s get on with it and then take the next fortnight to pick back up with physio etc to plus to try to recover the strength lost in that week. Oh well,

My DD get 25% extra time for medical reasons.
She had all her year 10 exams in one week.
In previous years they had done it over 2 weeks but apparently because of some change in government guidelines and something to do with absence data they had not been allowed to grant the year 10s study leave so they all still had to be in school all the time so they just cut it down to one week. In some ways it was nice to just have it all over with.

It's normal I'm afraid and mocks are the same.

Actual GCSEs are more spread out - which is a nightmare as they go off the boil and are totally fed up by week 5.

Depending what subject choices you have, you can end up with 9 or 10 papers in a week.

We've been lucky and only had 3 days with 2 exams on the same day.

Would a scribe be easier? Then maybe 25% extra would be more suitable.

I would say its very typical for mocks. In contrast to actual GCSE's where we have only had a few days with 2 papers.

I agree with the PP suggesting if he can do some at home, or skip one in the middle if a heavy block. It sounds like physio would be more beneficial than more papers.

Good luck to your son.

I think that this is a typical timetable as it’s trying to get a balance of getting the exams in and not missing teaching time.
It does make it really difficult for those children with 50% extra time as there simply isn’t enough time. Their exams take so long that simply having long enough to go to the loo or have something to eat can be a challenge and that’s before you’ve thought about going and having an actual break between exams or doing some more revision.
Is giving your DS 50% extra time the most suitable adjustment here? It is cheap for the school but how does it actually help your DS? Would be not be better off with a scribe? It might be that he needs a scribe to balance his disability and then some extra time to balance his processing issues. As he’s say his Yr10 exams in this manner, this is now his custom as far as JCQ are concerned but, if you can get it changed by the time he does his mocks, then I think it should work for his actual exams. Your school’s exams officer should be able to give you more information. Or the SENCO
In the meantime, is it worth discussing with the school and asking which papers can he drop. If he wanted, he could still do them over the summer. Or an upcoming weekend. Your son must be exhausted and that could have longer term implications.

The advantage of them all being taken in one week - apart from there also having to be marking, data drops, review, reports and the like and the logisitics of also having to do Y12, Y9, Y8, Y7, incoming Y7 transition and assessment, Sports Day, performances and everything else that has to happen over the next four weeks - is that it is more intense than the actual GCSE exam period; it will not be anywhere near as physically demanding to sit the final exams as it is do do this.

Does he get rest/movement breaks as well in the ET? There's a good case for him to have time to get up, move around outside, shake his hands off and generally give him a chance to deal with any cramping if he doesn't already.

50% extra time is extremely unusual and the school may not have had to think about it before.

There will be pupils who are absent during the exam week and there should be catch-up sessions arranged for them to sit the missed exams. I think given the circumstances I would ask the school if it is possible on the days where he has three exams to miss one of them (probably the middle one) so that he gets a proper break between them, and then he sits it in the catch-up sessions.

It's not ideal, but in the real exams he would not have such an intense timetable.

DC's school do 3 exams a day across a week with very short breaks between them so something similar to your DC's load during the day. (I don't know how they manage it for students with extra time, as there is no extra time).

It is exhausting, and I'd suggest the thing that needs to go is the revision in the evening beyond a "quick look through notes to remind yourself of main points" so he can at least have a break then.

Poor kid. It's not unusual but it's not sustainable either. Mine struggled with the intensity even with 25% extra time and disabilities also affect how long they take to revise etc. I know exams help teachers see where the kids are on track and teach them timing and technique but while they can't control actual GCSE timetables, these are internal exams so they can and should be flexible so he can perform at his best. Scribe +25% definitely seems like a more sensible choice in this scenario (perhaps with the exception of the subjects where spelling marks might be lost - not an expert on this but someone else will know the ins and outs). While getting back to lessons may benefit those children who come out of exam weeks with energy to spare or who can recover over a weekend, it won't really benefit a child who has been pushed to burnout as you just can't learn or retain information in that state.

I would ask whether he could do the remaining subjects in lesson time the following week, in exam conditions at home or even skip those exams this time around and be teacher assessed. Hopefully school will be helpful as they already have some support in place but if not, it is OK to keep him home if he runs put of steam or for him to be sent home after doing what he can manage. Learning to balance his physical and mental health and getting those adjustments right for him is going to benefit him just as much by the time his GCSEs come around and it's important school are able to see the impact.

The pattern seems pretty normal for schools I have worked in. 50% extra time is unusual though. Previous posters have said the real GCSE exams are spread out over 6 weeks but if you actually look at the core subjects like Maths, English and Science, they have lots of papers and they are often quite close with sometimes 2 core subjects on the same day!
You need a conversation with the person I/c of exams in your school and voice your concerns.
Often the person doing the exam timetabling just plans for a 25 % overrun and leaves the rest to the SEN dept. Maybe they are no precedents for your situation. Maybe timetabler and SEN dept are not communicating?
Important questions to ask could be:

1. Are the year 10 mock timings similar to what is happening in the year 11 mocks and the real thing?
2. If the timings are unrealistic and nothing can be done to change timings this year will a better plan be devised for the Year 11 mocks?

3 Has anybody contacted the exam boards to ask their advice?

Revising for 3-4 hours on top of a full day of exams is a huge processing demand for anyone, never mind a child with a processing disorder. In your situation, I would look at the GCSE timetables for 2026 (they are available on the exam board websites) and work out the likely distribution of exams for next year. That's what your DS needs to be working towards so there's little/no benefit to him struggling through three mock exams in a single day. It's also unlikely to be an accurate reflection of the level he's currently working at so won't be a great deal of use to his teachers either.

Having looked at the pattern of exams for next year, I'd write to the SENCo and request that your DS have the assessment weeks going forward adjusted to take account of his disability and additional time allocation. I'd ask for him to have downtime between the assessments whether that's to sit in the back of the next assessment and do his own revision or to zone out elsewhere. Alongside this, I'd be requesting that the idea suggested by others (of 25% additional time plus a scribe) be tried out, or perhaps voice to text software that enables him to dictate most of his answers then edit them, thus reducing the physical demands.

I wouldn't worry too much about the revision. If they haven't got time it doesn't happen. Y10 assessments are partly about learning it's important to do most of your revision before exams start.

But my daughter's been shattered from having 25% extra so I can imagine how tough the exams alone are. I would suggest he skip some subjects this time. Better to have a decent bash at most of them than he tank them completely - that wouldn't achieve anything.

The real thing is pretty gruelling too. My daughter did 21 exams in 21 school days. The vast majority one per day - she had hardly any days off. There was half term in the middle but that was more recovery than revision. They had to be at school by 7.45 for morning exams and the default was they were expected to stay in school all day until the end of the 3rd week. Study leave seems no longer the norm (though quietly I think students who would benefit from it will still be given it). I would use this Y10 assessment period to think about how he is going to handle the actual exams, and think about whether any more adjustments need to be made. Because even "just" one exam a day is a lot, week after week.

Many thanks for all the comments. We don’t have 50% extra for every exam just those with a lot of writing such as English. Maths, science , geography etc we already put back to 25% to manage fatigue. After 3 years of experimenting with usual way of working this is what is perceived as being the most like DS. He runs out of time but like all kids. It’s not fair or ideal but something has to give. We have also tried both scribes, and dictation in previous years and with lots of input from the physio, it and paediatrician. The typing while not ideal came out as the best option given the particular pattern of brain damage and associated processing disorder coupled with how to actually low him to access the curriculum. He has to take notes in lessons and dictating every day is unfair on everyone else. At least this way he can get muscle memory on a keyboard. I do know that in no lesson are his lesson notes complete and every day he is left finishing things off and writing up notes in the evening, but this will no doubt be his life to come … it just takes longer and uses energy,

Sometimes I don’t care as I was told my DS would write his name when he was 3 or 4 so any GCSEs is a miracle coming from that starting point.

After I posted the school cut one assessment for yesterday (now to be done next week) which was enough of a reset that we went back to two again today. And we are looking at whether we need to drop a subject to get through next year when it is the real thing. DS is used to making up lessons, and while he resents it he gets in with it. He thinks it’s unfair but so is everything.

The testing arrangement is a normal setup, that is not the problem. Your child has a very unique situation and I think your post title needs to be recorded to attract the SEN parents with suggestions.

My DD has brain damage and qualifies for similar access arrangements. I find some of what you've said difficult to understand. Dictation devices are incredibly discreet- more so than a 1:1 TA, which he should be entitled to given his needs. If his expressive language is good enough for a dictation device, it's good enough for a scribe.
Why is he even writing all of that? Teachers should be printing things off for him ahead of time to use in lesson or sending him slides. He shouldn't be doing all that after school.
You can't have different % of extra time in different subjects. You either qualify for 50% or 25%, it's based on processing speed scores not subject. Obv he can just decide to not use it in subjects he doesn't feel he needs it in. Does he have rest breaks? That might be more useful.
All mocks are incredibly tightly packed and difficult, we've found the real thing much much easier to manage.

Definitely request notes are given to DS rather than him copying/making all the notes himself.

You can't have different % of extra time in different subjects. You either qualify for 50% or 25%, it's based on processing speed scores not subject.

As per the JCQ’s EAA guidance, standardised scores are only relevant for extra time applications made under the learning difficulties criteria for those with learning difficulties without EHCPs. They aren’t relevant to other extra time applications, which OP’s DS will fall under. You can have different amounts of extra time for different subjects. Candidates can be given differing amounts of extra time in different subjects. Or extra time in some subjects but not others because, according to JCQ, “subjects and the methods of assessments vary…” This is why the standardised score for mathematical fluency can only be used towards extra time applications for maths exams not other subjects where it isn’t relevant.