GCSE overhaul

[gregorius]

Or, how good the student is at cramming as much information as possible in two or three days before the exam, using past papers to establish the format of questions and reduce the level of understanding required to answer them.

Cramming: this is why I prefer that open-book exams provide the majority of an exam-based assessment.

The problem that you allude to of learning the past exam paper format is not the exclusive domain of the all-exams-once-a-year-in-two-weeks system, though. Continuous assessment, coursework, modular examinations; they all suffer from the same weakness. A teacher who wishes their students to score well in a continuous assessment would be well-advised to brief them on "what the examiner expects to see".

 

[Efour]

exams separate the wheat from the hay-feaver suffering, BS merchant, chaff.
Life happens everyday, you dont get a second chance usually. This kind of exam teaches you valuable high pressure, time critical, on mission skills to use in your Sir Alan Sugar executive life.

Coursework is for the lazy, most people do it the night before anyway. amirite? You know it Bro-fist bump.

I have an A in Gcse Art.. I know what im talking about. My creativity and out there approach to modern, macro economics in a post-capitalist utopia is on trend.

 

[gregorius]

What good is two years of assimilation and mature reflection if you stay awake all night before the exam in a state of panic and can't think straight?

I think we would need to look at why someone would be staying awake all night before an exam in a state of panic. If someone is adequately prepared for an examination that is set at a level appropriate to their abilities would there be any objective reason for such panic? Two big "ifs" there, of course!

That's why a combination of on-going assessment including coursework and end of unit exams should be combined with end of year exams.

But we still have to deal with the well-known problems of continual assessment. If we could get this on-going assessment in a way that works as an assessment, it would be wonderful!

 

[oldbag]

It's about time. Even when I was at school in the 90s a large amount was coursework - you could be in a group where one person did the work whilst the rest of the group were carried. Although we did exams, at least the coursework didn't hold the majority of the mark. These days the only skills you require is the ability to search google and then cut and paste and reword slightly. We need kids to learn skills and be tested by applying the skills learned to answer the question. And why should their future depend on one day? Why do we as adults have to deliver work by a particular date, undertake presentations, etc? Because its life.

 

[gregorius]

Completely by coincidence, I found this 1991 paper by the great Russian mathematician V.I. Arnold (pdf file) linked from the Mathematica blog. It starts like this:

The standard of mathematical culture is falling; both undergraduate and postgraduate students leaving our colleges, including the Mechanics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow State University, are becoming more ignorant than the professors and teachers. What is the reason for this abnormal phenomenon? Under normal conditions students know their subject better than their professors in accordance with the general principle of the diffusion of knowledge: new knowledge prevails not because it is taught by old men, but because new generations come along who know it. Among the causes of this abnormal situation I would like to single out those for which we ourselves are responsible, so that we can try to correct what is within our power. One such cause, I believe, is our system of examinations, which is specially designed for the systematic production of rejects, that is, pseudo-pupils who learn mathematics like Marxism: they cram themselves with formulae and rote-learning of answers to the most frequent examination questions.

The rest is worth a read, if you're mathematically inclined.

 

[Irish_Tom]

I think we would need to look at why someone would be staying awake all night before an exam in a state of panic. If someone is adequately prepared for an examination that is set at a level appropriate to their abilities would there be any objective reason for such panic? Two big "ifs" there, of course!

It was hypothetical but I would say that panicking over an exam is irrational and difficult to explain. Some people are predisposed to it for a variety of reasons. This type of person could have all the knowledge in the world but still screw up an exam.

But we still have to deal with the well-known problems of continual assessment. If we could get this on-going assessment in a way that works as an assessment, it would be wonderful!

I agree, but equally I'm not suggesting a 100% coursework/continual assessment approach. No single system is going to be perfect so if you combine the various approaches, you balance the benefits and flaws of each individual aspect.

 

[Tunney]

I think we would need to look at why someone would be staying awake all night before an exam in a state of panic. If someone is adequately prepared for an examination that is set at a level appropriate to their abilities would there be any objective reason for such panic? Two big "ifs" there, of course!

We're talking about 15 and 16 year old kids here. Some mature quicker than others.

 

[AJK]

A teacher who wishes their students to score well in a continuous assessment would be well-advised to brief them on "what the examiner expects to see".

A problem all of its own, unfortunately, and one that will always exist so long as assessment questions (whatever form they take) are predictable. I don't have a silver bullet for that one!

I think we would need to look at why someone would be staying awake all night before an exam in a state of panic. If someone is adequately prepared for an examination that is set at a level appropriate to their abilities would there be any objective reason for such panic? Two big "ifs" there, of course!

Fear that you'll have a bad day? (Self-fulfilling if you stay up all night and don't get any sleep, of course!) Worry that you'll forget, or misremember, some crucial piece of information that stops you from attempting a high-mark question? Dread that in an attempt to make the paper seem slightly different from previous years, the examiner will make a mistake and provide an unanswerable question?

Some (most?) of this is alleviated with open-book exams, of course (as you've mentioned before), and some subjects don't really require the same level of recall anyway - for example, English literature essay questions don't require you to have memorised the text, but to understand how to approach analysing it.

I don't know what I'm trying to convince you, myself or anyone else of, to be honest. Exams can't be removed from the education system, they're one of the best ways to ensure cheat-free assessment, something that's much more difficult if not impossible with class- or home-work. I just don't like the idea of putting all your eggs in one big exam-shaped basket.

 

[gregorius]

I don't know what I'm trying to convince you, myself or anyone else of, to be honest.

Lol! Same feeling here. It's one of those "if I ruled the world I'd sort everything out" sort of topics.

 

[molinari]

Unfortunately our education system is based on a system which is close to 2 hundred years old, and which may have been appropriate then, but isn't now. There is a massive problem with it and this particular change won't make it better. It will benefit some kids, and have a negative effect on many others. It's being implemented too quickly and schools are going to struggle. Unfortunately there is no quick and easy solution to the education problem.

Slightly related...

 

[gregorius]

Unfortunately our education system is based on a system which is close to 2 hundred years old, and which may have been appropriate then, but isn't now.

I remember watching this video when it first appeared and thinking to myself that "if this is the level of knowledge, thought and innovation in the educational sector, then we're doomed". I haven't changed my mind since! One banal soundbite after another...