Why GCSE examinations are now irrelevant
GCSE exams are supposed to test your knowledge of your entire secondary school education. That’s why it’s called a General Certificate of Secondary Education, right? These are supposed to be something that colleges, universities and employers look at to determine how intelligent you are. That’s what we’re told, anyway.
I believe GCSE examinations are now irrelevant. These exams don’t test your knowledge of a particular subject, they test your ability to cram and revise, which is ultimately a bad thing for your learning. By cramming, you’re not actually learning anything - you’re remembering facts, short-term. Once you’ve sat the exam, the majority of people forget these facts… that’s not good.
I admit to cramming, I do it a lot! If I can remember some important facts about a subject that I’m not really interested in, instead of revising over a long-period of time, I will do.
It’s not just the examinations that are flawed, it’s the coursework too. I, from personal experience, can tell you that official GCSE coursework is riddled with cheating. I haven’t cheated myself, but I have seen many people cheat on more than one occasion. A certain teacher of mine ‘accidentally’ left speaking coursework subject titles on her desk, and ‘unknowingly’ left the room. That’s fair, right? No, it’s not.
My main point is, these examinations do not test your knowledge the majority of the time. As I said above, they test your ability to cram facts into your brain, which isn’t good and often results in people looking better on paper than they actually are in person.
Another thing I dislike is the fact that we, as students, are told that these GCSE examinations determine how successful we will be in our lives. That’s rubbish. How successful you are or will be is determined by one thing. You.
GCSEs are simply stepping stones into college. For your average college course, the requirements really aren’t that high. You usually need 5 GCSEs at A*-C. I’m sitting 12 GCSE courses - which accumulate to 19 exams! (Which is quite frankly ridiculous!)
I’d love to hear your thoughts on GCSE examinations. Do you think they’re a good thing, or do you agree with me and believe they should be revised?
Thanks for reading,
Joshua Lee Tucker
