Many students across the country received their GCSE exam results yesterday.
Once again, the news was rife with stories surrounding this momentous day. In the last couple of years or so, the stories have all had the basic “plot” that GCSE’s were getting easier, as the number of A*-C grades were on the rise.
This year, the number has dropped. There is also a big story now surround the English GCSE, in that one of the examining boards, AQA have moved the goal posts, so that students who thought that they were going to get a C were given a D. After reading the story http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19355956 , I found that these students can’t win. Either the exams to too easy or they’re marked too harshly.
I thought of a simple sentence to sum up each year of GCSE results: The performance and discipline of the students each year will vary. Either the majority will have a lot of discipline and perform really well on the day, achieving the A*-C grades, or the majority will have a little less discipline and perform not as well as the year before, and achieve fewer A*- C grades.
In my opinion this seems like a plausible reason. No matter how similar students are taught, no matter how hard they work, at the end of the day, it’s their performance on exam day, their discipline of how much studying and preparation they do, and sometimes their intelligence.
Once again, the news was rife with stories surrounding this momentous day. In the last couple of years or so, the stories have all had the basic “plot” that GCSE’s were getting easier, as the number of A*-C grades were on the rise.
This year, the number has dropped. There is also a big story now surround the English GCSE, in that one of the examining boards, AQA have moved the goal posts, so that students who thought that they were going to get a C were given a D. After reading the story http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19355956 , I found that these students can’t win. Either the exams to too easy or they’re marked too harshly.
I thought of a simple sentence to sum up each year of GCSE results: The performance and discipline of the students each year will vary. Either the majority will have a lot of discipline and perform really well on the day, achieving the A*-C grades, or the majority will have a little less discipline and perform not as well as the year before, and achieve fewer A*- C grades.
In my opinion this seems like a plausible reason. No matter how similar students are taught, no matter how hard they work, at the end of the day, it’s their performance on exam day, their discipline of how much studying and preparation they do, and sometimes their intelligence.
For example, in 2011 say, if the majority of students studied really hard and revised and prepared well for their exam, and they happened to perform well on the day of the exam, then there will be a lot of students achieving the A*- C grades in that year. The number of these students may have increased from the year before. So, it would appear that more people were getting the grades. Instead of thinking this, for some weird reason, the media thinks that it’s because the exams are getting easier.
This year, perhaps the number of studious pupils decreased from last year, therefore fewer students achieved the A*- C grades. I mean, it sort of makes sense. In this day and age of social networking sites and “kids growing too old too quick” where they’re going out most evenings after school, less time may be spent on preparing for exams and doing their best on coursework.
It’s only my opinion really from what maybe to be logical reasons as to why the results have fallen this year. Rather than simply saying the exams are too easy or the marking was too harsh, the students themselves should be looked at, and either praised for doing really well after their efforts, or given advice for not doing as well as they could have done if it wasn’t societal distractions.
Of course, I could be totally and utterly wrong and my opinion may be totally illogical from what the news is saying. But, as I say, it's my opinion =]
This year, perhaps the number of studious pupils decreased from last year, therefore fewer students achieved the A*- C grades. I mean, it sort of makes sense. In this day and age of social networking sites and “kids growing too old too quick” where they’re going out most evenings after school, less time may be spent on preparing for exams and doing their best on coursework.
It’s only my opinion really from what maybe to be logical reasons as to why the results have fallen this year. Rather than simply saying the exams are too easy or the marking was too harsh, the students themselves should be looked at, and either praised for doing really well after their efforts, or given advice for not doing as well as they could have done if it wasn’t societal distractions.
Of course, I could be totally and utterly wrong and my opinion may be totally illogical from what the news is saying. But, as I say, it's my opinion =]
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