What is wrong with resits?

For all the people who say that resits shouldn't be allowed what happens if in 10 years time you've finished university but the career path you've chosen isn't for you, but you don't have the necessary qualifications to move into a new path so you would have to go back to university and do it again to get the qualifications you want to change career paths? Obviously they shouldn't be given a second chance at life as well?

How are you worse off from not having resits? That applies to everyone, and since that's who you're competing with it's fair. If one year group had some super harsh exam and nobody came out with better than a D, they write what grade they got and the year and then people will go "Oh, you were that year. Unlucky lol, but we'll have you anyway". The more resits you take the more of an advantage you have overthose who just do one.



Perhaps it varies across the country then, or has changed since I did A Levels (I don't see why it would have though), but I know people on EMA had to pay for resits. Your school seems like it's using resits as an actual strategy to get better grades rather than focus on getting results first time if it's set aside money for resits on such a large scale. It does cost someone money for each entry, since that paper needs to be marked by someone and they'll want paying (plus admin).

Wtf? A resit is sitting the same exam again, not sitting a new one.

But if most people get a D, then surely there will be less differentiation between the year group due to that harsh exam. So people who would have got Ds would instead end up with Fs, and an F definately looks worse than a D. Especially since the person judging you for the job, won't be able to tell whether you simply did worse due to the difficult exam, or due to being useless at that subject. Thus, free resits should be offered.

My main argument wasn't about that, though. It's that everyone can screw up, and everyone can also improve - therefore it is only fair that they get a chance to show how good they are by the time they leave school.

I know but my main point is that you shouldn't deny people a second chance at something because they didn't get it right the first time...

I've never resat an exam but still got decent grades, but I'm still looked at equally compared to someone who has resat exams (unless you're applying to really competitive courses where resits aren't ideal). I think if you've not had to redo something to get a better grade you should be looked on favourably because you haven't slacked off assuming you can just redo it later on. The pressure is something you have to learn to deal with, there are no second/third/fourth chances in jobs, unless your boss is kind. Obviously if you were ill this is different, but I'm talking about slackers mainly. Everyone deserves a second chance with education if they decide to pull their socks up, but it wouldn't be fair to view them in the same light as someone who has consistently done well.

That would fix the problem for poor students, but I don't think it'll happen as it'll cost too much. If it's free, even more people will resit because they have nothing to lose. It also doesn't address the argument some may take of the pressure of having only one shot is good preparation for later in life. Uni exams may let you resit but will cap your mark at the pass rate.

Everyone can screw up, but you can only improve if you can afford to improve.

I've never resat an exam but still got decent grades, but I'm still looked at equally compared to someone who has resat exams (unless you're applying to really competitive courses where resits aren't ideal). I think if you've not had to redo something to get a better grade you should be looked on favourably because you haven't slacked off assuming you can just redo it later on. The pressure is something you have to learn to deal with, there are no second/third/fourth chances in jobs, unless your boss is kind. Obviously if you were ill this is different, but I'm talking about slackers mainly. Everyone deserves a second chance with education if they decide to pull their socks up, but it wouldn't be fair to view them in the same light as someone who has consistently done well.

In Wales, after the marking issues with the English exams, everyone was offered a free resit. I don't see why this couldn't be applied to England, or even the whole UK, in a situation where the exam was so much harder.

Like I've said, there are plenty of ways to pay for it. For instance, according to a thread on TSR (just google 'how much do resits cost' to find it) the cost of exams, although dependant on your school and the exam board, is quite low. According to that thread, it is between roughly £12-24 per resit, depending on whether you meet the deadline or not.

Most families could easily afford to pay for a few resits over the course of a year without any real difficulty, and for poorer families there are things like student bursaries and even help from social services. It is hardly like resits are something only rich, privately educated people can afford.

I also suspect that there are plenty of schools - particularly in poorer areas - which offer resits for free provided you ask to have one before a deadline, like mine. Anyone else's school offer this?

But if you get an A first time, you have still only demonstrated you know as much as someone who got an A second time round. It's not like resit exams are easier than exams you take first time round. This is like saying that in your mock tests, you started getting As before someone else in your class, and so therefore deserve to recieve extra credit for it.

Also, you say that you agree with resits for people who have simply had a bad day or are ill, but not for people who simply want to try again. Do you have any suggestions as to how you would differentiate between the two? I doubt any policy that would be applied in schools would have any real impact on the number of students resitting.

That was a freak occurence and the costs can be justified by not having angry parents firebomb their offices. Each resit needs to be marked as well, at the same cost as a first time sitter's exam, and if it were free then everyone short of 100% might as well have another go.

Yeah, I think your school is a rarity, offering resits for free. I do think it's probably a strategy they've decided to go for, to keep throwing students into exams and taking the best grade rather than teach them properly so they only need one go.

Bear in mind that the EMA or any bursary is meant to encourage kids to stay in school rather than their parents getting them to start doing something on minimum wage, so these families are likely just getting by anyway. The bursary isn't something you'd save for a resit, you'll likely spend it on clothes and food, though yes there will be the odd one who spends it on a Nintendo DS or something. I don't see why I have to convince you that a household bringing in six figures per year will be more able to pay for resits than a household on such a low income that they receive a bursary.

I think if you simply banned all resits, you would still get a reaction from plenty of students though. Although I must admit, the fear of a reaction probably did play a part in that decision.

Judging by the fact that our school has cosistently gotten better grades than many nearby schools, I think that this shows how good a strategy it is. Although that is really a subject for another thread. I had simply assumed that this was a common thing

But if you know you want to have the chance to take resits, then surely you could just save up a small amount of money from it anyway - even if you just saved 5p per day, over a year that is £18, which should be enough for a resit. Hardly a huge sacrifice to make, is it?

And also, I am well aware of the fact that some households will find it easier to afford resits - but that doesn't mean that worse off households won't be able to afford it. It is only about £20 a resit, and I still doubt there are enough households which struggle with money so much that they cannot afford the odd £20ish for a resit a few times a year.

To offer free resits, they're taking a big financial hit. The markers have to be paid and they're already complaining that they have to do so many in such a short time that it's leading to poor quality of marking.
Even if it is effective, I think it's a strategy that should be discouraged. The emphasis should be on teaching a good understanding of the subject, not having loads of attempts and hoping you get the topics that the teaching has focused on and hoping you don't get the topics the teaching has neglected. Yes there is already too much 'teaching to the test', but we don't need more.

If you're scraping money together, you probably could do with buying proper food and things like that. I'm sure a lot of poorer kids 'make do' with a B where a richer kid would push on for an A.


Look, I'm not necessarily talking about families only having just enough food to stay alive and walk to and from school - you're right, those families are rare. But what about the families for whom all money goes directly into a basic standard of living, such as healthy food, heating bills, decent clothes and shoes for growing kids etc.

No. But then, unlike school/college, a purpose of driving tests is not to prepare you for the workplace.

Regardless of whether they will ever offer resits like this, I still think more schools should offer free resits - particularly ones in poorer areas. I think this would be a good use of the money, as it helps to make education more affordable and equal. Of course, there are already too many good uses of money right now for it to really be justified in exonomic times like these, but when things pick up again I'm sure there would be enough support for it.

While it could lead to more teaching to the test rather than the actual subject, I wouldn't say it does. After all, to get an A in a test requires you to know so much about a certain subject - so if you get an A after several attempts, you clearly still have that amount of knowledge. If anything, it sometimes shows how, especially if you weren't very good at a subject, you were willing to continue trying until you did well in it and understood it.

Unfortunately, I fear you're right when you say poorer kids would probably just accept a B, when a richer kid would try for an A. The problem would be that the poorer kids' parents would be in control of their finances, and if they didn't want to pay for them then there is little you could do. However, revision books need to be bought as well, and so you get the same problem - yet almost everyone in my year at exam time had revision books for most things. Also, revision books probably work out as more expensive - would you propose banning them to make the system fairer?

But if you get an A first time, you have still only demonstrated you know as much as someone who got an A second time round. It's not like resit exams are easier than exams you take first time round. This is like saying that in your mock tests, you started getting As before someone else in your class, and so therefore deserve to recieve extra credit for it.

Also, you say that you agree with resits for people who have simply had a bad day or are ill, but not for people who simply want to try again. Do you have any suggestions as to how you would differentiate between the two? I doubt any policy that would be applied in schools would have any real impact on the number of students resitting.

Oh yeah I understand that, but surely it's more impressive to do well on a test first time round (showing you've adequately prepared) rather than going in twice or more.

If it takes longer to get a good grade you shouldn't be looked at the same as someone who did it well the first time round, aside from if you have proof of illness or another reason. You've all had the same amount of time to prepare and the same teachers, so unless there's a good reason to resit the universities should have preference for those who didn't need to.

As for people who just want to try again I don't think there should be any restriction on that but if you've been really ill you should provide evidence for the uni to take into account. Everyone deserves a second chance as I say, I don't think banning resits is the right way to go about things but in the current system it might encourage laziness if people just assume they can resit at a later point and not put the work in at the times they should. It certainly happened a lot at the college I attended, where people slacked off all year then crammed during the last couple of weeks when they were resitting their exams. It just doesn't bode well if people get used to doing that sort of thing.