*prepare for rant*
I'm in Year 10 at the moment and this year is the last year (at is planned) to be taking modular exams for most subjects. For options I take RS, History, Spanish and Italian.
I am sick and tired of reading everywhere about how our exams are so easy and the grades aren't worth much. Everyday before school I see it in the paper, usually from adults who have never actually taken a GCSE exam in their life. It's demoralising to think we're doing all this work and revision, but most of it is taken to be easy.
I don't like GCSEs, mind you. I find the structure of them very flawed. We're not encouraged to think creatively and we're tested on everything constantly. All results are plugged into computers and analysed. I think schools are forced to be very exam-centric because of how much we're tested and how much grades are taken into account (whilst simultaneously being disregarded). Everyone assumes that intelligence is relative to exam marks.
I can't account for Geography but I know that I'm supposed to be a 'highly achieving' student and I struggle with the other three subjects that are going to be 'made harder.' I think that exam difficulty varies widely over the different exam boards and that it's impossible for people to be making generalisations about entire GCSE syllabuses. History especially is very complicated at GCSE, I find, and we're taking it linearly anyway. Our first exam is June 2013, where we must remember everything about Liberal Reforms 1906-1914, League of Nations, Treaty of Versailles, and Weimar Germany.
I prefer the method of modular exams but I can see how some people would think it was easy, to take it in segments and be able to retake it. However, I don't think modular exams should be scrapped entirely. Instead of the current submersion of exams all year round, I think there should be fewer but longer modules. This gives sufficient time to learn everything and for there to be an actual break between exams.