The media's view on exams is questionable...

[mountain_tiger]

Link to original post: [drupal=3016]The media's view on exams is questionable...[/drupal]



Note: This blog refers to exams in the UK. Since the majority of people on smashboards aren't from the UK, you probably won't know what I'm talking about. So... yeah.


Every year in August, when the GCSE and A Level results get published, what happens next is all too predictable. Results will prove to be a record high each time, and all the newspapers will be saying, 'LOL GCSEs and A Levels are mega easy!' and 'A blind gorilla could do them', and then go on to say what a disgrace it is that the exams keep getting easier. However, there are flaws in these claims. Take GCSEs. According to government statistics, half of people fail to get 5 A*-C grades including Maths and English. This suggests one of two things:

a) Half of the people in the country are complete idiots.
b) The GCSE exams can't be as easy as the media claims they are.

I mean, if the newspapers are banging on about how simple the exams are, that's not exactly going to be great for the morale of people who don't do so well in the exams, is it? Besides, it's questionable if they are getting easier. The way I see it, the reason that exam grades are going up isn't because the subject matter is getting easier, but rather the teaching methods. Rather than teaching students about material in the subject that actually matters, they instead devote more time into how the examiners want you to answer the question, what key words to use, what topics appear more often etc. This is usually done because schools are pressured into getting better results. This means that although the students get better results, at the end of the day they rarely learn any actual information that will help them in later life (which is one of the key problems with the modern education system).

Also, pupils generally have to do more subjects at GCSE and A Level nowadays. When my parents did their exams, they did eight GCSEs and 2 A Levels, whereas I had to do 12 GCSEs and am currently doing 4 A Levels (well, 4 AS then 3 A2). So even if the exams are getting easier, the fact that the subjects are more widespread and numerous would counterbalance this.

tl;dr IMO, the British media's bawing about how easy the exams are and how stupid the pupils are is unwarranted.

 

[El Nino]

Well, if they want harder exams, they could try to model themselves after the Chinese system.

They'll need paramedics on site during the tests though.

This is usually done because schools are pressured into getting better results. This means that although the students get better results, at the end of the day they rarely learn any actual information that will help them in later life (which is one of the key problems with the modern education system).

I once looked up the standardized test scores for my old high school. Turns out they have about 15-20% of their students proficient in algebra. Just like how it was when I went there. Guess some things don't change.

Your concerns are legitimate, but some of the schools I went to in the U.S. would be making progress if they just taught their students how to answer test questions mindlessly, since they can't even do that correctly right now.

 

[SuperBowser]

Yeah, british newspapers are harsh. They've talked about how easy exams are after results before I even did my GCSEs >.> They don't really care about hurting student's feelings.

However, the grade inflation has been ridiculous. Even from people in my old school it's obvious. In my school year, 2 people got straight A*s. That has steadily increased each year to around 10 or 11 people last year in the same school.

I don't really know how you can fix the current system (schools are hardly going to do something that causes their students to perform worse). But something needs to change. Universities are slowly adding in their own tests to everything because they can't differentiate people on GCSEs and A levels. It truly sucks and I'm glad I narrowly missed having to do ''intelligence'' tests when I applied to university.

 

[#HBC | Acrostic]

It should not be taken personally. Basically trends in statistics are being observed and the news is making an exaggerated opinion in order to garner attention and publicity. If you had the writers and reporters who came up with the news be held for accountability: (example have them take the same tests you are taking now, I am sure that they would be just as nervous as you are if not more so. The only reason they are being critical or judgmental is because that is how the news makes a living. They are supposed to make you feel like crap because they probably didn't do as well on their standard examinations as they wanted to and can only deal with their crushed dreams by passing on their failed expectations unto young high school students.

Other people can't hurt your self-esteem if you don't pay attention to them in the first place. Developing thick skin and ignoring other people is important if you're going to be independent and live your own life. At the same time, there is a limit. Overdoing it just makes you conceited and pretentious. It's fine if you're incompetent at certain subjeccts. As long as you recognize there are certain things you can't excel at and need to work harder than other people just to achieve mediocore results. But at least there are a few things that you are amazing at. And school in my mind was created with the intention to help you recognize and maximize those skills in order to be successful in the future.

Even if you have amazing scores on a standardized test and it was just a fluke, it's going to definitely be exposed when that student attends an academically rigorous college that will test their intelligence and work ethic. I usually state something else but I feel that posting it to you now will only be detrimental as you might lose your tension and edge in taking this exam. I'm sure that you'll do fine as long as you prepare extensively and thorougly to achieve optimal results.

 

[mountain_tiger]

I don't really know how you can fix the current system (schools are hardly going to do something that causes their students to perform worse). But something needs to change. Universities are slowly adding in their own tests to everything because they can't differentiate people on GCSEs and A levels. It truly sucks and I'm glad I narrowly missed having to do ''intelligence'' tests when I applied to university.

That's the key problem in tackling this issue. Really, there are a number of teachers out there who don't care abotu their pupils, but they need to try and get as high grades as possible because otherwise they risk lower funding for the school, or if it persists interrogation into why that's happening. Until the education system stops putting such immense importance on getting increasing grades all the time, nothing's going to change.

If you ask me, the education system has lost sight of what it was originally built to do. Getting an education is obviously critically important in order to function well in society and allow people to acheive their best. These admirable intentions have since then been lost as schools are desperate to get their students getting higher test scores, even if that means that they have to sacrifice actually learnign beneficial information.

When you have 10-20% of pupils leaving school without a basic knowledge of maths and english, then something's gone wrong somewhere... Unfortunately, I'm not smart enough to propose any solutions that would work in practice. It'll be interesting to see how they try and tackle it in the coming years...

Other people can't hurt your self-esteem if you don't pay attention to them in the first place. Developing thick skin and ignoring other people is important if you're going to be independent and live your own life.

You say that, but if you don't read any newspapers or watch the news at all, you won't know what's going on in the world. And when you're flipping through for stories of importance, you always end up catching a glimpse of stories such of this, and then I start raging all over again....

Even if you have amazing scores on a standardized test and it was just a fluke, it's going to definitely be exposed when that student attends an academically rigorous college that will test their intelligence and work ethic. I usually state something else but I feel that posting it to you now will only be detrimental as you might lose your tension and edge in taking this exam. I'm sure that you'll do fine as long as you prepare extensively and thorougly to achieve optimal results.

Well, I'd say I'm fairly intelligent academically (not amazingly so, mind you). My problem is I get distracted too easily and don't end up studying enough...