Great to be given the opportunity to contribute to the discussion about exam stress on BBC Radio Newcastle Breakfast Show. 10/05/2018.
The most important advice is “Don’t worry! Just try your best.” I often tell students that I failed every Maths exam in my life apart from the last one. In today’s terms, I failed Y7, Y8, Y9, Y10 and Y11 Mock, but I kept trying to understand the concepts (apart from the dreaded Bases) and I passed the really important one, my O level. Later on, I needed that Maths qualification to become a teacher.
Imagine your life is a domino run. You’re on a journey of discovery but sometimes you hit a roadblock. The dominoes jam up and the line stalls, or there is too wide a gap between the bricks so they can’t flow. Perhaps you don’t do as well as you had hoped in an exam, or you have a mind blank and can’t remember anything you’ve learned in the entire year.
So what do you do? Keep going! Pick up and reposition the dominoes, then set the line of bricks flowing again. In the end, it’s the journey that’s important, not the individual achievements, whether they are A, C or E grades. It’s a learning curve: you may be on a different path, but you’re still moving.
“I’ve never made a mistake. I’ve only learned from experience,” said prolific inventor Thomas Edison. Great advice! You can learn as much from so-called failure and disappointment as you can from success. You can gain strength through overcoming difficult situations. Keep going, for you don’t always know where your future path will lead. You may find that following a new route brings exciting opportunities and fulfilment.
I confess that I don’t like predicted grades and target grades. They may have their uses, but too much emphasis on targets can prove an unnecessary pressure for some students who are bombarded by academic core subjects and memory based exams. Is the current system creating a melting pot where stressed out pupils find it difficult to relax and worried parents are concerned about their children’s well-being? Does the government really think it is necessary to pile more pressure on students with an increasingly academic exam based curriculum?
What I’ve learned from teaching and also having my own children, is that each child learns in a different way. Whilst one may thrive on making logical spreadsheets to aid learning and another may design pretty revision cards, a third may be laid back and revise in a more haphazard way. Others may need additional learning and emotional support.
Most parents I have met are very supportive of their children. However, at one Parents’ Evening many years ago, a man leaned forward, elbows on the desk, and eyeballed me. “Why isn’t my son getting A grades instead of only C’s? I want him to go to Eton. What are you going to do about it?”
“I’m proud of your son’s achievements! He’s working hard and making good progress – he was getting D grades last year.” The man didn’t appear satisfied with my answer. Surely we should encourage, celebrate achievement and build self-esteem? Our children are already having to cope with the added pressure of finding their own identity in a world of social media.
Everyone should be allowed to play to their strengths. The over-emphasis on academic subjects in the curriculum and the amount of memory testing may well lead to creativity being squashed. Perhaps if William Shakespeare were around today, he might be saying:
“To cut The Arts or not to cut them – that is the question: Whether it is wiser for schools to kill off music, drama and art in the curriculum, Or to give resources to encourage creativity, And by forward-thinking, inspire a generation?”
Ok, so that was going off on a tangent a little as I’m passionate about The Arts, but when I was teaching, I often used to let my pupils steer a discussion in a different direction if it was interesting, informative or just plain fun! People always remember things more clearly when they are involved, interested and they find the learning process entertaining. Perhaps the exam boards should adopt this philosophy when they are considering changes to the curriculum!