GCSEs in England to be replaced with English Bac in 2015; single exam board, single exam; school lea - Polidicks

[QUOTE=A B.A. Survivor;37700102]You Europeans and your school systems confuse me extensively.[/QUOTE] You've no room to talk. Your country is seriously debating teaching [I]creationism[/I] as science.

[QUOTE=A B.A. Survivor;37700102]You Europeans and your school systems confuse me extensively.[/QUOTE] short version: miles better than the American System

[QUOTE=matt.ant;37700115]I can't comment about sixth form since my school didn't have one, but I agree with the college bit. [B]No uniforms, no detention[/B], calling your teacher by their first name, and [B]if there was any problems your teacher would discuss it with you and not your parents[/B]. I think it prepares people for work more.[/QUOTE] These are true about my sixth form too

My school are already doing this? we had to the option this year to pick 3 GCSE's (music, History. Spanish, Media ETC) or we could just pick Ebac which basically lets you JUST do 1 Language. 1 Humanity (History or Geography) and at least 2 Sciences.

So what happens to A Levels, BTEC courses and other similar qualifications bridging the gap between GCSEs and University?

[QUOTE=Sgt-NiallR;37699960] I had a friend who did GCSE french and got a C He got a D in english.[/QUOTE] was he french? :v:

[QUOTE=cr2142;37700142]My school are already doing this? we had to the option this year to pick 3 GCSE's (music, History. Spanish, Media ETC) or we could just pick Ebac which basically lets you JUST do 1 Language. 1 Humanity (History or Geography) and at least 2 Sciences.[/QUOTE] I thought EBac right now was just a selection of GCSEs that they wanted everyone to do? The EBac Certificate is actually a new qualification to completely replace GCSEs

[QUOTE=matt.ant;37700115]I can't comment about sixth form since my school didn't have one, but I agree with the college bit. No uniforms, no detention, calling your teacher by their first name, and if there was any problems your teacher would discuss it with you and not your parents. I think it prepares people for work more.[/QUOTE] Sixth form is no thing like that though, it's basically teachers getting angry at you because you "didn't know better" and the whole pressure of trying to get into a good uni [editline]17th September 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Xploder;37700150]So what happens to A Levels, BTEC courses and other similar qualifications bridging the gap between GCSEs and University?[/QUOTE] AFAIK A Levels continue, dunno about BTECs but I assume they will? I think uni's will still use mostly A levels because they're well known enough internationally to be a standard

[QUOTE=smurfy;37700131]These are true about my sixth form too[/QUOTE] They aren't true everywhere though. In my school they still treated us like kids while we were in sixth form.

[QUOTE=Bobie;37700084]on-the-spot examinations in general are a terrible way of finding out if someone's actually good at something. there are so many factors that can change, something that stretches out over an average period of time would seem sensible imo but gcses were almost entirely comprised of memory tests. a levels were too to a certain extent[/QUOTE] not really, modular gcse's I think are pretty good indicators for how well someone can cope with problems which they haven't learn directly, mostly in the science ISAs (too bad the students all complain "we weren't taught this!!!" if they have to think for themselves)

Michael Gove should be made to sit the 3 hour exams when they come through. He's a dick. [editline]17th September 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Cushie;37700253]They aren't true everywhere though. In my school they still treated us like kids while we were in sixth form.[/QUOTE] What do you expect? You're a couple of months older than you were in year 11 and I bet you think they're childish.

[QUOTE=Terminutter;37699919]Thank fucking finally we're going to a single board system, though A levels need to be made single board, too. Not so sure about one massive exam, though, it's not exactly indicative of knowledge, just a certain type of memory and answering ability, at least if it is kept as current exams are. What they do need to do is increase the facility for typing the exam, as no-one really handwrites anything past basic notes these days, and exams should be based around quality of answer rather than how it's input.[/QUOTE] AFAIK in all the "long writing" type things (English controlled assessents, RS,science ISAs, and most other essays) you can already type is those if your school offers it (although most schools only allow typing in RS if you're disabled as its basically a speed writing test) for GCSE. And I don't understand why everyone is so promoting the single board system. The multi-board system allowed for more differentiation between students (what with 90% A/A* in some schools)

Yay! Even [i]more[/i] emphasis put on a "How good are you at passing exams" test.

[QUOTE=AngryChairR;37699800]They shouldn't force them to stay at school until they're 18. Sixth form at the moment is for people who are insecure about leaving school and if you look at them next to college students they're quite immature and annoying. They should be out of the school environment where they call their teachers 'Sir', go to assemblies and get moaned at. College gives them responsibility and the more adult environment is much better for 16-19 year-olds.[/QUOTE] But sixth form is 16-19 education, that's what it means. I don't understand the distinction you're making.

[QUOTE=Eltro102;37700227]Sixth form is no thing like that though, it's basically teachers getting angry at you because you "didn't know better" and the whole pressure of trying to get into a good uni [/QUOTE] They pressure you into uni at college too, we were told, "just apply, you can withdraw your application whenever you want, then at least you get the choice"

This means I have higher chance of getting into Uni and doing my medicine course - due to the fuck up in English this year, I have to stay on for 3 years in Sixth Form, like a majority of my college is doing.

[QUOTE=Eltro102;37700309]And I don't understand why everyone is so promoting the single board system. The multi-board system allowed for more differentiation between students (what with 90% A/A* in some schools)[/QUOTE] I think the argument is that with multiple boards, the boards are incentivised to make the courses easier, because then they can get more schools to go with them by saying they have a higher pass rate

[QUOTE=Ray-The-Sun;37700121]You've no room to talk. Your country is seriously debating teaching [I]creationism[/I] as science.[/QUOTE] Country is irrelevant. Each state basically has their own school system. What you find in Tennessee is in no way representative of what you find in California.

Wow this sounds like such a great idea, because of course a memory test is far better than course work right!

Would a University accept BACs, or would A levels/Higher still be required? If the latter is the case, raising the leaving age to 18, plus two years Higher, plus degree, means most people wouldn't start work until 23/24, even assuming they could afford the tuition fees. Part of the appeal of sixth form was that all the horrid scrotes who didn't care for education went off and got jobs, leaving you in an environment of like-minded peers. Some people simply don't want and are unable to be in an academic environment, forcing that on them just brings everyone down. I'm not too keen on the idea of 3 hour exams either, having those in Uni is bad enough. Exams are worth little in school, they're little more than a mindless regurgitation of facts. Real life and industry engage in projects, would a greater emphasis on coursework not prepare students better for the working world? Homogenising the boards is a good idea, although it seems to be the only one. I'll reserve judgement until I've seen the syllabus, but this doesn't sound hugely promising.

[QUOTE=QwertySecond;37700461]Would a University accept BACs, or would A levels/Higher still be required? If the latter is the case, raising the leaving age to 18, plus two years Higher, plus degree, means most people wouldn't start work until 23/24, even assuming they could afford the tuition fees. Part of the appeal of sixth form was that all the horrid scrotes who didn't care for education went off and got jobs, leaving you in an environment of like-minded peers. Some people simply don't want and are unable to be in an academic environment, forcing that on them just brings everyone down. I'm not too keen on the idea of 3 hour exams either, having those in Uni is bad enough. Exams are worth little in school, they're little more than a mindless regurgitation of facts. Real life and industry engage in projects, would a greater emphasis on coursework not prepare students better for the working world? Homogenising the boards is a good idea, although it seems to be the only one. I'll reserve judgement until I've seen the syllabus, but this doesn't sound hugely promising.[/QUOTE] They haven't extended school they've just made it compulsory up to 18 instead of up to 16

[QUOTE=QwertySecond;37700461]Would a University accept BACs, or would A levels/Higher still be required? If the latter is the case, raising the leaving age to 18, plus two years Higher, plus degree, means most people wouldn't start work until 23/24, even assuming they could afford the tuition fees. Part of the appeal of sixth form was that all the horrid scrotes who didn't care for education went off and got jobs, leaving you in an environment of like-minded peers. Some people simply don't want and are unable to be in an academic environment, forcing that on them just brings everyone down. I'm not too keen on the idea of 3 hour exams either, having those in Uni is bad enough. Exams are worth little in school, they're little more than a mindless regurgitation of facts. Real life and industry engage in projects, would a greater emphasis on coursework not prepare students better for the working world? Homogenising the boards is a good idea, although it seems to be the only one. I'll reserve judgement until I've seen the syllabus, but this doesn't sound hugely promising.[/QUOTE] Most areas have a vocational college and a sixth form college, what I found is that 'horrid scrotes' went to the vocational college and all the normal people went to the sixth form. The leaving age for education is going to be raised to 18, this is referring to students staying in college for ages 16 to 18 after they finish secondary education.

[QUOTE=smurfy;37700491]They haven't extended school they've just made it compulsory up to 18 instead of up to 16[/QUOTE] Does that mean that a-levels can't be taken before 18? Sorry, I can't quite get my head around this.

[QUOTE=Jacknife;37700380]This means I have higher chance of getting into Uni and doing my medicine course - due to the fuck up in English this year, I have to stay on for 3 years in Sixth Form, like a majority of my college is doing.[/QUOTE] I got a D for English in my gcse, not enough for uni, spent 1 month in college whilst doing my main course and did functional skills level 2 and that got me in when I passed, why do you need to do a whole year

[QUOTE=smurfy;37699894]GCSEs as a whole were pretty horrible though, so many subjects that I had no interest in and didn't want to study. I can't see very much of a way round that though[/QUOTE] Public education in a nutshell. I didn't give half a damn about William Shakespeare but I had to study him four years in a row in high school. Schools just love shoving random shit down student's throats without a care in the world as to whether said content interests the students enough for them to learn it.

This could be very bad or very good for the people doing the traditional GCSE's right now depending on how hard the exams will actually be.

[QUOTE=rampageturke 2;37700559]I got a D for English in my gcse, not enough for uni, spent 1 month in college whilst doing my main course and did functional skills level 2 and that got me in when I passed, why do you need to do a whole year[/QUOTE] If you fail a year you need to go back and redo it.

[QUOTE=Eltro102;37700309]AFAIK in all the "long writing" type things (English controlled assessents, RS,science ISAs, and most other essays) you can already type is those if your school offers it (although most schools only allow typing in RS if you're disabled as its basically a speed writing test) for GCSE. And I don't understand why everyone is so promoting the single board system. The multi-board system allowed for more differentiation between students (what with 90% A/A* in some schools)[/QUOTE] My handwriting's classified as horrible, so I'm allowed to type, but frankly I think that it's an unfair advantage allowing some people to do it, but not everyone. It should be universal. A single board system is better as there is only going to be one book on the syllabus for the thing. Sure an AQA exam might be ranked differently to an Edexcel exam, but as soon as you introduce multiple boards, you have increased the chance of a board fucking a test up (two years back is a good example) and you've increased the number of books needed. A school can't offer AQA one year and OCR the next, as they don't have the funding for books, and if there are multiple boards, each will mark slightly differently. I know for a fact that my school has changed boards a few years back to try to get the most leniant ones, as an A with OCR is the same as with Edexcel and so on. Education needs to be standardised, and with multiple companies all behind making and advertising their own books designed to be as incompatible with each other as possible (and selling dodgy meetings with very close cut exam advice for teachers in a few cases that came up last year) which is wasting taxpayer money. I know for a fact we have a load of old maths books we never plan to use as they are from a different board. I reckon that they total around £500 from the amount I've seen, and they're just gathering dust because we swapped boards. [QUOTE=QwertySecond;37700546]Does that mean that a-levels can't be taken before 18? Sorry, I can't quite get my head around this.[/QUOTE] GCSE is normally 15-16, AS is 17 and A2 is 18. AS + A2 = full A level, you normally take 4 AS and 3 A2s to get 3 and a half A levels.

My sciences were the only exams I didn't do at the end of year 11 anyway, it's mainly comp schools that try and spread them out. My sister's school is terrible for this, the start doing their GCSEs in year 9, do no maths after January of year 10, and fit a language into 1 year... So doing exams at the end of your school time to me is the better thing to do. Glad to be finally getting out of the exam system next July when I finish my A2s. The whole thing is flawed, teachers, students and exam boards all playing a big game to get the best results, with virtually no regard for actually learning and bettering your knowledge. Even at AS last year, for me it boiled down to learning AQA's science markschemes, because knowing your stuff doesn't actually cut it, you have to know what they [i]want[/i] you to say. It's utter bullshit.

Well that's good, though the whole leaving age being raised doesn't particularly sit well with me. At 16 I was literally feverish to get away from that school. Another two years would have been [i]cruel.[/i]