exam nerves appeal
Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 12:31 am
Hello all
Our DS unfortunately was 21 points away from a place at his chosen Grammar school.We knew this would be the case because on the day of the test he was utterly traumatised by the whole new experience of a public examination in an unfamiliar, formal environment during which he had to wait 40 minutes before the start of the test on his own due to poor exam administration.When picked up by my wife he broke down in tears in the exam room and did not stop crying and shaking for two hours.He later said that he nearly passed out during the test itself, due to raw panic.He is very young for his year, quite sensitive, and knew no-one in his particular test group due to the vagaries of alphabetical placement.We wrote a letter to the LEA admissions office pretty much straight away describing our dissatisfaction with the exam arrangements on the day.We are devastated that our bright son who is predicted 5s in all his year six SATs (and indeed was getting them last year) has fallen foul of a system that seems to reward those that are confident rather than those that are bright.Our question is - Is there any point in appealing bearing in mind how far away from the pass mark he was? (This to us shows exactly how traumatised he was as his score was such a poor reflection of his abilites)
Any advice would be very gratefully received !!
Our DS unfortunately was 21 points away from a place at his chosen Grammar school.We knew this would be the case because on the day of the test he was utterly traumatised by the whole new experience of a public examination in an unfamiliar, formal environment during which he had to wait 40 minutes before the start of the test on his own due to poor exam administration.When picked up by my wife he broke down in tears in the exam room and did not stop crying and shaking for two hours.He later said that he nearly passed out during the test itself, due to raw panic.He is very young for his year, quite sensitive, and knew no-one in his particular test group due to the vagaries of alphabetical placement.We wrote a letter to the LEA admissions office pretty much straight away describing our dissatisfaction with the exam arrangements on the day.We are devastated that our bright son who is predicted 5s in all his year six SATs (and indeed was getting them last year) has fallen foul of a system that seems to reward those that are confident rather than those that are bright.Our question is - Is there any point in appealing bearing in mind how far away from the pass mark he was? (This to us shows exactly how traumatised he was as his score was such a poor reflection of his abilites)
Any advice would be very gratefully received !!