May 16, 2008

Exams may not be marked correctly

It is a tragic state of affairs when you have students studying all of their school life which is leading up to the point when their exams or course work is going to marked and their future is then decided, only to have Kathleen Tattersall, the Chairman of Ofqual, the exam watchdog saying that students should not expect to receive correct marks.

It is all down to interpretation, as an individual marker will often use their own judgment about the answers given in both GCSE and A Levels, but they say that there is nothing wrong with that! Ofqual was created in order to boost public confidence in the exam system by the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.

All this comes before the watchdog has even started any work. But no doubt there will be the usual split between parents and the teaching staff. But is this really the way to boost the publics confidence especially as the exam season is about to begin.

Source [Telegraph]