The Student Room Group

Is the uncertainty of exams next year affecting you?

Poll

With no certainty that exams next year will take place, how does this make you feel?

There has been lots of noise over the last few weeks around the exam system, and if we are likely to even see an exam season in 2021.

The Telegraph has recently posed a case to scrap exams for next year, and these discussions are likely to continue over the next few weeks.

With new restrictions in place as of today and the number of cases seeming to rise, it's unlikely uncertainty around exams in 2021 is going to go away any time soon.

Have you just gone into Yr11 or Yr13? How are you feeling about being back at school/college and getting your work done, when you have no idea if you will even be sitting exams next year?

Does it make you feel more motivated to keep your grades as high as possible considering that assessment grades were awarded for last years cohort? Or with all the u-turns in government legislation, have you had a complete loss of faith in the system and are now feeling completely demotivated?
Honestly, I have no motivation right now.

I don't know if that's because the work is heavily increased for me, or the rising pressure to do well, the fear of corona and a second lockdown on the horizon or if it's because of the mess that the government did for last year's exams and that anything could happen this year.
Right now I have no plans to aim as high as I physically can either - I don't want another burnout like last year because that was bad, especially if that won't matter in the end anyway depending on how they do things. I just want the grades I need so I can try and put this whole mess of how things have been handled these last 6 months and how they'll probably handle it in the future behind me.

I'm just trying to survive this year, after that I feel that things will be better for me.
honestly people who chose "more motivated" probably go to private school and get good grades thanks to their teacher who studied at oxford and their father who went to cambridge and makes 10k a second OR theyre just a troll :smile:
Original post by Evil Homer
There has been lots of noise over the last few weeks around the exam system, and if we are likely to even see an exam season in 2021.

The Telegraph has recently posed a case to scrap exams for next year, and these discussions are likely to continue over the next few weeks.

With new restrictions in place as of today and the number of cases seeming to rise, it's unlikely uncertainty around exams in 2021 is going to go away any time soon.

Have you just gone into Yr11 or Yr13? How are you feeling about being back at school/college and getting your work done, when you have no idea if you will even be sitting exams next year?

Does it make you feel more motivated to keep your grades as high as possible considering that assessment grades were awarded for last years cohort? Or with all the u-turns in government legislation, have you had a complete loss of faith in the system and are now feeling completely demotivated?


Should have had a "motivation unchanged" option in the poll 😔.

Original post by bored_user:)
honestly people who chose "more motivated" probably go to private school and get good grades thanks to their teacher who studied at oxford and their father who went to cambridge and makes 10k a second OR theyre just a troll :smile:

Or maybe because they don't know whether the 2021 exams will be cancelled or not so they are working their socks off in order to get good grades throughout Y11-Y13?
I have lost pretty much every single drop of motivation.

My school are currently doing a one week in, one week at home timetable, I am currently at home and I am struggling to be motivated to even do the bare minimum amount of work that I am supposed to do, never mind the revision for my mocks, which are in less than 2 weeks.

I think the rumors spreading around that the Scottish GCSEs (National 5) are going to get cancelled just doesn't really help at all....
Original post by Becca216
I have lost pretty much every single drop of motivation.

My school are currently doing a one week in, one week at home timetable, I am currently at home and I am struggling to be motivated to even do the bare minimum amount of work that I am supposed to do, never mind the revision for my mocks, which are in less than 2 weeks.

I think the rumors spreading around that the Scottish GCSEs (National 5) are going to get cancelled just doesn't really help at all....

Are you taking National 5s yourself?
I have mixed feelings about the situation. Living in a country where there have been zero community spread corona cases since May & life is pretty much back to normal (except for the borders still being closed, meaning people can't leave or return easily), it's pretty weird to think about.. I go to a British international school, so whether I sit my A Levels in May/June 2021 is wholly dependent on the Covid situation in other parts of the world, especially the UK. Hence I feel somewhat helpless, because it's weird when life here is pretty much normal yet people over there are still being massively affected by Covid + are struggling.. I feel really bad. On one hand, I am more motivated to do well in topic tests as I realise that if exams are scrapped, these tests will be massively important - on the other hand, I realise that the way grades were assigned last year was really unfair & I really don't want exams to be cancelled this year, especially given that though I've got good predicted grades, I haven't been doing too well in unit tests etc. and I'm scared for my grades and university.
Original post by Evil Homer
Are you taking National 5s yourself?


No, I’m in Year 13 doing alevels, but the idea that it looks likely that the National 5s may be cancelled, just makes it seem more likely that alevels could be as well...
i’m not in year 11 or 13. i’m doing IAS and living in another country but my family were planning to move back to the UK this summer after my IGCSE exams, and then covid hit. now i have to start on IAS with my current school, online for the entire year, but won’t sit the exams. i was planning in sitting physics, because once i move back to the UK i’ll have to go into year 12 (and i hope to take psych if i do) as a) i’m doing CIE IAS, whereas in the UK i wouldn’t be, and b) i’d be sixteen (i took my IGCSEs early).

now with a second lockdown on the horizon in the UK, and the closures of school where i live, i have no idea what the hell i’m supposed to do. am i meant to treat this as if i was doing year 12? or will this year be of zero importance since i’ll end up re doing year 12 if i move to the UK? i might not even be able to move back because of this mess. even if we do move back during this academic year, i won’t be able to transfer to a sixth form because it’d be too late into the year, so i’d end up wasting a year.

i was hoping to do some hospital work experience at least (aiming for medicine), but cases are on the rise so i won’t be able to.

even worse is that i’m aiming for med at cambridge, but if i’m abroad will i even be able to apply through UCAS as a UK citizen?

and my mental health has gone down the drain. so things are pretty *****y atm.
(edited 3 years ago)
Reply 9
Original post by Evil Homer

Does it make you feel more motivated to keep your grades as high as possible considering that assessment grades were awarded for last years cohort? Or with all the u-turns in government legislation, have you had a complete loss of faith in the system and are now feeling completely demotivated?

If you're revising for an examination, you're doing it wrong. You should be learning and revising for your life. Every exam you have has a huge impact on your knowledge in a way you may never think.

Not revising for your exams now, means not having the knowledge for A-levels. Not revising for A-levels means not having the knowledge for university. Not revising for university, means not having the knowledge for employment. You will pay with time if you don't revise now. People believe they got off easy - nonsense. If you don't revise because you have no exam at the end of it, you will revise when you have 1 week left before your A-level exam; you will revise when your university lecturer assumes math you skipped on because you didn't revise. You will revise when you go into a job interview and cannot answer the question because you skipped physics that year. You will revise when you get a letter from your university rejecting you, because you failed the entrance exam.

I am honestly shocked that people need a certificate and an exam at the end of it to motivate and drive them. That's the problem with much of this society: you have to be driven by a carrot at the end of a stick to perform. Keep doing that, and you will see massive gaps in your knowledge as you get older.
Reply 10
The 2020 results were cheapened by not actually being achieved through examinations in my opinion. I don't want them to be cancelled and then have to choose between a 'legitimate' set of grades in the autumn replacements or going to university straight away.
Original post by bored_user:)
honestly people who chose "more motivated" probably go to private school and get good grades thanks to their teacher who studied at oxford and their father who went to cambridge and makes 10k a second OR theyre just a troll :smile:

There is no need to dismiss someone else's opinion.
I voted 'more motivated' and none of those apply to me. I just don't want A Levels to happen, and instead I'm working twice as hard at completing school work to the highest standard so that I would get good grades if they don't.
Original post by Baleroc
If you're revising for an examination, you're doing it wrong. You should be learning and revising for your life. Every exam you have has a huge impact on your knowledge in a way you may never think.

Not revising for your exams now, means not having the knowledge for A-levels. Not revising for A-levels means not having the knowledge for university. Not revising for university, means not having the knowledge for employment. You will pay with time if you don't revise now. People believe they got off easy - nonsense. If you don't revise because you have no exam at the end of it, you will revise when you have 1 week left before your A-level exam; you will revise when your university lecturer assumes math you skipped on because you didn't revise. You will revise when you go into a job interview and cannot answer the question because you skipped physics that year. You will revise when you get a letter from your university rejecting you, because you failed the entrance exam.

I am honestly shocked that people need a certificate and an exam at the end of it to motivate and drive them. That's the problem with much of this society: you have to be driven by a carrot at the end of a stick to perform. Keep doing that, and you will see massive gaps in your knowledge as you get older.


While i agree that revising is important regardless of exams, the whole system is based off of exams and the idea that the thing we have been working towards could be taken away and out of our hands is scary and demotivating!
Reply 13
More motivated.
As I am moving 3 of my exams (IAL) to January 2021. I am also self-teaching another module (M1) and take it in January.

Quick Reply

Latest