‘Instead of enjoying the holidays we have been in study lockdown’
REVISION. I’m sick of it, and it’s not even me doing it. Having three children of exam-taking age means our holidays have been blighted by A-levels and GCSEs for years.
In the summer you must avoid being away for results day, and GCSE maths is now taken in November. Better start cramming now.
At Christmas there are spring term science and English GCSE units to prepare for, and Easter is the run-up to zero-hour summer.
Surely it was a Roald Dahl baddie who looked at a calendar and opted to ruin two of the nicest months of the year in Britain by decreeing teenagers must be shut away in exam halls through May and June.
But that’s not all.
One exam season is not enough. They now roll on throughout the year, with early entry and resits, modules and coursework.
Why buck the trend of 24-hour opening? In a world where nothing ever stops, it makes some kind of warped sense to keep the pressure up in a constant whirl,
And so, like many other people in exam territory, instead of enjoying the Easter holidays we have been in study lockdown as the middle teenager chases A-level grades and the youngest beavers away for his GCSEs.
The oldest, visiting from university, has roamed the house like a chorus of doom, warning the others of the perils of student loans.
“All my lecturers have been on strike so I have no idea what I need to do for my exams, and I’m too scared to check my overdraft,” she told her siblings.
As parents we weren’t sure, even as veterans of exam seasons, whether or not to take them all away on holiday. There’s no watertight guide to navigate revision and exam time. Every year and student is different.
Should you encourage? Chivvy? Say nothing? Serve hot drinks and snacks at hourly intervals? Is healthy food best or should you stock up on comforting cream cakes?
There is no guarantee any of these things will get a good response.
Should you insist those revising see daylight and breathe fresh air? Should you suggest a weekend away?
Nothing is certain, except that someone will slam a door or shout at some point in the coming weeks. At the very least.
It’s best not to mention how much easier exams were back in your day or that so-and-so’s daughter down the road is revising 20 hours a day, as this may endanger your life or the lives of others.
And we’ve all heard the story about someone who did no work but passed with flying colours. They live in the same house as the person who became a multi-millionaire despite doing nothing at school, and the lifelong smoker who never got cancer and can still run 10 miles a day without being out of breath.
These mythical beasts may well exist but they are rare indeed.
Rarer still is the courage to change things. Surely it’s time to rethink our qualifications?
While a new curriculum is being prepared for Wales, there is no mention of getting rid of GCSEs and A-levels and little detail on how the changes will fit into the exams we will, presumably, continue to assess school performance on.
Is the exam system created decades ago still relevant in the 21st century? Are the teenage years the best time to insist people stick their noses in books when so many other things are happening?
Is this the best way to learn, and are we learning the right things? The mounting mental health problems among our young people and lack of employment, prospects and affordable homes suggests not.
From the perspective of middle age, it seems that teenage years, crammed with so many more exciting things, are not the ideal moment to be told to sit at a desk for hours each day and evening.
We are all on a giant mouse wheel, convinced we are doing the right thing and colluding in a system where exam data rules. We don’t ask “can you speak French?” we just want to know “what grade did you get?”
And at the end of all this, are there going to be jobs?
In an increasingly uncertain world, it can be the easy option to just keep keeping on – but surely it’s time to rethink what we teach young people and how we assess that?