Should GCSE's be abolished?

Scroll to see replies

I think the General Studies/Critical Thinking thing should be replaced with a pass/fail common sense exam at the end - with a pass mark of about 40%. Questions like:

What is the Capital City of the UK?
Name as many members of the Cabinet as you can.
Name any line on the London Underground.
What does ISA stand for?
What does BBC stand for?
Whose portrait is on the latest £20 note (apart from the Queen)?
No trick questions.

That way, regardless of academics, an employer can tell who the genuine speedboats are - basically anyone failing the common sense test.

I know all of them except what does ISA stand for?? :smile:

Reply 21

-strawberry-

I don't think the current English GCSE should be compulsory in the form it's in. Why on earth did I need to waste all that time on what an author was trying to say but for some reason said it through a metaphor, when I know people who can't spell basic words or form proper sentences?

Reply 22

StarsAreFixed

Maybe something similar to the Irish Junior cert, except without Irish? The Junior Cert is very broad and helps people determine what they're good at before narrowing down for the Leaving Cert.

Irish- compulsory
English- compulsory
Maths- compulsory
French/German or other language- compulsory
Science- compulsory
History- compulsory
Geography- compulsory
CSPE-(civics, social, political)- compulsory

In fact the only two that aren't compulsory are your two options, which are chosen from a list of traditional subjects. Mine were Art and Business Studies. Also Religion is compulsory in all convent schools, former convent schools, christian brothers etc.

All subjects can be taken at two levels, Higher and Ordinary. Doing ordinary means you cannot really do Higher Level in that subject for Leaving Cert later on.

So, 10 subjects, 8 of which are compulsory. (Or 9 of 11). It actually works brilliantly. 4 out of 7 are compulsory for leaving cert.

And maybe a small point but if english and maths are allowed to be optional instead of compulsory then students who don't take them cannot go to university or college in the ROI. It is a stupid thing to do regardless, they are the most essential subjects by far, coming from someone who abhorred maths I still wouldn't be without it. Anyway if they want to reform GCSE, they should try to incorporate other systems that work well in other countries and the Junior Cert is a great one to start with. (I don't mean copy the whole thing outright, but borrow maybe)

Reply 23

Pesci morti

Original post by Clip

What is the Capital City of the UK?
Name as many members of the Cabinet as you can.
Name any line on the London Underground.
What does ISA stand for?
What does BBC stand for?
Whose portrait is on the latest £20 note (apart from the Queen)?

London
William Hague
District
No idea, educated guess = something savings account (assuming you mean banking context)
British Broadcasting Corporation
Wait until pay day on friday, then i'll tell you...

I need practice!

Reply 24

buchanan700

No. Improvements made, yes, but abolition? No. Also I don't agree with getting rid of coursework, as students will get a huge shock if/ when they come to uni.

Reply 25

Namige

Original post by -strawberry-

Spelling and grammar are one of the main marking criteria. Although I doubt anyone who can't spell basic words will have any reasonable grasp of what 'metaphors' are, let alone explaining the metaphor in the poem.

Reply 26

Clip

Original post by TurboCretin

Are you testing common sense, or general knowledge?

One kind of follows the other. It's not exclusive.

What I'm getting at is that you can't revise or study for it, and I'm not in any way suggesting that someone that passes the common sense test, but got a bunch of Ds and Es should take priority over someone that got As and Bs.

I think it would be sensible to have some kind of test that empirically separates the people who might have ace grades, but are in all other respects indistinguishable from a vacuum cleaner.