New COVID variants: what does this mean for upcoming examinations? Well, this is the exact question almost every teenager is asking across the nation.

On the 27th November 2021, it was announced that two new cases of COVID, which were found in South Africa, had been detected in the country. Naturally, this would cause panic amongst those who dread another lockdown, particularly students with upcoming examinations such as GCSEs and A Levels. If there were to be another lockdown due to increased cases and queries about the effectiveness of the current vaccine that most people have, there is a chance of another lockdown occurring. This would result in missed learning which, following the last couple of years’ trends, will result in teacher assessed grades being given to students. These grades will be formed from mock examinations, predicted grades, and any other formal assessments that had taken place prior.

67% of students who were surveyed said they preferred for exams to keep going. One of those is Vaneet Basra who answered the question of if she’d like exams to go ahead by saying, “Yes because I feel like a lot of students are struggling and TAG grades will not show what they can achieve in the end. We should all be able to sit the exams and prove what we are capable of and we should be able to test our knowledge.”

However, this was only one side of the spectrum. Many would prefer to not do exams due to a variety of reasons, some feeling as if their mock grades were sufficient, or the main one being they feel unprepared. This sparks the questions: how can schools cope with this lost learning? What are the next steps?