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August 22, 2024 - 7:00am
Today is GCSE results day, and while for some this will be a cause of celebration, many still question whether these exams are worth the stress they cause for pupils. A new survey by the Association of School and College Leaders union found that three-quarters of teachers said they were forced to lay on additional provisions for GCSE pupils due to exam anxiety, with over half contacted by parents who worried their child wasn’t coping with academic pressure. Just under half reported that their pupils experienced physical reactions to the stress of exams, while 65% said it led to students skipping school.
Two things seem to be happening simultaneously here. The first is that, for many pupils, normal levels of exam nervousness are being mislabelled and misdiagnosed as anxiety. Of course GCSEs are nerve-wracking, and some worry, stress and physiological reactions are all to be expected. In no other situation in life will students sit so many exams in such quick succession: a pupil studying 10 subjects may be taking around 25 exams in the space of four to six weeks, and we should not underestimate what an undertaking this is.
It is also all too easy to robotically complain about how much “harder exams were back in my day”, but GCSEs are still difficult, either because they are conceptually taxing or incredibly content-heavy. Take GCSE English Literature, for instance: for this one subject students are expected to learn quotations from a 19th-century novel, a Shakespeare play and a modern text, as well as 15 poems. They then need to write essays in which they analyse these in detail, while incorporating context and some sense of personal response, all in around 45 minutes. For the average 16-year-old this is, unsurprisingly, a daunting prospect.
Yet too often we pathologise these pre-exam nerves rather than put them into perspective. We should be teaching students that, in the vast majority of cases, a degree of anxiety is proportionate to the challenge at hand. Nerves are normal, not something to be feared, and can be managed through coping strategies such as breathing exercises, eating and exercising well, regular breaks and good sleeping habits. Too often, however, students are spooked into believing something is fundamentally “wrong” with what they are experiencing, and therefore look for a quick “fix” for their feelings.
The second situation at play is the ever-pernicious attendance crisis, which both creates and exacerbates genuine mental health problems in pupils. Students who have severe anxiety are more likely to miss school, and this avoidance inevitably leads to more anxiety and reinforcement of certain beliefs — “I’m better off staying at home” — which leads to worsening attendance. This is particularly problematic for GCSE pupils: this year, more than a quarter of Year 11 pupils were persistently absent, missing over 10% of lessons, which remains around double the pre-pandemic rate.
This inevitably impacts results: only around 36% of pupils who are persistently absent get five good GCSE grades, compared to around 78% for those who are rarely absent. This is unsurprising given that these pupils not only miss curriculum content, but also other opportunities to mentally prepare themselves for the ritual of exams, such as class tests, mock exams and revision sessions. The only way to break this vicious cycle is to get students back into school, so we can build up their confidence and desensitise them to the stress of exams. This can only be done through exposure, not evasion.
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SubscribeThe state of being human is now being redefined as having a multitude of diseases that must be medicated, and whose symptoms can only really be reduced by questioning nothing – and eating “the bugs”. Have a great day 🙂
Everything’s a mental health crisis these days!
Life is stressful. Part of learning to be a grown-up.
Worry not- many of those A level failures will get jobs in the London insurance market and after a few years of tedious wandering the streets of EC3 collecting rubber stamps on long pieces of cardboard, interspersed with lengthy sessions in the plethora of local pubs, will be earning twice as much as those who achieved A grades…..
It’s the earlier exam results (previously known as O-levels) that are expected today, but your point is worth considering further.
Perhaps exams serve another purpose other than academic proficiency; to sort out those temperamentally unsuited to stressful occupations which might require academic qualifications. Earning a good living doesn’t require great grades (or any grades at all) but the stats tell us there’s an advantage in being able to progress to at least first degree level – although that may change as more recent issues such as student debt are factored into those stats, which may influence some not to bother with uni. So much the better for them, perhaps.
As for the pathologising of exam nerves, i think poor parenting may have something to do with it. The pressure may be coming from parents who’ve woefully underprepared their children for the vicissitudes of life; then suddenly, reality hits.
Good grief!!..WTF
It is quite a contrast that my grandpa’s generation were fighting and dying in rat-infested trenches at 16, my dad’s generation were working by then, my generation complained about doing the dishes, and my grandkid’s generation is too nervous to attend school. It’s quite a progression. Strong men make good times, …
Perhaps if we abolished the disciplines of Psychiatry and Psychology, and banned the DSM and ICD, the western world would be a less anxious and better place.
Exams would be a lot easier if candidates did not spend 25 to 30 hours a week on social media.
16 year olds can’t cope with the stress and worry of a Geography exam, but will be given the vote?
Exams can be stressful. This is a fact.
At least , when facing down fear , anxiety ,worry and dread, schoolchildren will no longer be asking the teachers ‘When am I going to use this in real life?’
When you are waiting for the result of your ultrasound scan for bladder cancer?
In fairness, in order to vote you only need to be able to spell ‘X’.