Exams eh.

Aren’t exams stupid eh? It’s like someone who knows loads but gets stressed does poorly and dumbo does well because he’s chilled. I mean how fair is that? They’re like really, really stupid and should be banned. Of course in real life it’s not what you know, it’s what you can deliver under stress that counts but anyway ditch exams. Much better is course work. When you’re judged on course work it’s a completely different story. No stress see. No, you take it home and get parental help. In fact as a parent I did some of my best work getting my son a GCSE. And he wasn’t stressed. In fact he didn’t do much at all. So course work favours students with eager, intelligent parents, which isn’t a lot of use to students when they go away to university. I know, continual assessment. That should do it. Students are assessed week by week on every small element of their subject by teachers who see tick boxes in their sleep. This week we’re completely focused on subject x, level y, section z. By Friday everyone can do it, wahhoo, end of. Of course by the end of next week spent focusing on q, p and r, only a small percentage has any recollection of x, y, z, and by the end of the year they’re only really good at what they did the last week of term. So that’s not too good either. No, what we need is a way of testing students on their long term knowledge and understanding of their subject that they can deliver under the stress of normal life. How about an exam? Yeh exams, they’re like a really good idea.