Some departments will spend a month marking, say heads

The Association of Colleges (AoC) said the number of tests should be reduced to make learning more enjoyable.

At one institution - Brighton, Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College in East Sussex - 350 candidates were entered for A and AS-level art exams this summer.

This will involve the awarding of 8,400 marks, because each entry consists of three units, with eight marks being given per unit.

'Broad choice'

Principal Chris Thomson said: "The entire system is bonkers. The college's entire art department will do nothing but award marks for almost a month."

Judith Norrington, AoC director of curriculum, said: "The AoC wants young people to have a broad choice of subjects but believes pupils are currently overloaded by examination and assessments.

"There is too much focus on what students achieve in one day rather than recognising learning and success throughout their course."

The AoC is calling for a "change of focus" from one-off exams to continued assessment.

This would involve a system of credits for academic and vocational courses.

Ms Norrington said: "We want to be able to offer young people education in bite-size chunks that will make them enthusiastic about learning.

The AoC has highlighted potential shortages in the number of markers for popular subjects such as business studies, psychology and English.

Bruce Harris, general secretary of the charity Exam Aid, which carries out research on students' experiences, said: "We fully support this AoC initiative.

"Our research shows that many teenage students are under a great deal of pressure and the non-academic pressures they face at crucial times during the year can seriously damage their chances of doing well.

"We do not suggest that assessment is wrong, but we do maintain that it should be fair."

Improvements

The Department for Education said exams were important because they demonstrated what pupils had learnt and could achieve - and standards had risen since 1997.

The department had provided �6m to help exam boards ensure there would be enough examiners this year.

It was also working with all concerned to improve the system by greater use of information technology "and by professionalizing the role of the examiner".

"We have also asked Mike Tomlinson to look at an overall award for 14-19, to look at full-time vocational programmes and to examine the balance of assessment."