Honest Exam Results - At Last!

[MrSmith]

IMO there is a case for awarding results on a percentage basis only. For example the top, say, 5% would get an A, the next 20% a B, the next 50% a C and the last 25% a D. So a potential employer would be able to see how someone compared with others of the same age.

 

As curriculums change it is impractical to compare old with new, as the subject matter has changed. The current attempts to maintain a common benchmark has clearly failed, as witnessed by "grade creep". (Does anyone truly believe that the year on year grade improvements of recent years are a demonstration of improvements in either the kids themselves or the quality of their education?)

 

At present by trying to measure several parameters at the same time, we are unable to measure any single one accurately.

 

That wouldn’t be the fairest way to mark because one year might have brighter kids than another year, and people don’t just compete for jobs the first year after leaving school, they compete for life and employers want to know their grades for many years after leaving education.

[metalman]

That wouldn’t be the fairest way to mark because one year might have brighter kids than another year, and people don’t just compete for jobs the first year after leaving school, they compete for life and employers want to know their grades for many years after leaving education.

 

But so what - that's life. There will always be variations in the kids, the curriculum, the exam they take, the teaching, etc. etc. etc. You do what you do at the time you do it.

[MrSmith]

But so what - that's life. There will always be variations in the kids, the curriculum, the exam they take, the teaching, etc. etc. etc. You do what you do at the time you do it.

 

Not really, exams aren't marked like that, so it isn't life, it was just someone’s idea.

[metalman]

Exams have been marked like that in the past.

[Mecky]

The whinging teachers, people who left school to go back to school, and with all the life experience of ....... er, a school kid, come out in force after a twenty years delivering dumbed down exams that gave everyone an inflated grade, unrealistic expectations and made a university place available to people who should have been butchers, bakers and candlestick makers, if there were any jobs. There aren‘t. So keep the numbers down for 4 years and pack off the unemployed to uni . At last we get fair marking that shows not everyone is A star and what do they do? Scream, shout, whinge from the roof tops. Very mature response. The kind of behaviour they've been handing out detentions for. If anyone needs locking up it's the teachers!

 

Well, well, little Mary has a ‘D’ and not a ‘C’ - big deal. May be little Mary should have been reading books instead of texting garbage. And if the teachers had enforved some discipline instead of wanting to their best friend maybe this wouldn't have happened.

 

We've had years of useless exams where grades have gone lower and lower - you literally can't fail! G grades are counted as a pass! % as low as 25 get you a pass. And throughout all that time the teachers have lapped it up and basked in the praise of raising standards year upon year. False praise matched by the false hope they engendered in their pupils who we know were unemployable as they can't read or write and certainly can't speak and get by on som e form of 'txt.' speak.

 

The whole exam system needs to be returned to a testing of knowledge and not a collection of 20 drawings, 8 photos, 3 DVDs and 130 words that they call course work. And that’s in Maths!

 

Everyone can go to university. Yeah, like everyone can walk on the moon.

 

At last we see sense and the modern day parents can’t take it neither can the ‘be my best friend’ teachers.

 

Oh dear, it sounds like someone is upset

[Eater Sundae]

That wouldn’t be the fairest way to mark because one year might have brighter kids than another year, and people don’t just compete for jobs the first year after leaving school, they compete for life and employers want to know their grades for many years after leaving education.

 

What evidence is there that different years produce kids which are more or less bright than others? All we appear to have is a system which shows year on year improvements. If that were believed, then employers would go for the youngest applicants, as "they must be the brightest".

 

The problem is that any fluctuation in natural ablity, year by year, is mixed up with development of teaching methods, changes in curriculum, a political desire for more university graduates, exam boards having a vested interest in making exams easier working in a symbotic relationship with schools who also have a vested interest in better exam results, along with Universities who have similar motives. All these variables make it difficult, if not impossible, for measurements to be consistent year on year, especially as some of the drivers have an interest in actually lowering standards.

 

IMO, kids are being let down by the current system, which is not fit for purpose.

[regatta]

The whinging teachers, people who left school to go back to school, and with all the life experience of ....... er, a school kid, come out in force after a twenty years delivering dumbed down exams that gave everyone an inflated grade, unrealistic expectations and made a university place available to people who should have been butchers, bakers and candlestick makers, if there were any jobs. There aren‘t. So keep the numbers down for 4 years and pack off the unemployed to uni . At last we get fair marking that shows not everyone is A star and what do they do? Scream, shout, whinge from the roof tops. Very mature response. The kind of behaviour they've been handing out detentions for. If anyone needs locking up it's the teachers!

 

Well, well, little Mary has a ‘D’ and not a ‘C’ - big deal. May be little Mary should have been reading books instead of texting garbage. And if the teachers had enforved some discipline instead of wanting to their best friend maybe this wouldn't have happened.

 

We've had years of useless exams where grades have gone lower and lower - you literally can't fail! G grades are counted as a pass! % as low as 25 get you a pass. And throughout all that time the teachers have lapped it up and basked in the praise of raising standards year upon year. False praise matched by the false hope they engendered in their pupils who we know were unemployable as they can't read or write and certainly can't speak and get by on som e form of 'txt.' speak.

 

The whole exam system needs to be returned to a testing of knowledge and not a collection of 20 drawings, 8 photos, 3 DVDs and 130 words that they call course work. And that’s in Maths!

 

Everyone can go to university. Yeah, like everyone can walk on the moon.

 

At last we see sense and the modern day parents can’t take it neither can the ‘be my best friend’ teachers.

 

Best post ever!

[MrSmith]

What evidence is there that different years produce kids which are more or less bright than others?

 

I don't know if there is any evidence or whether kids from different years are less or more intelligent than other years, I do know that everyone is different and their cognitive abilities are different, so it’s likely that one year might have brighter kids than another years, or one year might have an higher influx of less intelligent kids.

What we need is a standardised education and exam system so that employers can distinguish between the brightest and no so bright people.

 

 

IMO, kids are being let down by the current system, which is not fit for purpose.

 

I agree.

[Owethemnowt]

Ah the satisfying irony from a know all. I didn't realise we were testing each others grammar.

 

If you like I will give you the true spelling of your "entirity" it has an extra "e" - "entirety" - I learnt that in these godforsaken gcse years.

 

Glad you spotted it. There's hope for you yet. It's called educasion.

[cgksheff]

Perhaps many do not understand that there is only a specific element of the English GCSE examination for which the marking has affected this years results.

 

It is that part which is termed a "Controlled Assessment" which was introduced to replace "Coursework".

 

The pupils are told the subject matter in advance. They research and prepare notes in advance and may even have a dummy run at a question.

 

Then they have to sit, under exam conditions, and write an answer to the question. They are allowed to have their notes/plan with them.

 

That answer is marked by the school and a sample will be externally checked for comparison.

 

That piece of work can comprise 60% of the total GCSE Mark and if people are bitching about whether it should be a C or a D under those circumstances, we are scraping the barrel.