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Studying Choices
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
It's well known that some people do well under the pressure of exams, and that other people are absolutley hopeless under exam conditions.
Shouldn't we be given the choice in our studies of whether to be assessed in an exam or through coursework?
Shouldn't we be given the choice in our studies of whether to be assessed in an exam or through coursework?
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It's a tiered system, like ours, but that's where the similarities end. There are three tiers, one is high-stream academia, such as a top range grammar school in this country, one is middle of the road, majority of assesment is based on academic skills, like a standard secondary school here, the third is much more practical, like a vocational qualification here.
The most interesting thing about the system is that there is no exam to determine where you shuold be. The student chooses which school they'd rather go to. It apparently works quite well.
I think the choice would be fairer as people who can thrive under exams can choose that, and people who don't could choose coursework.
That's how the german system works. To be fair I think that depending on your tier you should be facing the same challenges as everyone else. If you find exam pressure hard, you need to learn to deal with it. Some people can't do course-work, or find it hard, because of the lack of pressure.
that's why I think people should be given the choice. The people who fail at coursework would take exams, the people who fail exams would take coursework.
and it's not just about coping with the pressure, medical problems affect it too. Dyslexia, Nystagmus, RSI. I'm not all too clued up on Dyslexia, but Nystagmus definitely gets worse under pressure.
Dyslexia is all about your capacity to compensate. It had next to no affect during the first few years at school. But as the level of work required, and therefore the amount of my mind concentrating on it, rose, my dyslexia got worse. Exams don't help but there are ways of dealing with it, extra time, learning style etc.
reply to your PMs roo!
it is possible to have infinate extra time though babes. I also pointed out that learning to deal with it is a necessary evil. People get stressed.
If they're only there to find out how much you know, why don't you just take the exam? Either you know it or you don't, why get stressed about it?
I was rushed terribly with my coursework. I didn't do one of them for science. Maths was horribly stressful
The time issue, as i have already said, is not really that big of a deal. KTT got 50%, it's possible to have 100% and even infinte time for an exam.
But to be fair, surely people should be given the assessment option of where they perform strongest?
Some people can go through the school year getting As and yet when it comes to the exam, fail miserably.
Therefore, exams are not necessarily an accurate representation or judgement.
anyway if a student been getting As all year, and they have a really off day and fail the paper, theyd surely learn their lesson of being ready for exams physically and do a resit, i did
if you want spoonfed education, go to private schools
I wouldn't, I'm the same in exams. It's unfair to assess people in ideal conditions, and unrealistic. Lets say for arguements sake I have to be examined with exactly 33% extra time, on the 5th floor in the corner room of a building with vivaldi's four seasons playing.
What rubbish.
Everyone needs to be assessed the same way based on their subjects. If you pick an subject that is non-vocational you can expect an exam at the end. It's about practice, if you know you find it difficult, you need to do them over and over and over. Not whinge about how unfair it is.
Employment causes people to have to cope with pressure - it's a fact of life.
Coursework is far too veigh to replace exams - not to mention the fact it's easy to get through coursework with the help of others. Wouldn't work.