Is It Time For A New Exam Structure? Nabihah Abedin, Heathside.

The way in which the country currently carries out its exams needs to be probed. With one single, defining exam deciding the fate of a student, it’s no wonder that many schools find their students under pressure during this turbulent time. In fact, 82% of headteachers reported stress levels of students higher than those pre-pandemic, a grossly concerning number. With the government proposing a multitude of new reforms, including within education, shouldn’t this grave issue also be weighed upon, and be put to debate at the Commons? 

Although a little amount of stress can be said to improve memory, the fine line that determines this is often crossed by students, and thus can severely impede a students performance. High anxiety can cause the over-secretion of stress hormones, which can result in students forgetting important details, and even failing to help them retain the knowledge learnt. This has the possibility of creating long-term memory damage for the brain, and in regards to its short-term effects, can skew results and hinder students in performing to the best of their abilities. So why carry on with such a problematic structure, if most of the time it affects a student drastically?

A current Year 12 student highlighted how ‘the exams often make me unable to cope with activities outside of education.” She further mentioned how “In order to even pass, you need to dedicate a large amount of time, something many students just can’t afford to do”. With universities now weighing in super curricular activities and sports into their offers, many students can’t juggle all these factors at once, and may instead falter. With 15% of students being ‘highly anxious’ around exam season, it’s time to change the current way in which this country facilitates exams. 

The way in which other countries such as America determine grades can be used as a formative example for this topic. Here, many exams undertaken throughout the year weigh into their final grade, making it a more fair and accurate approach. Because of this, students take all exams as seriously as the next, and minor fumbles and issues don’t weigh as heavily as they do here in England. Furthermore, stress doesn’t accumulate the same way as it does in the current system, with students knowing if they don’t perform to the best of their expectations in one exam, the next one can help elevate them to their goal. With their exams spread throughout the year rather than just limited to a couple of weeks, we can expect that students would concentrate throughout the academic year, rather than just cramming their revision within a meagre two weeks.

Exams do produce stress, and it’s natural for this to happen. However the sizable difference between stress levels in England and other parts of the world really does call into question whether continuing with this same structure really benefits students and helps them to receive the best results possible. With other countries obtaining higher results and reporting less stress levels, it’s never too early to change the current structure here in England.