 The main exam season is looming for hundreds of thousands of youngsters |
Pupils about to start sitting GCSEs and AS-levels are being put under extra pressure by timetabling problems, head teachers have warned. The National Association of Head Teachers says as more pupils sit a wider range of subjects, candidates can face three or four exams in one day. Here a student and parent describe some of the pressures those taking exams are facing. THE STUDENT Student Jago Davies, 16, a pupil at Prince Henry High School in Evesham, Worcestershire, is to sit three AS exams on Monday. "Next week I start my exam period with three exams on one day, in computing, history, and general studies," he said. "The first two actually were originally a timetable clash between two exam boards, OCR and Edexel respectively.  |  Sitting three or four exams in one day is too much stress for those in their mid-teens |
"Now I have the computing exam, then a short supervised break, then the history exam. "I wouldn't have objected to starting the exams a week earlier and having some of them then. I have a total of seven exams to be taken over three days, which I think is a bit too much. "Everyone I know is definitely feeling the stress. "I think the exam boards should communicate more to make exams more spread out, especially with more popular subjects - there should be a real effort to put these on different days from one another. "Sitting three or four exams in one day is too much stress for those in their mid-teens. "And making things more organised would also help the exam offices in schools, which are having to juggle all the different exams." THE PARENT Linda Smith, 44, of North Shields, Tyneside, has seen the impact the exam timetabling is having on her daughter Rachael, 17, a student at Tyne Metropolitan College. Because of exam board clashes Rachael has to sit an English AS exam on Saturday, 17 June, the day after her fellow students sit the same exam. | We are shocked that she is having to take an exam on a Saturday |
Linda will be expected to chaperone her daughter and take away all methods of communication, such as mobile phones and laptops, and stop her contacting friends. "A psychology exam clashed with an English exam so the latter has had to be moved. "We are shocked that she is having to take an exam on a Saturday, although I do believe it has happened in the past. "However I can't believe that with 365 days in the year, they have to set different exams on the same day so that they clash. "I also can't believe the exams boards can't get together and come up with a more useful timetable. "My daughter has one day when she has six hours of exams. Having everything bunched up like this is obviously adding to the exam pressure - it is just a mess. "The exam boards need to get their acts together and schools and colleges need to look more closely at the number of exam boards that they are using. "Maybe there are too many exam boards, or too many are being used by educational establishments. "But something has to be done."
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