The college I went to was one of the pioneers of CoPE, which pissed us off no end because if we didn't do the work for one of our A levels, we were just left to fail. If we refused to do the work for CoPE we were faced with disciplinary action, there was no other way of enforcing it. One of my mates at the time went to the principal and refused point blank to do it - his work was then put in for moderation. Others were suspended for not doing it.
We only did it in the second year, the first stage being to research courses and universities, the second to do some other *******s and the third to create a presentation on how to revise - this was during the revision period for our A2s - so instead of actually revising we had to waste time doing a presentation.
The problem was that even though we passed it, it counted for nothing because at the time no university recognised it.