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Hey guys, as we are all in education, or have been withing the past 3 years, then it makes sense that we all know about school, the tests you do and the questions that come up on your exam papers.

So what I am wondering is: Do you think that school penalize's students?

The reason I say this is; for almost every exam you have to rely on your memory, and some people don't have great memory, but they are really smart. And for other exams you have to do about things you have never seen or heard of before, and this can make you panic a bit.

Do you think exam boards are to harsh when it comes to testing, with the questions, or do you thin they are perfect questions/exams?

Also do you think it is right for certain subjects to be examined in the ways they are? (MFL and Physical Education, for example)

If you genuinely LEARN the material, I find there was very little I had to memorize, so no. I don't think school penalizes students. I just think you get out of it what you put into it. If students don't put enough effort into it, they are penalizing themselves.

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I think exam boards are extremely harsh. I mean, it doesn't mean that your exams should be a breeze. You still need to work your ass off for good grades but they seem to be trying to make it as hard as possible.

Luckily it isn't like this for me because my year just missed it, but the year below me basically will take all their exams and if say one student gets a C and they want to retake to achieve an A or a B then what happens is if they retake and have a bad day and they get an F..they lose their C and are stuck with the F instead. I think that's awful.

I don't rely on memory. I rely on having the answers right in front of my face. Hidden in plain sight.
And that's how I fuck these bitches up.

@LaurenTheNerd Really???? God damn, I am glad that our year doesn't have that problem. I am not retaking my exams, because I always get worse than in the previous exam, and I got a U in my last English exam, so I am not retaking that... but luckily coursework averages it out a low B, high C.

But I do not like the fact that most exams are based on memory, my memory sucks, and for my French exam I need to remember how to pronounce the words, remember 5 paragraphs, and all we are allowed in the exam to help us is 40 words. And that isn't much.

But I do like that the exam is the same for the whole country (in England) and that if the whole country gets low grades, then the exam boards drop the grade boundaries. Which is a good idea, but that shows 2 things:
1) They don't have 100% faith that the students will get 'X' amount of marks in an exam to pass it with a C or higher.

2) That exams are not at the same difficulty each year, so the exam board may have to change the grade boundaries so that the mark scheme would be equivalent of last years.

@MontrealRepresent

You have the answers in front of you? What do you mean?

In all fairness half the answers are in the question or in another question xD

And yeah, that's how it works now sadly. I have a lot of source based exams now though, so that's not too difficult. Focus a lot of analysis of extracts too which you don't need good memory for.

The only exams I have this year are: English, Maths, Media and French... and non of them have sources :/

And that is really bad, the English is closed book, and the only sources you get in media are ones that are what you answer on :/

But source based questions are much better.

But also, some questions make no sense, or they make some sense, but when your in the exam hall/room and you have the pressure/stress you really don't get the question, and that is the worst.

@jordy lad

It means I have everything I need in front to complete the exam.
English controlled assessments? I have my whole draft right in front of me to copy off of. And I always get A's/A*'s for my drafts so I'm guaranteed an A/A* for my result on the actual assessment.

Sciences (Chem,Bio,Physics)? I've got little slips of paper with all the answers on them hidden in my tie, my pockets, my shoes. Hell, half the time I just slip them all under the test paper and take a glance every so often when I'm stuck on a question.

History? I've got a list of dates and key figures of specific events written all over slips of paper that I use in the same way as I do for my science exams.

Geography? Same thing as the science and history exams.

GCSE pe? Same thing as the science, history and geography exams.

Haha That's how I have all the answers in front of me

I do of course learn A LOT of what I need to know for the exams in class. But sometimes I can't be bothered to revise or I just haven't revised enough; so I have all of this to get me the high marks haha

You have a Media exam? I only have to complete coursework and I can just keep taking it till I get the grade I want. Isn't your Media course a BTEC?