Do you want exams to go ahead?
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As a year 11 I want exams to go ahead because I want grades that I worked for, not just a guess. I'm not saying past years didn't work for their grades in any way, however some teachers are biased and this results in massive grade inflation, meaning your grades are seen as lower in value than they are.
(edited 2 years ago)
Short answer: yes.
I don’t think some you actually understand the situation us students are in right now. I had a supply teacher 3/5 periods on the first day and we’ve been online for the last 2 days because of how hard covid has hit the staff at my school. Now I obviously don’t know how long that will go on but having supply teachers for alevel bio and chem rn isn’t the best. In addition the stress of having Tags aswell as the possibility of exams going ahead is too much on students. All my TAGs are on yr13 content, do I have anytime to revise and go over year 12 content ? Not really . Will my teachers have time to do over it ? Probably not. Now someone tell how standardised exams in may and June will be fair ?
TAGs are worse than sitting exams. Trust me on this one. I’ve been through the TAG process and it’s not fun.
Original post by 5hyl33n
TAGs are worse than sitting exams. Trust me on this one. I’ve been through the TAG process and it’s not fun.
I’m assuming you did your exams the year before but there’s been major changes to TAGs since then, it not teachers setting 15 tests every week, exams all the time etc. It is just 3 sets of mocks. At my school we’ve already down our first set and second set is January mocks rn. So only 1 more set to go and so far it’s been pretty much fine we’re getting tested on content we actually know, stuff that was taught in person.
Original post by mnot
Objectively they need to go ahead, and the grading needs to get back to a reasonable standard.
Im sorry but I just don’t put any value on the grades from the last 2 years. A-levels where their are no exams & 40% of candidates get an A or A* are just a total waste of time. How are you supposed to seriously compare the academic performance of students with the covid-era school grades. Completely destroyed the credibility of our school qualifications.
Im sorry but I just don’t put any value on the grades from the last 2 years. A-levels where their are no exams & 40% of candidates get an A or A* are just a total waste of time. How are you supposed to seriously compare the academic performance of students with the covid-era school grades. Completely destroyed the credibility of our school qualifications.
'Objectively they need to go ahead, and the grading needs to get back to a reasonable standard.'
Or even harder than before to catch up with international standards.
UK is not doing well in the grand scheme of things, especially comparing to our rising competitor, China.
(https://hpatrinos.com/2019/12/09/pisa-2018-results/)
We are barely doing 10th place in PISA. This isn't great considering Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces are more than 200 points ahead while they have much less GDP per capita than UK. We ain't doing too well internationally. Singapore is more than 150 points ahead of us.
(https://www.statista.com/chart/7104/pisa-top-rated-countries-regions-2016/)
'A-levels where their are no exams & 40% of candidates get an A or A* are just a total waste of time.'
Well technically they aren't a total waste of time, but I see what you mean.
'How are you supposed to seriously compare the academic performance of students with the covid-era school grades.'
A* should be more like a top 5% grade and A should be top 20%. Makes it an easier transition to university when you ain't getting too many distinctions (though Oxbridge has 1/3 first degrees, not totally due to capability)
Has exams like MAT, PAT, STEP, Natural Science papers experienced grade inflation?
'Completely destroyed the credibility of our school qualifications.'
We're faced with a rising China, intending to replace the American-crafted liberal international order that has lasted since WW2. While we are stumbling due to COVID!
Also, for those naysayers who don't believe in these PISA results:
The self-reported effort of Singapore is 7.5, equal to that of UK. Yet Singapore gets 150 more PISA points than us, in 2018.
(https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/04fd5153-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/04fd5153-en)
Original post by Muttley79
Good questions - mosts types of assesment have been tried
GAIM - graded aseessment in Maths
TEAM - teachers evaluating and assessing Maths [no exams]
GCSE - coursework [highjacked by those sharp-elbowed parents] - linear/modular/TAGs
A level - coursework/linear/modular/TAGs
In my view the problem is league tables rather than the current exam system ...
GAIM - graded aseessment in Maths
TEAM - teachers evaluating and assessing Maths [no exams]
GCSE - coursework [highjacked by those sharp-elbowed parents] - linear/modular/TAGs
A level - coursework/linear/modular/TAGs
In my view the problem is league tables rather than the current exam system ...
'In my view the problem is league tables rather than the current exam system ...'
League tables still have a purpose, to see which schools are the highest-achieving schools. As well as highest-achieving schools taking into account selectivity, background etc.
It's just like QS or THE rankings. Do you have a significant problem with them? Yes their methodology might be flawed, like school league tables, but all models are wrong anyway. Some are useful, like these league tables.
Original post by Muttley79
Exams MUST go ahead - the Year 13 must not go to university without sitting externally marked exams.
There's absolutely no reason for them not to go ahead. Schools have gone above and beyond to teach these students - they deserve to sit properly validated tests.
If exams are cancelled then EVERY school should have to send in all the work of students selected by the exam board [after grades have been submitted] to check on accuracy. [Similar to how coursework was moderated] I am horrified to hear what some schools did ie keep sitting a test until you get the 'right' grade ... fuelled by sharp-elbowed parents.
There's absolutely no reason for them not to go ahead. Schools have gone above and beyond to teach these students - they deserve to sit properly validated tests.
If exams are cancelled then EVERY school should have to send in all the work of students selected by the exam board [after grades have been submitted] to check on accuracy. [Similar to how coursework was moderated] I am horrified to hear what some schools did ie keep sitting a test until you get the 'right' grade ... fuelled by sharp-elbowed parents.
Even exams that were sat the previous years during covid were still marked externally, at least in my case but probably for many others too.
As a gap year student who only had 6 months of the normal a level experience and is resitting a levels this summer... yes 100%
I'm paying to sit them as a private candidate and am relying on getting the grades I am capable of, in order to get into the university I dream of going to. I would hate for that money to go to waste and my future plans to jeopardise so badly.
I also think there is no reason to cancel them, with a lot of people vaccinated, and the importance of exams over TAGs as a more reliable form of assessment for universities, employers, students, teachers, etc. Surely the DfE wouldn't want another year of embarrassment?
I'm paying to sit them as a private candidate and am relying on getting the grades I am capable of, in order to get into the university I dream of going to. I would hate for that money to go to waste and my future plans to jeopardise so badly.
I also think there is no reason to cancel them, with a lot of people vaccinated, and the importance of exams over TAGs as a more reliable form of assessment for universities, employers, students, teachers, etc. Surely the DfE wouldn't want another year of embarrassment?
Original post by nooneeee
As a gap year student who only had 6 months of the normal a level experience and is resitting a levels this summer... yes 100%
I'm paying to sit them as a private candidate and am relying on getting the grades I am capable of, in order to get into the university I dream of going to. I would hate for that money to go to waste and my future plans to jeopardise so badly.
I also think there is no reason to cancel them, with a lot of people vaccinated, and the importance of exams over TAGs as a more reliable form of assessment for universities, employers, students, teachers, etc. Surely the DfE wouldn't want another year of embarrassment?
I'm paying to sit them as a private candidate and am relying on getting the grades I am capable of, in order to get into the university I dream of going to. I would hate for that money to go to waste and my future plans to jeopardise so badly.
I also think there is no reason to cancel them, with a lot of people vaccinated, and the importance of exams over TAGs as a more reliable form of assessment for universities, employers, students, teachers, etc. Surely the DfE wouldn't want another year of embarrassment?
'I'm paying to sit them as a private candidate and am relying on getting the grades I am capable of, in order to get into the university I dream of going to. I would hate for that money to go to waste and my future plans to jeopardise so badly.'
1 year of studying ferociously just to get it all to waste is a year of nothing.
i think exams should be cancelled it’s unfair if not. we had remote learning in the beginning of last year and that’s a lot of content that had to be learnt online, and many factors can alter how people learn from home than in class. also the cases are still going up and with schools opening it’s going to be far worse especially because people might be coming back from holiday and such, in the news it has already been said that there are numerous teacher absences and that they’re calling for teachers to come back. with schools opening back up not only will cases rise and more students and teachers miss days off school they want to “combine classrooms” which is actually getting pretty pathetic now. also many students may not even have their first dose of the vaccine let alone the booster. the mental health of this years a level students is worrying i’ve seen lots of students say they are stressing because of the remote learning last year where they couldn’t learn properly etc. possibly even coming up to the real exams students can catch covid and we know it spreads a lot more faster which will again further disrupt their education and fail to perform accurately on exams.
Original post by MoJam
Soo much of the content we learned was online. Thats not proper education. And thats me talking about biology, chemistry and maths which are tough and require an actual teacher not a talking face on a computer screen
I'm going to argue to the contrary here.
Working online is how most home educated students study all the time.
My kids have taken / are taking I/GCSEs after studying purely online.
As an OU student, all my work is online.
My husband is Distance Learning his BA as well (from a brick uni, but his course is entirely online).
As a 100% online learning family, I disagree strongly that it's not "proper education".
Original post by brjf
Even exams that were sat the previous years during covid were still marked externally, at least in my case but probably for many others too.
?? What do you mean? Didn't your own teachers mark work in 2020 and 2021? We blind marked or double marked everything used for CAGs but it was not sent to an exam board.
Original post by justlearning1469
'In my view the problem is league tables rather than the current exam system ...'
League tables still have a purpose, to see which schools are the highest-achieving schools. As well as highest-achieving schools taking into account selectivity, background etc.
It's just like QS or THE rankings. Do you have a significant problem with them? Yes their methodology might be flawed, like school league tables, but all models are wrong anyway. Some are useful, like these league tables.
League tables still have a purpose, to see which schools are the highest-achieving schools. As well as highest-achieving schools taking into account selectivity, background etc.
It's just like QS or THE rankings. Do you have a significant problem with them? Yes their methodology might be flawed, like school league tables, but all models are wrong anyway. Some are useful, like these league tables.
How are they 'useful'? Do you understand how they are compiled? They encourage all sorts of poor practice like off-rolling students or Private schools choosing which students grades are released. Even the progress measure is flawed ... [more important than attainment 8]
All rankings are flawed mathematically ... let alone ethically.
Original post by PinkMobilePhone
I'm going to argue to the contrary here.
Working online is how most home educated students study all the time.
My kids have taken / are taking I/GCSEs after studying purely online.
As an OU student, all my work is online.
My husband is Distance Learning his BA as well (from a brick uni, but his course is entirely online).
As a 100% online learning family, I disagree strongly that it's not "proper education".
Working online is how most home educated students study all the time.
My kids have taken / are taking I/GCSEs after studying purely online.
As an OU student, all my work is online.
My husband is Distance Learning his BA as well (from a brick uni, but his course is entirely online).
As a 100% online learning family, I disagree strongly that it's not "proper education".
But the home educated programmes and the OU are surely set up and designed to be online whereas our teachers had to quickly adapt to teaching online which was no where near as good as in person. I also think there's a big difference between actively choosing to do an all online course and being forced to due to school closure.
Original post by Muttley79
?? What do you mean? Didn't your own teachers mark work in 2020 and 2021? We blind marked or double marked everything used for CAGs but it was not sent to an exam board.
They sent ours to an exam board to be checked over and approved, our teachers marked stuff first
I'm not sure if I want them to go ahead. On one hand I do because the way my school did our grades last year was a mess and wasn't fair at all. Not sure if people from this forum are from England, but in Scotland the exams were a mess. We had to sit the exam papers which were already written for the 2019 exams which obviously got cancelled. People started passing round all the question papers and questions from the exams on tiktok because every school was sitting it at a different time and it wasn't organised like a proper exam. Because of this literally majority of Scotland got an unfair advantage as they knew the exam questions beforehand and got A's easily whilst some people might not have known the questions but were really hard working and got a low grade.
On the other hand, we've never sat REAL exams so I feel like I just don't know how I would cope as I haven't had the pressure of knowing I need to perform well in an exam which literally will decide my future.
On the other hand, we've never sat REAL exams so I feel like I just don't know how I would cope as I haven't had the pressure of knowing I need to perform well in an exam which literally will decide my future.
Original post by aa1.
On the other hand, we've never sat REAL exams so I feel like I just don't know how I would cope as I haven't had the pressure of knowing I need to perform well in an exam which literally will decide my future.
On the other hand, we've never sat REAL exams so I feel like I just don't know how I would cope as I haven't had the pressure of knowing I need to perform well in an exam which literally will decide my future.
High school exams are significantly less loaded then university exams, at uni you have 12 weeks of lectures followed by xmas or easter (where you’ll have coursework to manage simultaneously) then you get 2-3 weeks to revise all subjects and have exams, and the consequences of failure are you get 1 resit which is capped at 40% (the worst passing grade possible, & if you do poorly but pass you cannot resit). Then once the exams are finished at uni the next semester starts and cycle repeats.
At school you have many months to revise, and whilst not ideal if you majorly screw them up you can resit the following year and you aren’t handicapped by your prior performance.
Would you really want to just push your first real exams to university where the consequences of poor exam performance are much greater (and will stay on your HE transcript)?
(edited 2 years ago)
Original post by PinkMobilePhone
I'm going to argue to the contrary here.
Working online is how most home educated students study all the time.
My kids have taken / are taking I/GCSEs after studying purely online.
As an OU student, all my work is online.
My husband is Distance Learning his BA as well (from a brick uni, but his course is entirely online).
As a 100% online learning family, I disagree strongly that it's not "proper education".
Working online is how most home educated students study all the time.
My kids have taken / are taking I/GCSEs after studying purely online.
As an OU student, all my work is online.
My husband is Distance Learning his BA as well (from a brick uni, but his course is entirely online).
As a 100% online learning family, I disagree strongly that it's not "proper education".
But when students are suddenly thrown into online learning when normally used to face to face with daily interactions with different Pupils I’m sure it takes a different toll than someone who’s been online learning their whole life and someone who chooses to learn online.
Some people find it difficult being isolated in their rooms, it’s not the same interactions and then the huge covid uncertainty adds to that. It’s completely different in my opinion
(edited 2 years ago)
Original post by mnot
High school exams are significantly less loaded then university exams, at uni you have 12 weeks of lectures followed by xmas or easter (where you’ll have coursework to manage simultaneously) then you get 2-3 weeks to revise all subjects and have exams, and the consequences of failure are you get 1 resit which is capped at 40% (the worst passing grade possible, & if you do poorly but pass you cannot resit). Then once the exams are finished at uni the next semester starts and cycle repeats.
At school you have many months to revise, and whilst not ideal if you majorly screw them up you can resit the following year and you aren’t handicapped by your prior performance.
Would you really want to just push your first real exams to university where the consequences of poor exam performance are much greater (and will stay on your HE transcript)?
At school you have many months to revise, and whilst not ideal if you majorly screw them up you can resit the following year and you aren’t handicapped by your prior performance.
Would you really want to just push your first real exams to university where the consequences of poor exam performance are much greater (and will stay on your HE transcript)?
Yeah that's something which I think about often as well where uni exams would be my first exams if they weren't to go ahead this year.
Love the profile picture. Super Max.
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