The perfect GCSE tests

Discussion and advice on GCSEs

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Tree
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Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2009 7:19 pm
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The perfect GCSE tests

Post by Tree »

Ok as an intellectual exercise i though it amy be interesting to work out what would be the best way of testing at GCSE along the lines of previous posts on the ideal 11+ test whats the best 16+ test

My feeling is that mostly coursework based exams are dodgy cos you never know how much the work handed in reflects what the student really knows; did someone else do, it did they download it etc

Equally i'm not convinced purly exam based tests are ideal cos certainly my experience was that you crammed for the test and forgot it 3 weeks later and it was difficult to explore more challenging ideas and concepts

One new thing that could be tried is some kind of oral tests where a couple of examiners would have say 1 hour with each student and explore subjects with them i really think you could get a handle on someones real understanding of macbeth or melt water or mechanics quizzing them openly for 1 hour and this could either replace coursework or be based on a peice of coursework, The final part would be multiple choice to test a core knowledge base this could be extensive negatively marked and hard really test those dates/capitals/processes etc. The time spent on the oral part would be saved in no longer having any papers to mark.

What do you think ??
mike1880
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Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:51 pm

Post by mike1880 »

Or you could go in the opposite direction altogether and not bother with formal assessment at 16:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8583440.stm

Mike
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