A unified exam board - equal for all

Only one exam would have to be designed so quite simple?
Everyone should have to do triple.

Exactly - imagine how easy it would be if everyone just did the same thing... no more confusion...

Disagree. I think its good you have choice. Would you also like only one uni, one car, one tv channel etc.
Teachers are free to select the one that approaches the subject the way they want to teach it.

I'm a supporter of foundation level. because not everyone has the same ability and you cna have a different more detailed approach that is prepresentative of a C cap. A c is importnat for those who wnat to go into employment, but might tkae their education no further.

I'd still argue that 4 different boards is excessive. My initial quote of 6 includes boards commonly used by foreign students who then emigrate to country before they enter university. Thus putting themselves in a situation where they need to be judged alongside students that have gone through the education system in this country.

I can understand where you are coming from in terms of teacher's like to have options in the what they teach. But, if you think about it, the purpose of the teacher is to give us the tools and knowledge needed to maximise the possible grade we could achieve in our exams. Furthermore, having all teachers teaching the same content would highlight if teachers are underperforming or regularly fail to achieve good scores with their classes. Having a variety of content for the teachers' to teach simply burdens them on top of the work they have to do for all their other classes

Loads of foreign students come here having studied something other that A levels, then there's the IB and pre-U which some schools choose in preference to A levels and the Scots who take Highers not A levels. Getting rid of some A level exam boards is not going to make the system consistent.

Exactly - imagine how easy it would be if everyone just did the same thing... no more confusion...

Granted it would be an exceedingly difficult change to make on a global scale as you would be asking foreign students to take exams on the principle that they would be attending higher education facilities in the UK. However, I believe it could be possible on a domestic scale, as realistically 90% of the students attending universities in this country will be native to the UK. This gives a much higher level of consistency than the current system. It isn't perfect but it would be a markable improvement

No it doesnt it. They pick one exam board and syllabus then stick with it.
Within any exam there are all sorts of options ofr a teacher decide on, which novels to study, which periods of history etc. If they opick one then it doesnt increase their burden. It gives teachers a limited choice as to what they feel would be most suitable for them to teach.

Education is more thna just exams.

No it wouldnt underline underperforming becayse results are a lot more complex than just what teachers they have.

In Maths and Sciences there is a lot to be said for standard content (and it is pretty much standard already), but are you really suggesting the the whole country should have to study the same historical period in History and the same set books?

Things are currently getting further apart. Scotland has had a different system for years but England, Wales and Northern Ireland used to have a system bound by the same rules,. Greater devolution in those countries now means that their education systems are no longer following the same regulations as England.

No - they could just have a choice of options - like in A level. In english you can still do many different books for the same exam. For example in my english GCSE we have a choice of 8 books, but you only study one.

By the way I don't agree with one unified board, for other reasons, but I am just thinking about how awesome it would be to have no confusion about boards.

That's very true. The issue being that the education system cannot account for political divide. It would possibly be more beneficial for England, Wales and N.ireland to form into one education system with the Scots running their own system. This may work better as neither Wales or N.Ireland are particularly bothered about independence or at least with the same public approval as in Scotland

As soon as you have a choice then (according to the logic of people saying there should be only one board) you have difficulty ensuring that the assessment is standard.


I'm not sure there is any confusion. Why do you think there is?

The fact is education is just exams. Regardless of how things should be, we have to look at the honest truth. How you do in education is based principally upon the results you achieve in your GCSE's and A-levels. Also the idea that teachers don't have an increased work load due to having to pick different material sets for each year group is preposterous. A uniform set of exams and material would allow teachers to have a clear outline of what they are doing and not have to teach in different ways dependant upon how that exam board marks

We had a joint system. Wales and NI didn't like the education reforms over the past 4 years and so have gone their own way.

As soon as you have a choice then (according to the logic of people saying there should be only one board) you have difficulty ensuring that the assessment is standard.

I'm not sure there is any confusion. Why do you think there is?

But it isnt. Only shortsighted people have that view. Grades are important. but there is more to education.

You overplay the issue of choosing a syllabus you like. Preposterous lol. Often a school will already have a favoured exam board, so the choice will be made.

You are the enemy of choice. You can teach a subject different ways, whilst still remaining within the strict criteria.

No, it is tightly controlled by an overarching board, and the discrepancies are so small that they rarely span a grade/change the grade you get. The fact is that if you work you will get the grades you deserve. One exam may be harder than another; but the grade boundaries and UMS standardization techniques pretty much makes it niversally fair.

Well often I ask people if they do AQA english, they say yes; but i forget that they are doing GCSE as opposed to my iGCSE, so we do different exams. It just makes it more difficult to discuss exams with each other as we do different ones; makes it harder to revise with people out of school and means that mark schemes/help is less standardized. Not really confusion, but difficulty; I suppose.