Make exams less stressful

I'm not sure about politicians, but this will make ur English GCSE less stressful!
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5317336

Reply 2

OP

Original post by adamantacademic

I'm not sure about politicians, but this will make ur English GCSE less stressful!
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5317336

Thank you! I did my GCSEs last year but I'm just worried about the health of future generations. I met with my local MP though and she totally agreed that things need to change - she said there are 7 year old doing SATS and being sick in the exams because they're so nervous! Something's got to change...

Reply 3

Ray_Shadows

this should be interesting

Reply 4

OP

Original post by Ray_Shadows

this should be interesting

Hopefully! Fingers crossed, please support and share! :smile:

what exactly does this propose to do?

Reply 6

Ray_Shadows

Original post by lilywilson605

Hopefully! Fingers crossed, please support and share! :smile:

oh dw signed it , because it is a issue school need to deal with

saying "don't stress during exam season or you will most likely fail" is a pathetic attempt (that's what one of the heads at my school actually said)

Reply 7

OP

Original post by Ray_Shadows

oh dw signed it , because it is a issue school need to deal with

saying "don't stress during exam season or you will most likely fail" is a pathetic attempt (that's what one of the heads at my school actually said)

Seriously?! One of your teachers said that?! That's insane, it just doesn't help at all, another thing they don't seem to get is that we unwillingly feel immense pressure, it's not necessarily from anyone directly but I know that in the past I've just felt a need to do really really well (because I'm a perfectionist,) and they don't realise how the additional pressure affects all our lives!!

Also, thank you so so so much for signing! That's amazing, please just share and encourage others to if you can! Thank you again, I hope your head teachers don't say more stupid stuff!

Reply 8

Ray_Shadows

Original post by lilywilson605

Seriously?! One of your teachers said that?! That's insane, it just doesn't help at all, another thing they don't seem to get is that we unwillingly feel immense pressure, it's not necessarily from anyone directly but I know that in the past I've just felt a need to do really really well (because I'm a perfectionist,) and they don't realise how the additional pressure affects all our lives!!

Also, thank you so so so much for signing! That's amazing, please just share and encourage others to if you can! Thank you again, I hope your head teachers don't say more stupid stuff!

yeh that's true , ngl on one of the nights of my gcse exams (i think it was my first chemistry paper) i had the worst anxiety attack I've ever had , because i needed to do well in this so i can do science a-level

i was awake in bed with an aching heart , sweaty forehead and the most violent stomach ache i think I've ever had , despite me only getting 4 hours of sleep that night , i somehow managed to do well in the exam

still quite a concerning matter though

Reply 9

OP

Original post by _gcx

what exactly does this propose to do?

Sorry it's so brief - there's a character limit on the government website but I am proposing that instead of making everything so centred on exams and looking at intellectual intelligence, they adapt the system and look at us as a whole person, i.e. our ability to persevere, our attitude to challenges, our effort levels, teacher assessments etc. so that it's not all dependant on:
A) a single day exam's 'performance'
B) intellectual intelligence

because we are so much more than just an grade telling us how well we can memorise things!

I hope you agree, I went into more depth in the comment on this post: https://www.facebook.com/ruthsmeethmp/?hc_ref=ARRcM48MrI6WoJlmfmLMk0jLd-YKi1PamTJaFU1rEZcFabobZNYrrFUaR8OGP9CnKaA&fref=nf

it's a few posts down and is in the comments section :smile:

Hope this helps xx

Reply 10

OP

Original post by Ray_Shadows

yeh that's true , ngl on one of the nights of my gcse exams (i think it was my first chemistry paper) i had the worst anxiety attack I've ever had , because i needed to do well in this so i can do science a-level

i was awake in bed with an aching heart , sweaty forehead and the most violent stomach ache i think I've ever had , despite me only getting 4 hours of sleep that night , i somehow managed to do well in the exam

still quite a concerning matter though

I'm so sorry you experienced that, it sounds horrible, I've only had one panic attack and it was terrifying, I thought I was dying, you should be so proud of yourself for still doing well despite the trauma and lack of sleep - we really need to change this. It's really not right. :frown:

Reply 11

username1799249

19

Good thread. A question was asked to the Minister about mental health of students in school. He completely ignored the question and stated that it was the government's priority to raise standards so that the UK fairs well in the internation Minister for Education Penis length PISA test standings.

So basically school students are pawns in a pile of bullsh1t that gives the DofE a hard-on.

Reply 12

OP

Original post by ByEeek

Good thread. A question was asked to the Minister about mental health of students in school. He completely ignored the question and stated that it was the government's priority to raise standards so that the UK fairs well in the internation Minister for Education Penis length PISA test standings.

So basically school students are pawns in a pile of bullsh1t that gives the DofE a hard-on.

Haha, oml, the end haha. It feakin sucks tho in all seriousness, it's not even like what they're currently doing is working though! The swedish schools who actually have build in breaks throughout the day and have different structures to their day do so much better than us! We can change it though, if we get enough signatures, we can get it properly debated and if we speak to our local MPs (I've spoken to mine and she's really supportive of this petition) then we can make it so much better!!! :smile:

Reply 13

OP

Original post by ByEeek

Good thread. A question was asked to the Minister about mental health of students in school. He completely ignored the question and stated that it was the government's priority to raise standards so that the UK fairs well in the internation Minister for Education Penis length PISA test standings.

So basically school students are pawns in a pile of bullsh1t that gives the DofE a hard-on.

Please sign and share the petition if you can! I started it on Tuesday and we're on 325 at the moment. We need 100,000 haha, but lets get the word out first!

Original post by lilywilson605

...

I disagree with this.

they adapt the system and look at us as a whole person

Examination is intended to gauge someone's academic competence in a field. It also has certain implications of someone's ability to take study of the subject further, and their capability to learn. (when you consider a student's whole collection of qualifications) Obviously factors can affect this, but I am speaking in a very, very broad sense. They would be considered in context by universities and employers.

our ability to persevere, our attitude to challenges

These are really things that are put in references and judged by future employers/universities. These are obviously a positive and are quite attractive traits, but they shouldn't contribute towards your exam grade. Anyway, a teacher quite close to the pupil would have to evaluate this - and as they may have helped the student during hardship they would be biased. You can see where I'm going with this.

our effort levels

This one is a bit problematic. A fair number of people try their absolute best but are unable to achieve a pass at GCSE for instance. While some breeze through education putting very little effort. You could argue that the latter type wouldn't cope as well in the workplace, but as I said before this is something that should be judged by employers. Though the latter evidently has considerably more potential academically. How would we therefore award? If they tried hard, but were unable to get the results they needed in a subject, this should be a strong indication that they are unsuitable for further study in that subject.

I don't like continual assessment either. (this wasn't mentioned but I think it's worth saying) The American way of things is terrifying to me. It penalises those who mature (emotionally, academically or otherwise) late. One could be in year 11, consistently getting A*/As, but be held back by C/D grades from year 9, and only average a B. It would only benefit people that perform consistently well but muck up on the day. This is probably a considerably smaller group. I don't mind a modular structure at A-level though, I think students have matured enough by then.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 15

username3025040

15

Original post by lilywilson605

Sorry it's so brief - there's a character limit on the government website but I am proposing that instead of making everything so centred on exams and looking at intellectual intelligence, they adapt the system and look at us as a whole person, i.e. our ability to persevere, our attitude to challenges, our effort levels, teacher assessments etc. so that it's not all dependant on:
A) a single day exam's 'performance'
B) intellectual intelligence

because we are so much more than just an grade telling us how well we can memorise things!

I hope you agree, I went into more depth in the comment on this post: https://www.facebook.com/ruthsmeethmp/?hc_ref=ARRcM48MrI6WoJlmfmLMk0jLd-YKi1PamTJaFU1rEZcFabobZNYrrFUaR8OGP9CnKaA&fref=nf

it's a few posts down and is in the comments section :smile:

Hope this helps xx

How do you think "perseverance and effort levels" can be objectively assessed? Don't you think your grades will be a good enough reflection? And as far as mental health goes - yes, there is a problem there, but there are measures students can take to look after themselves, and it's not all the system's fault as many students with the "the world revolves around me!!1! change this, i don't like it!!!" mentality seem to think.

It comes off as petty and juvenile. Students (usually GCSE level, which makes sense) come up with something of this sort every single year, and it gets knocked down every single year.

Reply 16

OP

Original post by orderofthelotus

How do you think "perseverance and effort levels" can be objectively assessed? Don't you think your grades will be a good enough reflection? And as far as mental health goes - yes, there is a problem there, but there are measures students can take to look after themselves, and it's not all the system's fault as many students with the "the world revolves around me!!1! change this, i don't like it!!!" mentality seem to think.

It comes off as petty and juvenile. Students (usually GCSE level, which makes sense) come up with something of this sort every single year, and it gets knocked down every single year.

Hi, I'm sorry you disagree and you're entirely entitled to your own opinion, however, to answer your question bluntly, no, i don't think grades are a good enough reflection. Furthermore, with regards to looking after ourselves, sometimes it's jut not that easy - I don't want to say this because I'm concerned people will be unable to see past the stigma, however, I'm going to because I think it'll give you valuable insight. I'm in recovery from anorexia nervosa, an illness which almost took my life. I was 14 when I was hospitalised, at that age I was unaware of the damage I was doing and uneducated on what it was that had caused me to be the way I was/am, I thought I was just vain. However, I am now studying A level Psychology and am learning about the factors which can make people susceptible to mental illnesses and it's just not that straight forward. It can be genetics, environment etc. the list goes on and in order to actually develop the illness, one of those factors just needs to be triggered. This isn't a choice, however, common triggers are family breakups, relationship breakups, stress, pressure, perfectionist traits etc. And the very fact that the current education system entails so many of these potential triggers is problematic as it increases the vulnerability of more people.

I gave a more developed response here if you wish to read it:

Having achieved relatively good exam grades at GCSE level last year, which I'm happy to share if you would like.

I am suggesting that the education system looks at people as a whole rather than just one aspect of one's life. I have had a tumultuous past with mental health and I know that, for in my case at least, that the pressure was placed upon myself, by myself. And I wouldn't for one second deny that, or accuse others of placing it upon me, however, I would say that I was incredibly susceptible to such behaviour/thoughts for several reasons and that the added pressure of exams increased my vulnerability massively. One contributing factor being my biology - several of my relatives have various mental illnesses whilst being incredibly intelligent people. Another being the position I was placed in - as a psychology student currently looking at 'Approaches' it's intriguing to see how the environment and dispositional factors affect us individually.

I'm not asking you to agree 100% with my view, but from looking around at my friends and peers, as well as statistics, it's clear to see that there needs to be a change. Too many of my friends have developed mental illnesses and I am seriously concerned for the well-being of future generations, and in turn, the future of our country as a result in the climb in numbers of people with mental illnesses. I hope that although you may not agree directly with my proposals, you see the point I was trying to make without exceeding the character limit on the petition website.

In answer to your questions: In order to prevent fraud (which I've never come across in any of my coursework subjects,) I would suggest the rules on plagiarism are emphasised and the consequences increased.

In terms of teacher assessment, at my school - I don't know about others, our general class work is assessed, i.e. essays we do in lessons, our contribution in class etc. is recorded and assessed. We get this level on our report along with out target grade and test result. This teacher assessment should align relatively well with the exam result as there should be little variation in performance between classroom and exam hall, however, as we know, this isn't the case. Therefore, this practise could be nationalised (if it's not already,) and contribute to the final grading of the students. This would result in the final grade being more reflective of the student's ability as a whole and much less subjective and dependant on one day's performance.

I would suggest it gets standardised by teachers all being given guidance/have their training courses adapted to include a section on carrying this out appropriately, and there being no sanctions for teachers if their students don't do so well in a particular year (as this would prevent teachers being too generous with marks.) And to ensure it is fair, we should enable moderators to check some of the scores by sitting in in some lessons and reviewing the teacher's work.

An effort grade is exactly what it says on the tin. The more effort you put in, the better effort grade you get; because one's ability and willingness to do things very rarely align. It's useless having an incredibly bright employee if they turn up late, don't do the job properly and don't push the company/role to it's potential. Therefore, inclusion of the effort grade would show the different parts to a person's personality and capabilities, enabling future businesses to run more smoothly and to be run by people who are passionate about what they do! With regards to your opinion on exams there's not much I can do, and
I respect your opinion, however, I beg to differ. I struggle to understand how you can see the exam system as working when mental illness rates are climbing in align with the difficulty of completion. Not only does such emphasis on exams put students under extraordinary stress, but it also fails to assess our other qualities - qualities which deserve recognition. As you may have gathered, I don't deem the current education to be working, because how can the system be working if the people who are in it, are not?

Reply 17

OP

Original post by _gcx

I disagree with this.

Examination is intended to gauge someone's academic competence in a field. It also has certain implications of someone's ability to take study of the subject further, and their capability to learn. (when you consider a student's whole collection of qualifications) Obviously factors can affect this, but I am speaking in a very, very broad sense. They would be considered in context by universities and employers.

These are really things that are put in references and judged by future employers/universities. These are obviously a positive and are quite attractive traits, but they shouldn't contribute towards your exam grade. Anyway, a teacher quite close to the pupil would have to evaluate this - and as they may have helped the student during hardship they would be biased. You can see where I'm going with this.

This one is a bit problematic. A fair number of people try their absolute best but are unable to achieve a pass at GCSE for instance. While some breeze through education putting very little effort. You could argue that the latter type wouldn't cope as well in the workplace, but as I said before this is something that should be judged by employers. Though the latter evidently has considerably more potential academically. How would we therefore award? If they tried hard, but were unable to get the results they needed in a subject, this should be a strong indication that they are unsuitable for further study in that subject.

I don't like continual assessment either. (this wasn't mentioned but I think it's worth saying) The American way of things is terrifying to me. It penalises those who mature (emotionally, academically or otherwise) late. One could be in year 11, consistently getting A*/As, but be held back by C/D grades from year 9, and only average a B. It would only benefit people that perform consistently well but muck up on the day. This is probably a considerably smaller group. I don't mind a modular structure at A-level though, I think students have matured enough by then.

I really value your response and understand the issues you've brought to light with my proposition, however, with regards to the effort grade, I was thinking it would be separate from the attained grade - so employers could see in advance whether or not their potential employee actually cares; this would save employer's time as well as encourage students to try.

I suggest inclusion of our ability to handle problems due to the events of real life, how would we cope if there was a big problem at work? Would we cope? making it more practical and actually assessing our ability and doing the required thing, rather than how good we are at memorising the textbook.

In terms of suggesting only our academic ability should be assessed, I disagree. And I wouldn't blame you for thinking I'm some really dumb kid right now, but it's not that, I just believe there is more to a person than their ability to recite things which more often than not, are irrelevant to life.

I don't want this to come across as aggressive as it's really not, I just hold this subject quite close to my heart because of some things I've been through. I'm worried for the health of future generations. :frown:

Reply 18

thotproduct

19

Original post by lilywilson605

Sorry it's so brief - there's a character limit on the government website but I am proposing that instead of making everything so centred on exams and looking at intellectual intelligence, they adapt the system and look at us as a whole person, i.e. our ability to persevere, our attitude to challenges, our effort levels, teacher assessments etc. so that it's not all dependant on:
A) a single day exam's 'performance'
B) intellectual intelligence

because we are so much more than just an grade telling us how well we can memorise things!

I hope you agree, I went into more depth in the comment on this post: https://www.facebook.com/ruthsmeethmp/?hc_ref=ARRcM48MrI6WoJlmfmLMk0jLd-YKi1PamTJaFU1rEZcFabobZNYrrFUaR8OGP9CnKaA&fref=nf

it's a few posts down and is in the comments section :smile:

Hope this helps xx

"intellectual intelligence"?

????

One of the facets of school is to objectively quantify one's academic 'intelligence', notice I say academic intelligence, well, one specific purpose at least, along with nurturing etc, but assessment in the context of final examinations. As George said earlier, the idea of continuous assessment would only really hold for the minority, one who got a B or C in Y10 shouldn't be denied the top grades if he smashed the final assessment in Y11, and it appears here you're implying that we should adopt a continuous examination system, so as to prevent judgement on 'one final exam's performance'. An anecdote would be like when my one teacher at our school lost 16 pieces of coursework, costing the maximum grades to the brightest Biologists, who, for all intents and purposes, got the maximum grades possible and still didn't achieve what they wanted, the final exam where it really matters. Without the idea of assessment and without the resilience and properties that emerge out of preparing for said examinations, what have you got left? School basically just becomes a btec youth club. I received straight A*s and As because of mental health resources our school had in place, not a complete overhaul of the system that everyone is used to, whilst MH is for sure a problem, changing the entire system just to solve one problem will just end up creating others.

Additionally it's not as if it hasn't been done before, this system has been in place for many years. And whilst I do genuinely respect when one has struggles external to school, or mental or physical health difficulties that hinder preparation, the long time establishment of this system means that we can implement measures to ensure that these people aren't restricted based on factors out of their own control. However I do agree that more needs to be put in place for students' mental health needs, especially with new reform, however I don't think such a system should be completely overhauled, this sudden change to the system is only surely going to cause more stress and anxiety since it's a completely new, fresh, untested idea, when everyone is finally getting comfortable with the system we already have, this change is just way too drastic, whilst it may potentially benefit those in the future, imagine the stress of the students who's system they've worked in their whole schooling lives is just suddenly yanked out from under them and replaced, adjustment can be especially difficult. School's need more MH funding perhaps, but a complete overhaul seems a bit overkill to say the least.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 19

OP