Exams finally come to an end!

As I dropped my pen, waited for my paper to be collected and walked out of the exam hall for one last time, an overwhelming sense of elation hit me instantaneously, as I could feel the weight of the past two years lifting from my shoulders. But what was this heaviness being lifted from me?

A-Levels.

Years 12 and 13 are an immensely stressful time in a teenager’s life and it is fair to say that the past three months in particular has been an especially demanding period.

Perhaps three months seems a little excessive in preparation for the five exams I sat this month, but in all honestly, I couldn’t have done any less. A few hundred pages of notes, a dozen pens and nearly a whole black ink cartridge have prepared me with revision tools and practice papers to ensure that I could walk confidently into the exam room knowing I’d worked as hard as I possibly could.

Nevertheless, there have been two things that have managed to knock me down at this challenging time and it is more than likely that at least one or even both have affected other A-Level students across the country.
As I said, I, and all of my friends and fellow students, have abandoned our social lives and locked ourselves indoors to revise incessantly to ensure we can be confident and prepared for anything the exam paper could throw at us. However, there is still the element of the unknown as to what on earth the exam boards may choose to ask. And it is particularly demoralising when they decide to throw you off entirely with complicated and incredibly difficult papers.

I can truthfully say that my German A Level paper is perhaps one of the toughest exams I have ever sat. The two-and-a-half hour exam, complete with listening, reading and writing sections, is difficult regardless of the questions, with a study conducted by Durham University showing languages to be the hardest A Level subjects after Mathematics and the three Sciences. So why do the exam board decide to make it even worse by including such complex vocabulary and structures? It leaves us students disheartened and deflated after months of work, completely unaware as to how well we may have done and worried for two months in anticipation of the impending results.

The second of my knock-backs came in the form of a news story. And once again, Michael Gove has sparked controversy (and irritation). On the morning of an exam, waking up to the news of education reforms in England as a result of ‘easy GCSEs’ is not the most encouraging and uplifting item. This isn’t the first time Gove has angered students, having reported previously that A-Levels are also too easy and how school days should be made longer (click the links to see my previous posts on these stories).

By removing any form of coursework or modular assessment, the Education Secretary is turning exams into a memory test instead of a true assessment of a student’s intelligence and work ability.

Whilst I’ve already sat my GCSEs, the outlandish and unqualified claim that GCSEs are too easy repeatedly vexes me. With no past in education himself, I cannot understand where Gove makes these claims from and it stands solid to me that such decisions should be a democratic matter among the teachers in-the-know.
There will be students currently sitting their GCSEs who will certainly feel discouraged by assertions that the exams, which they have worked incredibly hard for, are too easy and require reformation.

Gove claims that students are currently living in a ‘resit culture’, where it is deemed acceptable for students to try again and again to achieve their target grade, but Gove is no better for repeatedly changing his plans on education reform.

Education Secretary Michael Gove

As I sit and enjoy my first relaxed and stress-free weekend in months, I plea that education ministers make up their mind and stick to a plan on GCSEs and A Levels and soon accept students’ success as nothing more than its face value than deceiving it as a result of easy exams.

I wish all the best of luck to those who still have exams – freedom is just around the corner! You can do it!

Can a longer school day really increase student performance? I think not...

It’s 3:24 on a Friday and the clock is slowly ticking in the corner of the room. The 60 seconds that lead to my weekend approach unhurriedly, as I sit watching the hands on the clock gradually reach the minute-mark.

The bell goes. 

1,800 of my peers vanish at a flash, as they do every day of the week, in order to escape the four walls of school. Whether you’re the type of student who enjoys school, or you’re a tired teenager who counts the days until you can leave, the end of the school day is always a moment of bliss.

Education Secretary Michael Gove’s most recent proposition, for shorter school holidays and longer school days, is a plan which he hopes could be implemented within the next couple of years. He has added that he wishes state schools to remain open until 4:30. Gove stated that this system will lead to improved performance of students, when in fact; I believe he will have the exact opposite effect.

Education Secretary Michael Gove

Specific school times vary between establishments, but as I approach the end of seven years at my High School, I have become accustomed to a 9am -3:25pm school day with five hour-long lessons – and this is most definitely enough.

The average attention span of a teenager is around 10-15 minutes, with hour-long lessons requiring being broken up into smaller sections to maintain the continued progress and education of the students. There can be no denying that the longer the day goes on, this span becomes decreasingly shorter, with an extended school day disqualifying Gove’s aim of improving performance. Students will instead be wasting valuable time, with information draining through their ears, when they could be using the time effectively at home on extra studies such as homework and revision.

I would be thoroughly interested in seeing the evidence behind Gove’s reasoning for this proposal. Unlike Gove, I have had experience in a classroom both in the UK and overseas, having taken part in lessons in Cologne whilst on a trip to Germany. British pupils already spend longer hours in the classroom than in most other countries, with the German school day being just one of many examples, with students leaving shortly after 2 o’clock in the afternoon at this one Cologne grammar school.

Even in Finland, where the education system is consistently regarded as one of the best in the world, the shorter school days are highlighted as a central point of their success. Gove should learn from the trust that the Finnish place on their students, granting them with a greater sense of flexibility, instead of the negative and doubtful view that Gove clearly has of a teenager’s work ethic.

He added that this system would benefit the working parent, making their life easier in the process. How exactly, I’m not so sure, as having to deal with disgruntled and tired children isn’t what most parents would choose to do when they come home from a busy and already stressful day of work. However, is this even something the education secretary should necessarily be concerned with?

It stands clear that, as Education Secretary, Gove should be focusing on those most involved in education – obviously, the students and the teachers. And it is going to take a lot of persuasion to get the latter back on Gove’s side.

At the latest annual NUT conference, held in Liverpool with an audience of over 1,000 members of one of the biggest teachings unions in the country, cheers of ‘Gove must go’ echoed around the room as a unanimous vote of no confidence was passed.

His ‘limited experience of education’ was pointed out, and can be highlighted in his suggestion at shortening holidays. By dropping the six-week summer holiday to just four weeks, teachers and staff are losing out on 14 days of valuable time, which they require so greatly to complete the vast amount of work and planning that they must do. Somebody with experience in education would be able to empathise with this and would understand that the combination of shorter holidays and longer school days is impractical and simply unfeasible as staff will not be able to uphold the sheer quantity of work required of them. Consequently, the standard of teaching and education standards will surely decrease and Gove’s aim is, once again, strongly challenged.

People can often quickly criticise members of the teaching profession for their long holidays and short days; however, if they took a day out to visit a school, it would soon become evident that their working hours extend much further than the school’s start and finish times.

Equally so, students simply cannot switch off from school when they finish at 3:25 and it is irrational to think that they do; homework, coursework and revision have to take precedence over daytime TV unfortunately. By keeping schools open until 4:30, Gove is simply holding students back from using their time effectively for these crucial studies.

What do you think? Is Gove’s proposal a good one? Or do you agree that ‘Gove must go’? Leave a comment and let me know!

The Life of an A Level Student

It has been too long since I've last written a blog. This isn't due to a lack of motivation or desire but instead a lack of time. Due to the sheer volume of work and revision I have from Sixth Form, I have struggled to find time to fit writing on Essex in the Media into my busy working schedule.

Despite this, I still find myself being puzzled by one of the news stories that has occurred since I wrote my last post. The 'A Levels are too easy' saga has continued this week with Education Secretary, Michael Gove, declaring that the exams do not prepare students for university.

Every year when both the GCSE and A Level results are revealed, journalists and various members of the public decide that they believe the exams are getting easier. To the irritation and anger of the students who have slaved away revising for their exams, these people have no idea of the amount of work that goes into the exams and having not sat the test themselves, it seems beyond me as to how they can possibly come to this conclusion.

As a 17 year old student, currently in the midst of revising for my first set of A Level exams, I am well aware that A Levels require hard-work, dedication and are definitely a huge stretch from the GCSE specification. Everybody talks about the jump from Key Stage 4 to Key Stage 5 as you begin your AS Levels in Year 12, however until you are in the position of working for the exams yourself, you cannot fully comprehend it.

In his report, Michael Gove shared his worries that the A Level specification is "falling short of commanding the level of confidence we would want to see". I would happily offer Gove the opportunity to take the step from Year 11 to Year 12 at any school across the country so that he can see the necessity of a development in maturity that all students seem to take on. Having chosen to stay on at a sixth form or college, the students doing their A Levels are well aware of the need to grow in confidence and maturity in order to achieve the grades they so desire. There is no point in sitting back allow teachers to "spoon-feed" you, as Gove reports, as the need to achieve is for the student's benefit and not that of the staff.

Gove's report also stated, how in the UK, "we are the only country who ask kids, very, very, very early on, at 16, to concentrate on just three subjects". At most sixth forms and colleges, students are encouraged to choose four subjects at the age of 16, which they will study in the first half of their A Level course as part of their AS exams, moving on to take just three as they do their A2 exams. By the time students finish their GCSEs, it can be very difficult to choose any more than four subjects which they are still passionate about and still enjoy to learn about. Taking any more than this amount would lead to a lack of interest and therefore a lack of motivation and success. I do not believe it is too early or that it leads to any less success by taking fewer subjects at A Level.

Furthermore, I couldn't possibly imagine taking on another A Level on top of the four that I already study. I put my absolute all into the subjects I take: English, German, ICT and Philosophy & Ethics. These are four very challenging and also rather varied subjects and provide me with the balance that I need and that I desire. I know, just like many other students, that if I were to take any more subjects, my success in each individual subject would most likely suffer.

The graph below shows the rise of the number of students receiving an A grade at A Level (please note that the A* grade only came into effect in 2010).

From this graph, many would assume, just like Michael Gove, that the rise would insinuate a progression of ease in the exams. However, could it not show a progression of intelligence across the country? With the use of the internet, for example, students have a much larger accessibility to information and to resources which can aid the studying process, allowing the percentage of A grades to increase over a period of time.

Teenagers are dealt with negative opinions of their generation by many citizens of the UK and it is too quick and simple to say that the increase of success of A Level grades could be a result of the exams becoming easier. It should be considered that perhaps teenagers aren't all 'chavs' and most of us are hard-working individuals who should be seen positively and praised for our success in exams, instead of dealt with the blow of the media suggesting that the results we have strived for are not as valuable as they may have been in years prior.

As results day looms in August, students are nervous enough for their results, without having to worry about what the media might choose to negate about them next.