11 Plus Exams Forum

What do you think of this latest announcement?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20266533" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

For a start - does it mean A level courses starting in September 2014 (i.e. the first January without exams would be 2015) or for those starting in the sixth form next year (i.e. the first January without exams would be 2014)?

As mum to a prospective A-level student starting in September 2013 I have a vested interest!

It says

The scrapping of January exams and the limit on resits come in from September 2013, but they will affect students who began their A-level studies this September. They will not have January exams in their second year as expected.

so yep, your y11 and mine will definitely be affected.

I dunno, maybe it's just because it's not what I'm used to, but I find the endless resits a bit odd, so can't get worked up about them going.

Oops - must start reading my links...!

One of the main things we've heard at sixth-form open evenings is how quickly the first set of exams comes round. Presumably now there's more chance for the youngsters to settle in, or at least if it's a bit challenging at the start of term it might have less effect on their first exam marks.

It's just more change for the sake of change. Quite a number of subjects for instance Geography, History , RE and some others (can't remember now off the top of my head) possibly English and Music only have one exam at the end of year 13 , possibly only one in year 12 as well. Maths and the sciences tend to have more modules. Mine never seemed overburdened by modules.

Plus when they go to uni anyway there are modules for this and modules for that so it's just pointless rhetoric.

And as far as resits are concerned, well if everybody only had one chance in life, not many people would succeed.

I'm in favour of summer only exams and only one resit. However I bet most schools have printed their sixth form prospectuses and they will all be incorrect!

This should have been announced MUCH earlier.