Headteacher Mr Povey convinces one of the student's to take her mock exam in an emotional conversation. Watch the series on All 4: www.channel4.com/programmes/ed...
"mocks are pointless" you say that, but I'm watching this a little over a week after my exams got cancelled from coronavirus and my qualifications are literal coming from my mocks..
They aren't just from mocks. They will take all the work you have done over the last two years, and use that as evidence. So if your mocks weren't great it won't mean much, as long as you have put the work in. -A fellow GCSE student who was unable to do mocks and was also worrying until I found this out
Exams are not the right way to test someone's ability as an individual or someone intelligence, just someone's ability to remember information no matter how insignificant. And that is how we determine someone's future. Intelligence is someone's ability to find a solution to a problem, and we measure it by the speed that person finds a solution. Not the speed they remember a solution.
They’re definitely not always the right way to test people. I really struggled with exams because of poor working memory and mild learning difficulties. Even with extra time I would still often not finish the paper.
Say what you want about the American system, but kids are actually expected to 'wing' SATs - using only the knowledge they have attained over the year instead of spending ages piling excessive amounts of information for a do-it or die exam. I agree, there should be more coursework and at the very least an option for more smaller and casual exams instead of a load of HUGE IMPORTANT ones.
Aimee Butler lmao I was getting A*s in the class room tests, so I didn’t revise for the actual thing (in year 10) and I got a D. But I’m resitting in like a week, but I’ll probably only get like a C
I'm in year 11 now and have my mocks in 2 weeks. I cannot explain the pressure and stress that I feel just walking into school. Its all teachers can talk about, they remind us every single lesson and it just doesn't help. Does anyone have any techniques to help me cope with it all because I just can't at the moment.
Josie Brookes Mbbyyllxss 15 Look. Everyone bricks it, it's natural. I was shitting myself throughout Yr 11 (last year) and honestly it was the worst year of my life... let alone the MONTH of exams. But listen, come to the real thing and it's easy! If you do well in your mocks you will SMASH GCSEs! You have multiple days in between exams in May to revise (BUT STILL REVISE BEFOREHAND!) so I even had time to de-stress and play video games between exams at home haha! I came out with 9A*s and an A. I'm not spectacular in every subject but I put the effort in and the sense of accomplishment I felt, and the ease of lower sixth so far is AMAZING and totally worth it! Just... SURVIVE! Thrive in the environment regardless of any obstacles/anxiety etc. and no matter what, you'll come out a champion!
Lily Callaghan Bad advice. Revise the bits you're unsure about just so it's fresh in your mind on the exam! You only need it in your head to throw it to paper and then you can forget about it. Make sure you've covered everything beforehand and top up just before the exam!
I have my year 10 mocks in 2 weeks. I have diagnosed anxiety and because of that i have to do my exams in a small and quiet venue incase i have a panic attack. I am actually so grateful to my school for letting me do that. I have the most supportive teachers and i literally love them so much. They are amazing like the teachers on this show 🖤
I am exactly like shannon! I want the Same future. Same mindset. I’ve always wanted to become a forensic but I have major panic attacks because I’m expected of by my teachers but I feel like I can’t do anything & I feel stupid :(
so crazy how young year 11s look to me now, i remember when i was in year 11 i thought i was a proper grown up and i knew exactly what i wanted to do with my life. mad how fast everything changes
Exams sucked for me. I got extremely sick because of the stress, sleeping for a little amount every day probably around 3 hours..getting up at 4am to revise, going home and locking myself in my bedroom until 4am the next morning. That ultimately made me depressed (diagnosed by my doctor), even though I was too afraid to admit that. I infact ended up failing about 3 of my subjects, because I was taking no information in...it was just going in one way, and out the other. So my advice to anyone taking exams, if you are feeling any stress..talk to someone, and take breaks, DO NOT push yourself to silly lengths like I did. It's not worth it.
The thing is so many adults ik would be quick to slag these kids off saying they’re “dramatic” “lazy” etc but they have no idea how much pressure they’re under. Every single day they’re reminded about the exams, how many days away they are, how important they are, how much revision they should be doing. For months that’s all they hear about. Even when they go home. They’re stressed and terrified and they don’t know how to cope with it all especially at such a young and critical age. It’s honestly heartbreaking how much stress these kids are put under in the months leading up to GCSEs
I’ve been out of secondary school for awhile now, but I can’t imagine undergoing that much stress for exams. I’m from the States, but to prepare for university it’s not that intense. We had exams but every spring, it was a statewide exam called FCAT at the time. As for other stuff, there were mid semester and final semester exams. As long, as we graduated with a diploma and got decent entrance test scores, practically anyone can pass and go to uni if some effort was put in. I feel for the students so much in this video.
Everyone worrying but I was expected to get at least B’s. I didn’t revise so I failed most subjects. So here’s some advice: just revise! Don’t panic, they’re only exams it’s not the end of the world. I know people that have got awful grades and are on good money. As I said, I failed most subjects, and I’m doing just fine with my life. I’m doing a social media and marketing apprenticeship which will get me a qualification at the end of it and I will have lots of experience.
I know from experience that extremely exaggerating the severity of exams makes you work hard. It may not be the most effective technique, but it works.
Exams aren't stressful if you make the effort, they're only stressful if you don't. From someone whos been on both sides of the coin failing exams and acing them. If you put the work in, theyre not so bad, if you dont, then is when youre panicking over how they're going to go.
James Kenyon by how much did you fail and ace these exams? My experience involved my school telling me that with the abolition of ASs, GCSEs were the only grades universities had to go on, and each teacher telling us how much work was required for each A* (more time than we had available) and I genuinely thought across my top 8 I would get 11 grades lower than I got and not be allowed into the sixth form. (12 if you count the A^ in AQA further maths)
I personally found GCSE's rather easy, if you put the work in in class, not much work at all outside school was necessary to get top grades. On the work in class alone you could get a B at the least, higher in subjects like English which were barely dependant on the course content, and were more reliant on your ability to blag marks. With about 5 hours outside school work in the weeks leading up to them you could easily turn that into an A. Of course if you didn't put the work in, during the classroom a lot more work was necessary. I smashed my GCSE's with relatively little effort. AS levels were much harder, and i didnt put the work in out of school, was worried about my results and ended up with 2C's 2D's in Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology. Had to resit everything in second year. now this i can genuinely say was hard. I put in 2 hours work after school every single school day, none at weekends for a whole year. Ended up with 2A's 1B Maths, Chemistry, Biology, was stressful but mainly because i failed the first year and had to twice as much work. Failed my first year of university. Can honestly say that I was much more stressed when not trying as hard because of the amount of anxiety you cause yourself. Its not the exams themselves that are stressful but the worry you cause yourself by not doing the sufficient work. Work hard, you know you'll do well, then you dont have to worry.
I agree i hate exams it's the stupidest thing ever. 99.9% of the Question or the things you learn are just not useful in the future or every day life but guess what we have to do it 4 times in 10 month.
Mate I'm not trying to be mean but some schools get ratings like outstanding from ofstead and it's where all the posh people go and then there are other schools.
Actually for those who are not used to exams having a mock/ practice run of how to do the process can be really helpful. When the real exam comes along you know what is going on and what will happen
I am currently in college doing a course I love but I tell you what, I remember when I had my GCSE's in 2016. My English teacher was teaching us the wrong system and I ended up with a G two weeks before my real English exam and I was in the high set. Instead of giving up, I worked my ass off for my English and my Maths online and mock papers (which I had been studying for a long time and struggled with) and passed my GCSEs with one B, one C. YOU CAN DO IT and it WILL be worth it in the long run. Good luck everyone xxxx
I did this before my mock history because I felt like I was going to fail. Cried my eyes out to my history teacher telling him I wasn’t going to go. But he got me to do it and got a D in the mock then C in actual GCSE which I was over the moon with
Never got above a D in any exam in my Economics GCSE, even got an E in my mocks. When the real thing came along I got an A! always have hope you can do better than you think
It feels weird to be watching a video about exams and stress when my summer exams have been cancelled which also creates stress because it's not normal
I mostly got Bs and Cs in my GCSE exams. I used to get upset stomach or be sick sometimes out of nerves. I remember one time in year 10 I was sick before I went to school for my Biology mock exam and five minutes into the exam as well (in a bin in the exam room)! I put it down to nerves but they sent me home after I’d completed the exam, and I was really sick again that night. I still got a B though. Keep calm and carry on.
I did shit in my end of year 10 mocks because I was so anxious, pulled myself together for the next set, relaxed and did so much better. UPDATE: Graduated from Uni with a 2:1.
God, I feel so sorry for that girl who was panicking. I had the same thing happen to me when I was doing my GCSE's and had to leave the exam hall. I'm 23 now and it still upsets me!
we had our mocks and they were squished into 2 weeks. sometimes I had 3 a day it was horrible. we have an assembly every week now that tells us how many weeks until gcses and i don't think they understand how hard that is!
Only got one GCSE at A - C and still managed to get into university to the degree I wanted. Young people need to know there’s plenty of options if you don’t do so well and routes to get the future you want.
In NSW Aust. Our YR 11 Mock exams are used as an essesment mark instead of an extra essay or test in class. Same with Yr 12 finals. We then have the big Country wide exams after
The country where I am from/I live in has 4 exams every 3-2 months and it’s like a proper exam not even mocks. The worst part is we get graded 1st 2nd 3rd (top 10 students) if you’re not in top 10 then it’s a bit of a problem 😓
I find it mad that this is my school. I also saw myself a few times during the series. I was interviewed to be on it but I guess they didn't want to include it
I'm a Year 10 at an Australian Catholic Private high school about to do my end of year exams in like 3 or 4 weeks and I am so stressed because I don't believe I can do it. I put so much pressure on myself that I always worry if I'm smart enough to pass Year 10 first try
I live in Scotland in the UK and we have to do National 5 exams, higher and advanced higher exams 🥴 We can leave after National 5's or our highers or stay on until S6 when we do Advanced highers. Yeh
This is fascinating to me 😅 I know the point of this show is show rougher schools, but after my grammar school education, I wouldn't dream of speaking to any teacher like that and refusing to do exams 😅😅
These teachers all look after you and care for you, will the other day , im maths my teacher screamed at me saying that I was dumb and ridiculous he even wrote in my book think this is stupid, he didn’t tell me where I went wrong so I kept doing the same mistake over and over . He says I’m not telling you it easy, but if a 12 year old girl is struggling , your yelling at her and she’s asking for help and your refusing to give her it, what’s the point?? So in my sats I got really nervous and began to cry, the funny thing was once I started to cry he came over and said stop crying these tests don’t matter, if you fail, I don’t care and walked away . I feel like sometimes teachers need to take into account that we are children and we need to be looked after, I know we are there to learn, but we’re not learning if your shoving work that we can’t do in our faces and refusing to help or explain the questions , it’s ridiculous x
Idk why panic about exams? Do the work, and you get the Reward. I sat my mocks last year for GCSE and got Half As half Bs, I was really upset. I put the work in from then on, and ended up with 5 A*s, 4 As, and a B. Theres no need to panic, revise, revise, revise, make a timetable, make a plan and shoot for it. Everyones capable of it.
