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What is wrong with all examination?

Arran Cameron
During my secondary school years every GCSE subject had a coursework component. In 2007 coursework was dropped from maths making it all examination. In more recent years other subjects have gone all examination.


I strongly uphold the main GCSE subjects (English, maths, science, probably geography, history and RS as well) as all examination with no coursework, as I believe it to be the fairest method overall, although coursework components should continue for creative subjects including art, music, and D&T.


Whenever I state my view I get accused of being another Michael Gove.


I am aware that the Lib-Dems and the Green Party want to re-instate coursework for ALL GCSE subjects. Is this intelligent thought or just a whim of a liberal chattering class without any regard for students themselves or the desires of the silent majority?
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    All examination is actually more inclusive. A coursework component is prohibitive for the following categories of people:


    1. Home educated children - regardless of which of the 1001 reasons that they are home educated.

    2. High academic ability children who want to take GCSEs outside of the school system before Y11.

    3. Prisoners.

    4. Adults who are self taught or attend distance learning courses who are unable to attend college regularly due to transport issues or work / childcare commitments.


    Should these people be denied the opportunity to take GCSEs because it's near impossible for them to have the coursework assessed?

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    Hi Lisa,


    When I did A level Physics I was that sniffer for one of my papers! Actually more like streamer, the neighbour's tree outside my bedroom window had burst into pollen the day before. I did appallingly - this of course (before anyone asks) was back in the days when no-one dreamt of claiming "mitigating circumstances". 


    And, to be fair there were other reasons I did badly in my A levels, I'd got through my O levels by the time honoured process of swotting up the night before, regurgitating it in the exam, and forgetting it all again the day afterwards! (A technique I have since been known to occasionally use for meetings wink So it does come in useful, but not in the way it was intended.) This approach doesn't work for A levels. These days even more so: when helping my son and daughter through theirs I was very impressed with the way A level questions are now structured, you really do need to have understood the whole course to do well in them. But even given that, I still think they're 50% a test of your ability to write neatly at speed - very poor (on both counts) in my case!


    I can see that exams are great for schools and for examiners, they are easy to manage and give a clear and simple answer. And on average they probably just about work. However I am sure there are very many bright and capable children they fail. And equally many others who think they understand a subject when what they've mainly learnt is how to pass the exam.


    Personally I absolutely loathe exams (even though I'm now actually quite good at them, provided they don't involve lots of writing). Which is a pain as I love learning new things, and having a goal to aim at! It's also true that I got very fraught when writing my Master's thesis. but at least when I did submit that I knew I'd been over it carefully and it was the best I could do.


    Cheers,


    Andy

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    I read on a forum that one reason for the decline in the number of students taking D&T subjects for GCSE (since 2000ish) is because there is a large coursework component.
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    Arran Cameron:

    All examination is actually more inclusive. A coursework component is prohibitive for the following categories of people:


    1. Home educated children - regardless of which of the 1001 reasons that they are home educated.

    2. High academic ability children who want to take GCSEs outside of the school system before Y11.

    3. Prisoners.

    4. Adults who are self taught or attend distance learning courses who are unable to attend college regularly due to transport issues or work / childcare commitments.


    Should these people be denied the opportunity to take GCSEs because it's near impossible for them to have the coursework assessed?




    Quite frankly, if I can do a post graduate diploma and a Master's by distance learning and assessment, then it's going to be perfectly possible to solve these for GCSEs (if they are problems). There's a difference between a system not working and a system not being able to work!  


    Incidentally on point 2, the last A level I took (psychology, including appropriately enough for this thread psychology of education) I took most definitely outside the school system, I was in my early 40s. Worked fine, my tutor assessed my coursework.

     



    I read on a forum that one reason for the decline in the number of students taking D&T subjects for GCSE (since 2000ish) is because there is a large coursework component.



    Ah well, you should NEVER believe anything you read on forums smiley


    Cheers,


    Andy

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    If I had done GCSE's instead of O levels then I probably would have got higher grades due to the coursework inclusion. Although I did 'pass' most of my exams with C's and B's anyway. 


    .... Apart from maths.... I was always (and still am) really rubbish at maths laugh. I failed my O level (D grade) and ended up doing a CSE in maths instead and getting a grade 1 which was equivalent to a C grade pass at O level anyway! 


    I suppose in Maths, my coursework was good because I had time to think through everything but under exam conditions I just got too flustered and couldn't work everything out in time. sad
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    0 Former Community Member
    The difficultly with only having exams is that teachers will teach you how to pass exams if they wish to remain employed. You might not learn much else!


    I think in an ideal world you wouldn't need to learn just how to pass exams and be good at cramming. I always did well in exams, but I think that's because I never felt the pressure - my dad used to say that if I was any more laid back 'd fall over! I never bothered revising and I was a firm believer that if you'd actually learned anything and enjoyed school that you didn't need to, but I realise that I'm probably in a minority and only speak for myself.


    The other problem with exams is that all it does it prove that you can perform within a snapshot of time. Coursework allows the time to properly research something, write it up and format it well, and then take some time to consider your conclusions, which is much more representative of the real world.
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    Lisa Miles:

    If I had done GCSE's instead of O levels then I probably would have got higher grades due to the coursework inclusion. Although I did 'pass' most of my exams with C's and B's anyway. 


    .... Apart from maths.... I was always (and still am) really rubbish at maths laugh. I failed my O level (D grade) and ended up doing a CSE in maths instead and getting a grade 1 which was equivalent to a C grade pass at O level anyway! 


    I suppose in Maths, my coursework was good because I had time to think through everything but under exam conditions I just got too flustered and couldn't work everything out in time. sad




    You might have picked a bad example because maths is a subject that naturally lends itself to all examination more so than creative or essay based subjects. For example, history is a subject where exams require the ability to (hand)write lengthy paragraphs in a short space of time whereas coursework assignments (which are also lengthy paragraphs) can be completed at leisure and typed on a computer. Coursework is closer to the work of real world historians whereas it can be artificial and unrepresentative for secondary school level maths apart with the possible exception of statistical analysis. In fact I have found pure maths coursework assignments to be of a questionable nature. This probably helps to explain why maths was the first subject to abandon coursework. 



     

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    Arran Cameron:



    ...history is a subject where exams require the ability to (hand)write lengthy paragraphs in a short space of time whereas coursework assignments (which are also lengthy paragraphs) can be completed at leisure and typed on a computer. 



    I never had the luxury of typing out coursework on a computer, all homework, coursework etc was hand written in exercise books..! sad Or the luxury of using the Internet for reseach either... In fact my 'research' was mostly done in the reference section of the local library in the evenings and out of the way of my then 18 month old brother... laugh


    I do think however that if my classwork and homework assignments had been included in someway in the overall exam mark then I would have marked higher in my O levels though...  


     
     

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    David Houssein:


    The other problem with exams is that all it does it prove that you can perform within a snapshot of time. Coursework allows the time to properly research something, write it up and format it well, and then take some time to consider your conclusions, which is much more representative of the real world. 




    The truth of the matter is regardless of whether we have 100% examination, 100% coursework, or 50:50, the vast majority of the secondary school curriculum in the main subjects is irrelevant for everyday life in the real world and most employment. It's really an exercise in showing the world whether you can learn rather than learning something useful or relevant.


    Coursework has its merits if one wants to become a researcher - or possibly a journalist or a lawyer - but only a tiny fraction of school leavers ever become researchers and the figure isn't much higher for lawyers or journalists. In higher education where research is carried out and findings cannot easily be presented in a few short paragraphs under examination conditions then coursework has its place. In fact I'm a critic of large numbers of exams in engineering degree courses. However, for basic elementary knowledge in the main subjects at secondary school level then I believe that exams are the most effective method of assessment.



     

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    Lisa Miles:


    I never had the luxury of typing out coursework on a computer, all homework, coursework etc was hand written in exercise books..! sad Or the luxury of using the Internet for reseach either... In fact my 'research' was mostly done in the reference section of the local library in the evenings and out of the way of my then 18 month old brother... laugh

    You raise an interesting point. When the concept of GCSEs having a coursework component was devised in the early 1980s almost all secondary school students used to handwrite their homework. Therefore it's probaby safe to assume that the proposers of GCSE coursework expected all coursework to be handwritten. Home computers became popular in the 1980s but they were overwhelmingly used for games rather than educational activities. Very few kids at the time had a printer, and if they did own one, then schools were often reluctant to accept printed out homework.


    The printing out of homework and coursework only really took off in the mid 1990s after word processing was included in the ICT curriculum and inkjet printers became affordable and commonplace. Around 2000ish it became the norm for GCSE coursework to be produced on a computer rather than hand written.


    My A Level electronics teacher gave everybody a template file for coursework assignments. He mentioned that students shouldn't have to waste time faffing around with formatting the style of coursework assignments as they are an exercise in electronics, not typesetting, so using the template file will result in a document that is properly structured and professionally typeset. There is no rule imposed by exam boards against template files for coursework assignments. Formal typesetting is not part of the school ICT curriculum and I'm doubtful whether many teachers even know much about the subject.
     

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