Right, massive rant incoming- brace yourselves! I suppose you could skip to the last paragraph if you're lazy!
In my opinion, Exams are the reason that secondary schooling is becoming a massive waste. The problem exists due to the need of the Government and the Education System's need to quantify everything into a criteria that can be sorted on a computer, so that they can say "person A is better than person B because he has 58 and he has only 42". This is understandable considering the amount of children in education, however I think they have taken it too far. Centre numbers, candidate numbers, UCAS points- sometimes they neglect to treat you as human beings.
Put simply, exam results do not represent the intellectual capability of a student. Exams can easily be passed by just doing a lot of revision beforehand. I mean, just look at GCSE languages- for the controlled assessment you are told exactly what you need to write, and the person with the best memory wins, or the one that can sneak in the most extra notes. Exams erect a barrier between student, teachers and the exam board- as long as a student appears to get decent grades they will not be pushed to do better, to learn more. What's more, the incessant use of exam papers for end of unit tests, practice exams makes the whole thing seem pointless.
Science in school is a complete joke, they teach you exactly what you need to know for the end of unit test and absolutely nothing else. If you register a little interest in another area of that topic that isn't on the syllabus they just palm you off with "not relevant" and will refuse point blank to deviate from what the exam board has dictated they must teach. With some of these teachers I sometimes wonder if it's because they don't actually know anything about the subject! My English teacher, who is a very intellectual man, literally reads straight out of the book. He kept on at us about how we needed to show a 'perceptive understanding' rather than a 'thorough understading' and couldn't explain the difference. It's like someone was going to shoot him if he deviated from the scripted text!
Teachers say themselves- they can't force students to learn, instead they must want to learn. Yet it seems that learning about the interesting and deeper aspects of a subject is completely and utterly pointless as you only have to know a very narrow spectrum of that subject to pass the exam. When I first started secondary school, I had a real passion for Physics. My teacher was excellent and really got me interested in the subject, I went out of my way and learned loads about the subject, even doing optional homework. Now, if someone suggested I learn some extra physics I would laugh! What's the point? When I can pass my exam by learning the bare minimum. Nowadays, the only subject I actually enjoy is Tech, because at the end of the day I can say "This is what I have achieved" and look at something tangible, and I get marked on how good it is- something I can actually take some pride in doing that doesn't seem a waste of time.
In short, I am a year 11 now, and exams have completely obliterated my desire to learn. Literally every other lesson we have a mock exam and I simply cannot be bothered. I'm supposed to be revising but the mere idea of revision repulses me. I am now so sick of 'education' that teaches me nothing I need or want to know that I simply cannot wait to get out of it and get a job- something I have control over and can take a little pride in. Where I would be judged by my actions and how well I handle a situation rather than how many hours I spend a day staring at a textbook of mundane 'topics' that offer no challenge or interest before an exam.
So, what's your opinion? Are exams actually representative of subject knowledge or do they do the complete opposite- narrow down knowledge of a subject to a very specific area and to a medium-low degree by not actually teaching anything else?
In my opinion, Exams are the reason that secondary schooling is becoming a massive waste. The problem exists due to the need of the Government and the Education System's need to quantify everything into a criteria that can be sorted on a computer, so that they can say "person A is better than person B because he has 58 and he has only 42". This is understandable considering the amount of children in education, however I think they have taken it too far. Centre numbers, candidate numbers, UCAS points- sometimes they neglect to treat you as human beings.
Put simply, exam results do not represent the intellectual capability of a student. Exams can easily be passed by just doing a lot of revision beforehand. I mean, just look at GCSE languages- for the controlled assessment you are told exactly what you need to write, and the person with the best memory wins, or the one that can sneak in the most extra notes. Exams erect a barrier between student, teachers and the exam board- as long as a student appears to get decent grades they will not be pushed to do better, to learn more. What's more, the incessant use of exam papers for end of unit tests, practice exams makes the whole thing seem pointless.
Science in school is a complete joke, they teach you exactly what you need to know for the end of unit test and absolutely nothing else. If you register a little interest in another area of that topic that isn't on the syllabus they just palm you off with "not relevant" and will refuse point blank to deviate from what the exam board has dictated they must teach. With some of these teachers I sometimes wonder if it's because they don't actually know anything about the subject! My English teacher, who is a very intellectual man, literally reads straight out of the book. He kept on at us about how we needed to show a 'perceptive understanding' rather than a 'thorough understading' and couldn't explain the difference. It's like someone was going to shoot him if he deviated from the scripted text!
Teachers say themselves- they can't force students to learn, instead they must want to learn. Yet it seems that learning about the interesting and deeper aspects of a subject is completely and utterly pointless as you only have to know a very narrow spectrum of that subject to pass the exam. When I first started secondary school, I had a real passion for Physics. My teacher was excellent and really got me interested in the subject, I went out of my way and learned loads about the subject, even doing optional homework. Now, if someone suggested I learn some extra physics I would laugh! What's the point? When I can pass my exam by learning the bare minimum. Nowadays, the only subject I actually enjoy is Tech, because at the end of the day I can say "This is what I have achieved" and look at something tangible, and I get marked on how good it is- something I can actually take some pride in doing that doesn't seem a waste of time.
In short, I am a year 11 now, and exams have completely obliterated my desire to learn. Literally every other lesson we have a mock exam and I simply cannot be bothered. I'm supposed to be revising but the mere idea of revision repulses me. I am now so sick of 'education' that teaches me nothing I need or want to know that I simply cannot wait to get out of it and get a job- something I have control over and can take a little pride in. Where I would be judged by my actions and how well I handle a situation rather than how many hours I spend a day staring at a textbook of mundane 'topics' that offer no challenge or interest before an exam.
So, what's your opinion? Are exams actually representative of subject knowledge or do they do the complete opposite- narrow down knowledge of a subject to a very specific area and to a medium-low degree by not actually teaching anything else?
