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Exams are destroying our education system in the UK

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So first they say not having a stricter exam style is destroying our education system, then they say it's having exams in the first place that destroys it. How ridiculous.

Exams simply work for us and almost every other country so we should just continue to use this system. Just stop breaking it with silly adjustments such as all linear examinations, removal of November (GCSE) and January (AS/A2) assessments and the removal of coursework/practical units which are there for the exact reason they're complaining over; to give us practical and applied knowledge as well as textbook examined knowledge.

It's unfortunate for the students who have to study their exams during the linear-phases. Grades are actually affected by this because the linear system is harder, those who could have gotten A grades through Modular system get lower B sometimes C grades through Linear because there's more content to learn in a shorter space of time.

But even though it doesn't contribute to the final English GCSE grade it is still given a separate grade and certificated, and students still do it which means they learn speaking and presentation skills as standard. Personally I think this a good thing, because it gives people a clear indication and line between the students ability to analyse/write and their oral skills. It'll show how an A* student may be a Grade 2 at presenting and how a C grade student might be a Grade 5 at presenting. Rather than a student gets an A in English and you have no idea what helped them get that A...

True true...

Reply 61

SecretDuck

Exams really put me off education for good.

I'm excellent at real life working, but fail miserably in exams.

And that's at university.

Reply 62

Maid Marian

What bothers me is when I see 7 year old children having to study and fretting about their SATs exams.

Reply 63

Friar Chris

Exams are the only fair and equitable way of doing it. Whine however much you want about how stressful they are or about how some people aren't good at exam technique (hint: get better), but there's no solution to fairly assessing people that could ever fully replace exams.

Children need to learn to cope with stress and pressure and being put on the spot, anyway. No good raising them to be soft and to expect that life should be adjusted to make them feel nice.