Edexcel examiners are possibly crack addicts

Today the Times announced dedicated its front page to claims of a “gentlemen’s agreement” amongst examiners to make GCSE science exams easier. The JCQ director gave this wonderful logic:

Dr Sinclair added that the changes would help to stop children being “turned off” by science.

“Part of the desire is that the student can come out of the exam with a feeling of success that they have actually tackled a significant proportion of the questions, and achieved the best grade expected,” he said. “The vast majority of candidates taking this exam are going to achieve grades D to G, and they deserve a positive experience of science.

Clearly, in answer to my previous article, the purpose of exams is actually to give kids a warm fuzzy feeling, and to teach that smoking pot all day instead of studying doesn’t preclude you from deserving an academic qualification. Speaking of drug abuse, here’s an example question from the GSCE paper posted on the Times website. Can anyone even begin to understand what’s going on here?

13 comments August 29th, 2007