Comments by "David Getling" (@DavidGetling) on "Exams scrapped with teachers to decide on A Level and GCSE results" video.

I have taught A-level maths, further maths, physics, and chemistry for many years. I can tell you unequivocally that in all these subjects there are some topics that are vastly harder than others. What is, without the slightest doubt, now going to happen is that the vast majority of teachers are going to avoid teaching and accessing these topics. And who can blame them? They know that this is going to happen in other schools, and don't want to disadvantage their students. So once again we are going to see massive grade inflation, and another year of totally discredited results. Of course, there will be a few teachers who try to make their assessments as close to A-levels as possible. Sadly, their students will be at a massive disadvantage to the majority. The ONLY fair system is external exams. We are only in February, so there is more than enough time to allow these to be arranged. But, when did this government ever care about young people, or doing what's right and fair?
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I saw one of my students downgraded by her physics and chemistry teachers, for precisely this region. And this was in Highlands, which is meant to be one of Enfield's best schools. She got better grades in both subjects, when she took the autumn exams. This kind of thing happens A LOT!
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@undxfined9070 The real reason this school gets better grades than others in Enfield has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of its teaching. It's simply that the parents in it's catchment area are better off, and so most of the kinds get private tutoring.
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@seankilburn7200 External exams are "marked to a curve" which means that account is automatically taken of students having had less teaching. More importantly everyone is given the same test, which is the only fair thing to do. It is my experience that all good, hardworking, students prefer external exams. Only the bad and lazy ones hope to get an undeservedly higher grade from a corrupt or incompetent teacher!
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chico Because of what happened last year, it's very clear that the ONLY fair and safe thing to do is to reinstate independent external exams. Because they are "marked to a curve" they automatically allow for students having less teaching. There plenty of time to reinstate them, it there's the will to do so. As a very experienced teacher, I know that all good hardworking students want to take their exams. Only the bad lazy ones, who one doesn't want in ones class, welcome anything else.
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