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Exams vs Expectations

Poll

Were exams easier or harder than you expected?

15

Hi!

Firstly, a massive congratulations to everyone who has just finished their exams!

You should all be really proud of yourselves for getting through what can be an extremely stressful period.

Covid lockdowns meant that this was the first set of major exams that many of you sat, so naturally some people probably didn’t know what to expect. We’re interested to hear how you found the exams - were they harder or easier than you expected? Were you shocked by how difficult they were? Or maybe the reality wasn’t as bad as it can be made out to be.

You can use the poll to vote on your experience of exams vs expectations.

You can use this thread to discuss your thoughts on these questions:

•

Is there anything you wish you'd known/done differently before exams?

•

What was it like sitting exams after such a big gap in formal assessment (since year 6 for many)?

•

Do you feel there's any more/different support that could be done next year to support Year 11s and 13s with their exams?

Fingers crossed for results day!

Reply 1

Spelunker

21

i wouldn't say they were easier than i expexted, just different? like by the types of past paper questions i was given to do i expected the questions to be less straight forward about what you had to do. maybe its because i didnt sit GCSE's but that was just my experience. i also felt like the revision i did at the start of year 13 and during year 12 meant very little when it came up to the actual exams. maybe its just my style of learning but in the exams rather than thinking back on what i had learnt throught the whole year i would try and think about what i had revised the day before and on the car drive to school! overall though they were less daunting than i thought and im glad im almost done!

Reply 2

Obolinda

21

Original post by Spelunker

i wouldn't say they were easier than i expexted, just different? like by the types of past paper questions i was given to do i expected the questions to be less straight forward about what you had to do. maybe its because i didnt sit GCSE's but that was just my experience. i also felt like the revision i did at the start of year 13 and during year 12 meant very little when it came up to the actual exams. maybe its just my style of learning but in the exams rather than thinking back on what i had learnt throught the whole year i would try and think about what i had revised the day before and on the car drive to school! overall though they were less daunting than i thought and im glad im almost done!

pretty much agree with this!
summed it up beautifully!

Reply 3

Obolinda

21

i felt the actual feeling of sitting formal exams was the same as my mocks. I didnt feel at any real disadvantage as a result of not siting my GCSE's! this is just speaking for my school as mocks were done very formally and multiple times!

Reply 4

thrivingfrog

Volunteer Team

22

I honestly didn't find my exams (GCSE) that bad, yeah there were a few papers which could've gone better but I didn't feel that I was disadvantaged in any way because of missing school due to covid.

Kinda wish the AQA advanced information was true though *cough* physics paper 1...

Reply 5

anomaLous_2004

10

I feel freaked out that I found most of my exams actually pretty easy cause that means one of two things: I really did do well or I completely f***ed it all up, which would ruin everything.

Reply 6

Squiggles1238

20

Personally, I did find them to be harder, for example, in my AS level politics papers, I found some of the questions to be ridiculously narrow, and in one of my A level law papers, one of the questions was also really off-putting and just out of the blue.

I didn't find the A level psychology papers too bad personally, but I think that's only down to the fact that that's the subject I was most confident in.

Reply 7

Talkative Toad

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

22

Did exams in 2019 too (no AI, no help) so i guess i was "prepared" to sit exams this year

Exams vs Expectations

Were exams easier or harder than you expected?

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