Anyone else have 0 faith in the exam system?

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I've had friends say the same about Politics, Psychology, Sociology, Business. These are all people who come out with As without really doing much (nor being particularly clever).

To be fair, there is a common factor between those subjects beyond that of being humanities...

Sociology and Business are widely considered to be soft - whether rightly or not.

Reply 41

Miracle Day

Guys we have to do something.. We're the biggest Student forum in the UK for god sake! We've had the education minister do a Q&A session here..

WE HAVE INFLUENCE.

Reply 42

Miracle Day

Problems:
Inconsistent markers
There should be one exam board
Time doesn't measure ability, it just loses marks.

Reply 43

ChildishGambino

I think the constant moulding and adapting of grade boundaries for science, particularly you AQA (Physics dammit), is really unfair. I know it's to do with how difficult the exam was etc. but I got higher marks on one Unit and two grades lower than the second Unit. It's just ridiculous because I never know what to expect

Reply 44

Gary Barlow

Does cross examining happen with A level papers?

Reply 45

sarah1345

Sorry, but english lit is probably the biggest doss ever, if you have the texts. i did last year, and simply copied out quotes and explained them for 2 hours, got a C. Politics doesn't give you anything, and edexcel are particularly specific in their mark schemes as to what is and what is not acceptable.

I'd say it's inconsistency more than anything, I worked my ass off for economics, got a B (78), others did nothing, and got 97 and 100.

Reply 46

Chihiro94

Original post by Miracle Day

Problems:
Inconsistent markers
There should be one exam board
Time doesn't measure ability, it just loses marks.

Adding to that, there should be some kind of standardisation. I know that some subjects will always be harder, and some rely on talent to an extent (like art, music) but there shouldn't be soft subjects. The same level of work should be required to get the same kind grade across all subjects where applicable.

Reply 47

username835236

In AQA A2 English lit you aren't allowed your books in the exam. This is for no good reason. They are literally testing your ability to memorise quotes. Any academic who writes an essay on a piece of literature will have the book to hand so that they can quote it directly.

It's just complete idiocy which proves nothing.

Reply 48

AndyHoughton

I had this experience for the first time getting my results back.
I have applied for Lancaster, who accept general studies.
GENA1:70
GENA2:80
GENA3:48
GENA4:80
Bringing me to 278/400. C.
I tried so hard in GENA3, and the marker obviously skimmed through my pages of work, probably guestimating my score rather than actually reading what I wrote.

My friend who called Prince Charles a dictator then proceeded to draw him got 58 in GENA3.

Reply 49

najinaji

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Why oh why don't we do something similar to the EPQ for every subject...?

Reply 50

Intriguing Alias

Original post by Miracle Day

I can't comment on most of those but taking a sample of two schools, one got an A in Psychology and 70% are retaking,

That's not the point, of course not everyone gets As, that would be silly. My point is that I have loads of friends who did get As and insisted they blagged their way through. Don't know anyone who got an A in a science subject without being really clever or working really hard.

Reply 51

insomniacramblings

Original post by hardleyouth

I despise exam boards, I despise the system of exams, the costs, the lack of information, the fact all the boards do is look to make profit (obviously) but the fact that creeps into negatively effecting so many peoples lives through education disgusts me. All the errors they make for example!!!

However, I have never believed exams require great knowledge, merely technique.

My personal example is AS Business, last year, I failed the second unit (received a U). I couldn't believe it, so I got a remark, and they made it a few marks into a E(Costing upwards of 40 quid...which I never received back!). So obviously, I applied to resit for the January exam period just gone, however because I decided to concentrate on my other subjects, I did ZERO business work all year, I dropped A2 Business right at the start, and I managed to get a high B?

How the hell is that possibly? When revising like a donkey and attending classes I get a U? And then doing no work and remember nothing I blad a high B? It makes absolutely no sense and further deepens my distrust of the exams system and especially AQA as they bear the brunt of my many negative experiences.

Anyone else feel like this or has experience this too!? :confused:

Ugh, you can say that again.

In the exam for the subject I hope to take in university, I revised day and night for weeks, a well as 8 hours straight the night before the exam, going as far as memorizing portions of the textbook. I also got very lucky with the questions (one was actually based on the chapter I looked over an hour or so before, go figure). Keep in mind, the questions were structured as 1 a, b and c and 2 a, b and c. The space to answer only entailed "answer a/b/c here".

Since there was enough space in the exam booklet, I was able to answer both my 'a's in the pages where it said 'a' (same with my 'b' and 'c' questions). After finishing, with a half hour to spare, I flipped through the remaining pages and found "Answer your second question here". Because of this silly mistake of mine, I was marked for only half my work.

I wouldn't be so pissed, given that I'm going to get a remark (sigh), if it weren't for the fact that...

In the exam for my worst subject (two days after the one above), it wasn't even a matter of revision, as I hadn't learned half the unit in the first place. Needless to say, I was so nervous that I felt it would be futile to bother revising. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy. I showed up, wrote 1.5 of the worst essays of my life and got a C (2 marks off of a B, at that). How, is beyond me.

I truly believe examiners simply skim through and do the bare minimum so as to get through the pile of papers to mark.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 52

ShredMaster

Original post by Miracle Day

Yes. People that do Sciences are lucky in the respect that they're answers are black and white, whereas we face the brunt of subjective markers.

Too bad the sciences require twice the amount of thinking as opposed to subjective rubbish. You can learn to write that tosh in 5 minutes.

Reply 53

chinaberry

A levels are just the tip of the iceberg....the whole state system is rotting, no wonder we end up having to sit these useless prescriptive tests. It's a stepping stone, nothing else.

Reply 54

Agenda Suicide

Original post by Spunky_Monkey

As someone who takes a mixture of science and humanities at A2 level I can tell you that science is actually much worse. The teachers always try and teach you additional information to talk about in possible questions but because it may or may not be in the mark scheme you could write something very complex and correct but get 0 marks. As humanities subjects mark schemes don't have 'exhaustive lists' of answers you can get away with using common sense more.

I personally think all exams should just be a really hard multiple choice!

This really isn't the case.

There are exhaustive lists, and believe me, you can't just common sense your way through....

On that note, getting your paper back with the marks shouldn't cost anything at all, I understand remarks, but scanning your marked paper and sending it back?

I also revised crazily for an exam, got a C, resat it for the second time in January without looking at any books or anything at all and got an A.

It really isn't what you know it's how you apply it and use technique, it's a joke.

Reply 55

Agenda Suicide

Original post by ShredMaster

Too bad the sciences require twice the amount of thinking as opposed to subjective rubbish. You can learn to write that tosh in 5 minutes.

You really have no idea do you?

Reply 56

chinaberry

The thing is, what do we want these tests to do? Prove how bright we are or how much we know? Because at the moment it's neither. If I could choose I'd have it be continuous assessment throughout secondary school (although for the lazy souls like me it'd be murder, having an exam at the end is a saviour), with the balance 'reset' every few years but a fixed record kept to send to unis. The whole curriculum would be scrapped/overhauled, minimum uni entry requirements would be somewhere in the region of BBB (of course a B would mean something quite different with the new course). I don't know what Gove is playing at, tinkering with little bits here and there.
My dad looked at my history coursework and said he was writing that kind of thing (3500 words) at the end of primary school! (Dutch system)

Reply 57

acedlol

Psychology for AQA is retarded. Basically for the A4 exam in January:

Learn everything about schizophrenia please, all the explanations and all the treatments. You know what they ask? Outline issues with diagnosing schizophrenia. Couldn't be arsed with the whole exam from there on in. I spent a week in Christmas revising for things that never came up in the exam, a whole goddamn week! Fine, ask that question but please why can't you put more questions in for us to choose from? It seems so unfair that a bit of luck can change the whole performance of an exam.

Geography4A as well for AQA. Revised ton loads for that, ended up with a D. I don't even understand. I'm convinced the marking is terrible.

General Studies, talk about Spiderman and defend terrorists and 86/100 I don't even understand anymore.

Reply 58

hardleyouth

TBH I think the exam boards should be nationalised or replaced with one state board or non-profit board.

The profit motive REALLY cannot work here, it financially benefits them to fail people, we pay for resits, we pay for remarks, we pay for photocopies, and we pay high prices for those! They cut costs by cutting corners and risk our futures by doing that!

Maybe we should try to form an alternative idea to the current system's state, and as OP I'll set up a petition or something !

Reply 59

Casshern1456

Personally I just hate how the raw mark and UMS score works, you can do your best al be it make a few mistakes get 63/75 in C3 and still get a B (76%) when in reality it is 84%. I do admit sometimes the panic does set in when I'm in an exam, but I just hate being compared to the rest of the people doing it I'd rather have a good idea of how I'd done than that.

Some of you may disagree but it's just my opinion.