Student’s views on upcoming GCSEs

GCSEs are rapidly approaching. For thousands of students across the country the next few months will be taken over by intensive studies and sitting several exams a day. The grades they achieve will remain with them for their entire lives, defining their  job prospects and future income.

The exams have been around for 25 years so maybe it's time to question whether GCSEs are really the best option to educate young people and prepare them for a future in the workplace. Students are made to sit these exams but are never asked how they feel about them so I’ve asked a variety of different students how GCSEs are going for them.

The first student I spoke to aspires to be a lawyer but is struggling to secure the grades that she needs to secure her a place in law school. She told me that she spends hours in her bedroom revising and that she barely left the house over the Easter holidays.The pressure is impacting on her mental health and she just looks forward to when exam season is over. Should exams come at the cost of young people’s happiness?

Another student told me how she manages to achieve high grades in lots of subjects but  she dislikes how the GCSE exams are structured. She said, “It’s too focused on memorising content for exams and not on what we actually learn”. So much content is crammed into the GCSE course, many subjects have 3 separate papers. Perhaps students should be assessed on how they learn in the classroom and present their ideas rather than on whether they remember a specific fact. Schools should put more emphasis on skills that will actually help students in the workplace such as teamwork and problem solving

Finally I talked to a student who sat her exams 3 years ago and is now in her first year at University. She said, “I want to tell year 11s not to worry about GCSEs, they’re not as important as everyone says they are”. She tells me she can barely recall any of the science and maths she learnt in secondary school and that universities care much more about A-levels and extracurriculars than GCSE results. Most employers would be willing to overlook bad GCSE results if an applicant has good work experience and performs well at an interview.

So is it time to scrap GCSEs? I’m sure most of the year 11 students at my school would agree. Sitting so many exams puts unnecessary pressure on young people and doesn’t really help them learn or prepare them for life.