Desuetude
June 11th, 2013, 11:08 AM
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-22841266
An overhaul of GCSEs in England has been announced by Education Secretary Michael Gove as raising standards to "compete with the best in the world".
From 2015, GCSEs will move from coursework to exams at the end of two years and will be graded from 8 to 1, rather than A* to G.
"We need to reform our examination system to restore public confidence," Mr Gove told the House of Commons.
Labour's Stephen Twigg attacked "shallow" changes lacking in evidence.
Mr Twigg accused Mr Gove of "cutting back on re-sits, while affording himself a fourth attempt at GCSE reform".
Mary Bousted, leader of the ATL teachers' union, said the constant change in exams was turning pupils into "Mr Gove's guinea pigs".
'Merit'
Head teachers' leader Russell Hobby said the plans for a "more rigorous exam to the existing GCSE contain merit" but warned against an over-hasty implementation. "We need to take time to get any new assessment system right."
Wales and Northern Ireland are keeping GCSEs, but so far are not adopting the changes proposed for England.
Ofqual head, Glenys Stacey, says: "We want to see qualifications that are more stretching for the most able students, using assessments that really test knowledge, understanding and skills."
There is no sign of a change in name to I-level for the English exams - as had been suggested. But the format is likely to be familiar to anyone who once took O-levels.
Key changes from autumn 2015:
- Changes will initially be for nine core GCSE subjects
- Grading by numbers 8-1 rather than by the current letters A*-G
- No more modular courses, instead full exams taken at the end of two years
- Controlled assessments (coursework done under exam conditions) will be scrapped
- Exams to be based on a more stretching, essay-based system
- Pass mark to be pushed higher
The proposed changes to the structure and course content of GCSEs in England have been published by the Ofqual exam regulator and the Department for Education.
The reforms will initially apply to a group of core subjects - English language and literature, maths, physics, chemistry, biology, combined science, history and geography.
'Whole books'
Hundreds of thousands of pupils will begin studying these revised GCSEs from autumn 2015 and the first candidates to take the exams will be in summer 2017.
So how do people feel about this? I'm not sure that everyone outside of Britain will understand what GCSE's are but as a catch up they're exams taken in years 10-11 (freshman and sophomore years in America) which then helps colleges decide whether they want you on at their college to take A levels.
____
Personally I think the fact that exams are going to become solely based on final exams rather than giving some marks for coursework is stupid. Some kids find exams difficult even if they are clever and they can be a lot of pressure, likely to be even more if their whole GCSE is riding on a couple of exams rather than 60% coursework, 40% exam in Graphics or 25% coursework, split 75% in 2 exams for Science. Modular exams are a lot less stressful and by making GCSEs completely linear everybody will have about 20 GCSEs in the space of a couple of weeks.
Also this 8-1 bullshit is just that, bullshit. We have a good grading system of A*-G and I don't see how changing letters to numbers is going to make a whole lot of difference.
My sister will be in year 11 Autumn 2015 and I think it's going to have a massive effect on her education and how she's getting taught with the whole exam board and the way GCSEs are taught changing round even if she's not caught in it and should be continuing the current GCSEs, with the year 9s being taught something completely different will almost certainly mess them around as well (in my school anyway).
I know people are always going on about how GCSEs don't mean much but they set you up college which means that your results will effect the rest of your life.
An overhaul of GCSEs in England has been announced by Education Secretary Michael Gove as raising standards to "compete with the best in the world".
From 2015, GCSEs will move from coursework to exams at the end of two years and will be graded from 8 to 1, rather than A* to G.
"We need to reform our examination system to restore public confidence," Mr Gove told the House of Commons.
Labour's Stephen Twigg attacked "shallow" changes lacking in evidence.
Mr Twigg accused Mr Gove of "cutting back on re-sits, while affording himself a fourth attempt at GCSE reform".
Mary Bousted, leader of the ATL teachers' union, said the constant change in exams was turning pupils into "Mr Gove's guinea pigs".
'Merit'
Head teachers' leader Russell Hobby said the plans for a "more rigorous exam to the existing GCSE contain merit" but warned against an over-hasty implementation. "We need to take time to get any new assessment system right."
Wales and Northern Ireland are keeping GCSEs, but so far are not adopting the changes proposed for England.
Ofqual head, Glenys Stacey, says: "We want to see qualifications that are more stretching for the most able students, using assessments that really test knowledge, understanding and skills."
There is no sign of a change in name to I-level for the English exams - as had been suggested. But the format is likely to be familiar to anyone who once took O-levels.
Key changes from autumn 2015:
- Changes will initially be for nine core GCSE subjects
- Grading by numbers 8-1 rather than by the current letters A*-G
- No more modular courses, instead full exams taken at the end of two years
- Controlled assessments (coursework done under exam conditions) will be scrapped
- Exams to be based on a more stretching, essay-based system
- Pass mark to be pushed higher
The proposed changes to the structure and course content of GCSEs in England have been published by the Ofqual exam regulator and the Department for Education.
The reforms will initially apply to a group of core subjects - English language and literature, maths, physics, chemistry, biology, combined science, history and geography.
'Whole books'
Hundreds of thousands of pupils will begin studying these revised GCSEs from autumn 2015 and the first candidates to take the exams will be in summer 2017.
So how do people feel about this? I'm not sure that everyone outside of Britain will understand what GCSE's are but as a catch up they're exams taken in years 10-11 (freshman and sophomore years in America) which then helps colleges decide whether they want you on at their college to take A levels.
____
Personally I think the fact that exams are going to become solely based on final exams rather than giving some marks for coursework is stupid. Some kids find exams difficult even if they are clever and they can be a lot of pressure, likely to be even more if their whole GCSE is riding on a couple of exams rather than 60% coursework, 40% exam in Graphics or 25% coursework, split 75% in 2 exams for Science. Modular exams are a lot less stressful and by making GCSEs completely linear everybody will have about 20 GCSEs in the space of a couple of weeks.
Also this 8-1 bullshit is just that, bullshit. We have a good grading system of A*-G and I don't see how changing letters to numbers is going to make a whole lot of difference.
My sister will be in year 11 Autumn 2015 and I think it's going to have a massive effect on her education and how she's getting taught with the whole exam board and the way GCSEs are taught changing round even if she's not caught in it and should be continuing the current GCSEs, with the year 9s being taught something completely different will almost certainly mess them around as well (in my school anyway).
I know people are always going on about how GCSEs don't mean much but they set you up college which means that your results will effect the rest of your life.