Britains exam revolt

[Lolli]

In British our government is thinking about changing the exam system claiming exams are too easy and don't give a proper respresentation of ability. I think this is wrong. Exam pressures are huge once you get to theGCSE years. And making exams harder is unfair. They claim that our grades aren't good enough for when we leave school and work. Do they not realise that the real problem is that the stuff they teach us is not actually relevant unless we choose to specialise in one of the hundreds of areas we need to apparently have advanced knowledge in and we are not taught how to apply it to life.
It is another way of penalising the dumber and pushing the clever. I feel for the future students who can't handle exam stress like me as they will have harder exams and more.
What do you think???

[Jacketh]

GCSEs are easy in my opinion. Its the fact we have so many of them that makes it hard, so I don't think they should be getting harder by introducing O-Levels.

Hopefully the Lib Dems will sort this, as they've kicked up a fuss already.

[Lolli]

Some are easy but some are hard it's dependent on what exam board and tier

[Pepito]

I think that the GCSE exams are ok, but for me the way of marking controlled assessments is really silly, coz our work gets compared with all other schools in the country (even the private ones and the special schools) and if 2 people got the same mark/grade, they look at which one is better of the two, and the better one keeps the grade, while the one which is worse is marked down. I find it so unfair

[Abigballofdust]

It is another way of penalising the dumber and pushing the clever. I feel for the future students who can't handle exam stress like me as they will have harder exams and more.
What do you think???
I'm sorry, I'm not British but I feel like I gotta add something here. Pushing the clever and penalising the dumber is the only way for a country's education to prosper. Nobody needs a whole new segment of supported students that got through education thanks to 'dumb' level exams. It's like with money: if your country printed 20 billion pounds out of the blue, and gave it to the people, you know what would the money value be? Nearly 0. Education's the same, push forward the less able and your education will be 0 as well. A future student who can't handle exam stress should take into consideration the idea of not being a future student at all.

[yayits-s.k]

I do GCSEs, even though I'm not British; and honestly the government is right to say that they're too easy because the fact is that they are. It's not about the stress you're put under it's more about how we're assessed. If you just sat down and learnt all of your stuff the you're guaranteed a decent grade because thet's all it takes to pass the exams. At the end of the day they're not a test of intelligence but a test of your ability to recall information (look up 'Blooms Taxonomy of Learning' you'll find that recall is not a higher level skill). That being said however, we do take some usefull skills away from GCSEs such as the ability to structure an arguement and analize writing for example. The point you're making about not being taught the right stuff therefore is, I believe, incorrect. GCSEs are supposed to be like a foundation for your eduction - the 'G' stands for General; therefore your GCSEs are supposed to show that you have a range of baisic skills needed to persue higher education - you narrow down your sebjects in As and A2 and then go on to one specialisation in uni. So, all they're doing really is making things harder so that only the right people go onto more advanced levels of eduction so that in the future you have the right people doing the right jobs, also if GCSEs are too easy then the 'dumber' as you worded it will be getting As and A*s - this isn't a good thing because they wont be able to cope with A levels and Uni in the future.

[Listed MIA]

I'm sorry, I'm not British but I feel like I gotta add something here. Pushing the clever and penalising the dumber is the only way for a country's education to prosper. Nobody needs a whole new segment of supported students that got through education thanks to 'dumb' level exams. It's like with money: if your country printed 20 billion pounds out of the blue, and gave it to the people, you know what would the money value be? Nearly 0. Education's the same, push forward the less able and your education will be 0 as well. A future student who can't handle exam stress should take into consideration the idea of not being a future student at all.

Oh, i totally agree. and i totally haven't listened to depeche mode for ages. must do that now :D

i hate this "nobody is a loser everyone wins" stuff. is there even any point in trying if everyone is going to win? you know what, i completely suck at maths (a.k.a math in American). i don't cry myself to sleep about it every night. i'm totally fine with not being able to do it. i pretty much suck at english too. i'd be fine with exams being harder. let the briany people take exams but have another option for the less brainy, like work based skills and that kind of stuff. not everyone is cut out for academics.

[Abigballofdust]

Oh, i totally agree. and i totally haven't listened to depeche mode for ages. must do that now :D
Take it as a warm up since they'll be releasing new stuff soon.

i hate this "nobody is a loser everyone wins" stuff. is there even any point in trying if everyone is going to win? you know what, i completely suck at maths (a.k.a math in American). i don't cry myself to sleep about it every night. i'm totally fine with not being able to do it. i pretty much suck at english too. i'd be fine with exams being harder. let the briany people take exams but have another option for the less brainy, like work based skills and that kind of stuff. not everyone is cut out for academics.
It sounds harsh, but now that you mentioned it, I remembered that mental institutions working with challenged children embrace the "nobody is a loser everyone wins" policy to avoid useless stress. Food for thought.
Anyways, I'm not into the English system but I understand GCSE's are exams that you need to pass in order to do anything from working to college. But I also understand that they are really easy to pass?

[Listed MIA]

will look out for their new stuff.

my school is for er.. challenged children. they are VERY into the nobody is a loser thing. i kid you not, its like "well done boys, you've managed to go a whole morning without someone getting stabbed, so you can all have a special treat" they always set things up so no one loses - it makes me feel like i'm 4 or something. i don't really think it does anyone any favours. when we get out of school - which is this friday :D we have to go into the real world. and i'm pretty sure most bosses will not treat their staff like that. whatever you do there's pretty much always going to be someone better than you. i don't see what's so wrong about learning that from an early age. everyone has something they are good at. we can't all be good at everything.

i'm not English either, so i can't really comment on GCSEs, whether they are easy or not. i've managed to blag an interview at college, even though i'm not going to have the qualifications that you need to get on the course. a lot of rich and famous people got to where they are today without exams, so i don't see them as being completely necessary to get to where you want to be.

[InfinantSilence]

they are doing the exact same thing in america. My school is supposed to have 100% test scores by 2016. Its pitiful. They think by makeing the test harder there helping. But honestly it isnt all it is doing is putting more stress on students to make better grades. And as a result the gredes are getting worse. *hughf*

[Yer_Maw]

You say in Britain, but in Scotland, which already had different exams than the rest of Britain, they've already changed the exams and learning plan.

[HowlingSnail]

I'm not particularly bothered about GCSEs going back to O-Levels, but I do think that there should only be one exam board so that everyone learns the same stuff and everyone's judged equally.

[Human]

I'm in year 9, our teacher gave us some real GSCE Science tests from a couple of years before. I got an A* and an A. Almost everyone got over a B and we're a year behind, so yes they're too easy imo!

[DerBear]

I'm not particularly bothered about GCSEs going back to O-Levels, but I do think that there should only be one exam board so that everyone learns the same stuff and everyone's judged equally.

So your proposing to have a universal exam system? Don't you think the country should decide that?

You say in Britain, but in Scotland, which already had different exams than the rest of Britain, they've already changed the exams and learning plan.

Standard Grade exams can be viewed as easy. However, this new system is not by any means harder. In fact I think it is much much easier than the previous system. As you don't do any exams till your 4th year and there is role-playing involved in things like social studies.

I mean I have seen the new "Curriculum for Excellence" and safe to say I think Standard Grade is better as from first view of it. It is not any harder. Its is introducing change for the sake of change.

In fact New zeland used Curriculum for Excellence and they have went back to there OLD teaching system because CoE is just stupid.

Do I overall agree with going back to O-Levels for England, No. I don't. Do I agree that GCSEs are hard? Again I have never sat one so I don't know. However I do know, why fix a broken system.

Scotland has just done this and frankly a lot teachers in Scotland are not happy with the new teaching system as they think Standard Grade is a much better system. (Unless you are like my modern studies teacher and everything is entirely to easy in life and we should bring back hard labor for everyone who is challenged in school.)

[SamB]

Its not the fact that they want to get rid of GCSEs that pisses me off its the fact that they want to go back to the O-Level and CSE system, basically meaning that any child who is put into a CSE group wont be able to go to university and won't be able to move on to A-Levels meaning that they are basically being written off at age 15, which is sick.