[lil groovy dude]

GCSEs To Get 'A-Level' Makeover

Teenagers will no longer have to sit all their GCSEs after two years of study under radical new plans.

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority wants to break courses into "bite sized" modules like A-levels.

This will enable candidates to re-take modules or "unit" exams to get better grades.

The proposals emerged as about 630,000 youngsters wait to receive their GCSE results this week.

Alan Smithers, Professor of Education at the University of Buckingham, has warned against the move.

He said some people will choose to re-sit their units "to maximise their score".

"This is something that the pupils themselves see as unfair. The re-taking of units - even once - introduces an element of unfairness."

But John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed the plan.

He said: "It may well make GCSEs more accessible to more pupils. That would be good. But it would not necessarily make the top end easier."

Currently, most GCSEs are assessed through external exams taken after two years of study.

The reforms, which would come into force in 2009, would not necessarily apply to all GCSE subjects.

Critics say the 2000 reforms which divided A-levels into units, with the option of re-sits, made the exams easier to pass.

The A-level pass rate has risen steadily since. This year it was 97% - up from 89.8% in 2002.

Hmm.

Opinions?

[Hopping Mad Kangaroo]

I have a feeling there will be a big load of dumbing down incorporated in all this.

[LadyJaneGrey]

(Original post by Hopping Mad Kangaroo)
I have a feeling there will be a big load of dumbing down incorporated in all this.

I think if you do this then actual *learning* will dissappear. The purpose of an education is, after all, to educate. To fill the heads of young people with useless crap like the knowledge that insulin is produced in Beta Cells in the Islets of Langerhans in the Pancreas (I swear that will stay with me forever...). By stretching GCSEs out you are forced to revise and rerevise and so on (for unit tests, end of year test, mocks, etc) and if you keep relearning then some stuff may eventually sink in for good. I feel like I have a wide education now cos I've learnt and shall remember stuff for a while in a whole range of subjects. If this module thing came in - one set of information would pass in (and out) in a few months and there wouldn't be many relearnings. I don't see the point in going to school and learning if all I am going to do is pass exams. Surely exams are supposed to show that I actually know some stuff for good as opposed to 'I learnt stuff for a few months in order to pass my umodule and then promptly forgot it all.'

Would people here say it's fair to say that you remember stuff that you've had two unit exams, an end of year exam, a mock exam and a final GCSE exam for more than something you've had a module (and maybe a unit test or two? I dunno) for...

[Hopping Mad Kangaroo]

(Original post by clasigirlcs)
I think if you do this then actual *learning* will dissappear. The purpose of an education is, after all, to educate. To fill the heads of young people with useless crap like the knowledge that insulin is produced in Beta Cells in the Islets of Langerhans in the Pancreas (I swear that will stay with me forever...). By stretching GCSEs out you are forced to revise and rerevise and so on (for unit tests, end of year test, mocks, etc) and if you keep relearning then some stuff may eventually sink in for good. I feel like I have a wide education now cos I've learnt and shall remember stuff for a while in a whole range of subjects. If this module thing came in - one set of information would pass in (and out) in a few months and there wouldn't be many relearnings. I don't see the point in going to school and learning if all I am going to do is pass exams. Surely exams are supposed to show that I actually know some stuff for good as opposed to 'I learnt stuff for a few months in order to pass my umodule and then promptly forgot it all.'

Would people here say it's fair to say that you remember stuff that you've had two unit exams, an end of year exam, a mock exam and a final GCSE exam for more than something you've had a module (and maybe a unit test or two? I dunno) for...

It would work for maths and anything else that is linear. For everything else, it will just result in massive dumbing down. This article may intrest you:
http://www.wellingtongrey.net/articl...etter-aqa.html

[LadyJaneGrey]

(Original post by Hopping Mad Kangaroo)
It would work for maths and anything else that is linear. For everything else, it will just result in massive dumbing down. This article may intrest you:
http://www.wellingtongrey.net/articl...etter-aqa.html

Yeah, I've read that before but it's interesting to read it again. I didn't take AQA for science though so I wouldn't know...yes, I guess it would be fine in maths cos everything works together anyways.

[dark<>horizon]

(Original post by clasigirlcs)
I think if you do this then actual *learning* will dissappear. The purpose of an education is, after all, to educate. To fill the heads of young people with useless crap like the knowledge that insulin is produced in Beta Cells in the Islets of Langerhans in the Pancreas (I swear that will stay with me forever...). By stretching GCSEs out you are forced to revise and rerevise and so on (for unit tests, end of year test, mocks, etc) and if you keep relearning then some stuff may eventually sink in for good. I feel like I have a wide education now cos I've learnt and shall remember stuff for a while in a whole range of subjects. If this module thing came in - one set of information would pass in (and out) in a few months and there wouldn't be many relearnings. I don't see the point in going to school and learning if all I am going to do is pass exams. Surely exams are supposed to show that I actually know some stuff for good as opposed to 'I learnt stuff for a few months in order to pass my umodule and then promptly forgot it all.'

Would people here say it's fair to say that you remember stuff that you've had two unit exams, an end of year exam, a mock exam and a final GCSE exam for more than something you've had a module (and maybe a unit test or two? I dunno) for...

yeah that is so true...i actually feel as though all the knowledge has sunken in my mind due to progress tests...Y10 exams...mocks and the actual exam.

[Noseerections]

This has already happened in the sciences for year 10s soon-to-be year 11s (My year were last to sit normal exams in Biology, Physics and Chemistry). The teachers have told us many of times how easy the teaching is and how easy the exams will be. IMO i dont think GCSEs should be broken down as that makes them far to easy, as you are really only learning about small parts of science scraping the iceberg on all subjects, while in A-Level you dive right into the subject learning more than little things.

Stupid idea and shouldnt be done.

[LPK]

This is exactly why old peeps moan about exams getting easier.

I wish they'd bloody leave them alone.

[calcium878]

I can guarantee most of it will be multichoice too

[calcium878]

No idea why they ever had to change them...

[Xx Tomásíona - Mháire xX]

(Original post by lil groovy dude)
Hmm.

Opinions?

This already happens with AQA modular sciences so it's not really a new idea.

[calcium878]

But sweeping it out across the board surely makes things nothing but farcical?

[Xx Tomásíona - Mháire xX]

(Original post by calcium878)
But sweeping it out across the board surely makes things nothing but farcical?

Well, it does mean that people don't have to cram everything into the one paper, when you look at English Literature, its pretty modular in a sense already. A paper on prose and a paper in poetry.

But it will mean papers will probably become a lot more harder when it is fragmented into topics rather than the full two years of work. Plus it will prepare students more for AS

[Vesta]

IMO, bad idea.
Makes it easier and definitely more unfair.

[LadyJaneGrey]

It's amusing how if I was asked this same question a few years ago, I would've jumped at the chance to get an easier (MULTIPLE CHOICE ANSWERS....woooot!) paper...but now I completely prefer the harder one!

[Hopping Mad Kangaroo]

(Original post by Xx Tomásíona - Mháire xX)
Well, it does mean that people don't have to cram everything into the one paper, when you look at English Literature, its pretty modular in a sense already. A paper on prose and a paper in poetry.

But it will mean papers will probably become a lot more harder when it is fragmented into topics rather than the full two years of work. Plus it will prepare students more for AS

Your assuming that they will make the exams harder to compensate for the modular system. I wouldnt bank on it.

[calcium878]

Me neither....

[wilkinson42]

Not the best way of doing things - think how many examination sessions thered be - its bad enough to start with.

Also, people put less effort in if they know theyve got a second or even third chance.