Why do some people find the neeed to break the saying of, "if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it?" (AS Levels)

Member Name: mmmbuffy

Product:	AS Levels
Date:	11/08/01 (158 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None, At, All

Disadvantages: Too much pressure, Too much work, Too much pressure

When I first started out on Dooyoo, all I was doing it for was the money, and so on signing up I used my mums name and age to collect my money. Now however, I like doing opinions, I see it as kind of a game, a challenge, a challenge to write the best opinions. Why is this relevant? Well let me explain. I am actually 17 years old, and have just gone through the very worst school year of my life. And why is this? Every 6th form in the past have had the benefit of not having to worry about external exams at the end of their first year, not my year though, oh no, the government see it fit to use us as their 'guinea pigs' in experimental school systems.

During my school career, me and my year group have gone through three, yes three, experimental exam systems. The first was way back in year 6, when we were going through our SAT's, I'm not sure exactly what was different, but I do know it was a new system. The second was only last year with our GCSE's, once again they were trying a new system. Unfortunately, the old saying 'third time's a charm' just doesn't apply in this instance, a more suitable saying would be 'once is ok, twice is pushing it, three times and you won't get away with it'.

The new system they have brought in is that after the first year of 6th form there is external examinations. They also changed the UCAS points system, now you get 120 points for an A at A2, 100 points for a B and so on. The AS levels are technically half an A level, you get 60 points for and A, 50 for a B and so on. It's all confusing and just doesn't work, the old system was a lot better.

There has been a lot of stress placed on the pupils who went through these exams, and there are a lot of people who won't get the grades they deserve. Not only that, there were too many exams to fit into the two week period, mine weren't so bad, I went through nine exams in 14 days, and there was only one clas
h. A clash is when you have two exams scheduled for the same time, and this caused a lot of problems. A friend of mine had a lot of exams in one day (I think it was three), and she had to stay at a teacher's house over night just so that she couldn't contact ANYONE to give away the questions to the exam. Does this seem fair to you? I get along with teachers fine, but still, I don't think I would like to spend the night at on of my teacher's homes, it just isn't right.

Also, there is a lot of people who won't recieve their grades for a few more months as the government didn't hire enough marker's. Good job guys!

Another thing that makes this even worse is that it means pupils are going to go through 'the most important exams of their life' for three years in a row. Let me explain, each and every year we have exams, we are told that they are the most important exams of our life, and in a way they are. You need good GCSE's to get into 6th form, then you need good A levels to get into university, and now you need good AS levels to get good A2 levels. It is so stupid, the stress of having three external exams in a row is too much. Do you all remember how bad that GCSE exam period was? Having to stay in and revise on those really great sunny summer days, then the lack of sleep worrying about the exam the next day? Well let me tell you, it isn't fair to put people through that for three years in a row. I would have liked it if the old A level system was still in place, but this is just stupid.

When I said there are a lot of people not getting the grades they deserve, one of those people is me. I am probably going to repeat this year because I haven't done very well at all. Last year in my GCSE's I got A's, B's and C's, which are quite good, however this year I'll be getting D's, E's and F's, and I'm not the only person, a lot of the year are doing really bad.


These bad results are mainly because this year we have had to rush through the course, just so we could have covered all the work in time. There was no going over subjects and learning them well, instead once you had covered one area, we immediately moved on to the next are. Previous A level students did better because they had plenty of time to go over and over the same subject so that it stuck in their head. Not this year though, and now they are realising that they have really screwed a lot of people, me for one, and I really want you all to know how bad this is for me and the other people in my position. And hey, this isn't just my opinion, all of my teachers agree that there isn't enough time to cover all of the work.

In fact, some people did so bad in the January exams that their schools are MAKING all of them repeat the year. This makes it even worse for them, well may be not for them in particular, but it will make it worse for the year below. If there are a lot of schools making their pupils repeat the year, then in two years the universities are going to have to deny a lot of people, because there is going to be too many people applying, and the universities aren't going to be able to accommodate them. What makes it even worse though is that say, for example, a person applies for a biology course, and in any other year group they would be accepted for the course because they have good enough grades, however in that year they won't get on because there are more people with better grades filling the places. This isn't fair on those people, and that makes you wonder what the government is going to do about it.

Now they are admitting that the system is a failure and a bad idea, well at least they can admit it, but that doesn't make it any better at all. Now I read that they are scrapping the 'three papers per subject' concept and are having one paper per subject. I've just got a feeling that this
won't work either, they should just scrap the whole idea and go back to the old A level system.

I don't see why they needed a new system to begin with, and I really don't see why they have to experiment on my year group anyway, it really bakes my noodle. I feel so strongly about it that it is me that asked Dooyoo to add this topic, because I want you all to know how bad it is for us.

In closing, AS levels suck, they make the supposedly best years of our life suck and they should be scrapped instead of being 'fixed'.

I hope this opinion has helped you to see the AS exams the way me and my year group see them.

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