'coursework should be scrapped' says private school head

[wheresmyplacebo]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/3624116.stm

what do you think?

ive never been a big fan of coursework as a indicator of ability, as teachers jsut guide you through, and my french gcse TA basically corrected it for you if you gave him abadly done one

[Yerascrote]

i've never liked it, a child with low ability can easily get it done for free by other people and the internet and then he gets higher marks than a kid with good ability who tried his hardest because he didn't want to cheat but still got a lower mark, not a good idea.

[kaptin pikarrrd]

I dunno. Coursework requires work throughout the course whilst an exam you just have to cram for without working hard in the course. I'd say coursework is better, due to having to work hard through the length of the course.

[Yerascrote]

for spanish i had to do 4 pieces, 3 at home and 1 in class, the teacher was supervising it but you were allowed a dictionary and other things like books and internet to help you do it, i think that would be a fairer way to do coursework.

[Kermit]

There always needs to be a balance.

An examination isn't a test of ability or intelligence either, it is a test of memory and the ability to function under stress. It is also a test of how well your anti-hayfever tablets work, if we're going to be completely honest.

[Kaff]

maybe a better way would be the way my language module worked at uni.

we had 6 mini tests throughout the year, and then supervised coursework sessions. you could refer to dictionaries and ask the lecturer for advice, but generally you were on your own. it was less on-the-spot stressful, and i think it really reflected our true abilities.

[Indrid Cold]

For me, coursework was essential to study. I never could just grab a book and learn everything by reading it. I had to see an excersize which I tried to solve and when I couldn't I looked in the book for something that would help with it. Then again with the next one and so on. If there wasn't coursework, I'd never have graduated.

[Bopperz]

I hate Coursework, takes much longer than an exam and you can easily go in completly the wrong direction.
You always get the people who hand in a trillion billion pages and with so many to read how tempting must it be to be a bit hasty with marks............

They want to pull the male exam results up.... get rid of course work. Boys generally do bettter in exams and girls better in coursework. (Maybe its evened out now... if so shout at me!)

Bopz

[wheresmyplacebo]

actually girls achievement is outdoing boys now in exams, and it aint cause theyre cleverer

related to the feminism topic, girls have been told you're clever than boys for past couple of decades, and having the examination shifted in their favour, in terms of coursework - so boys feel hard dumb-by

[lukesh]

I am not sure whether it should be scrapped or not.

When I did my coursework, I knew people in my class who had copied off each others ideas and off the internet. No one found out, they got away with it.

Also, I know people who have passed GCSE Maths last year and had given the year beloew their coursework, which they would submit.


How ever, apart from the cheating it is good idea for them who are not as confident with exams. It aims to relax us a bit more when we do out exams, it didn't relax me, I was a bag of nerves from when is at the exams to the end (results day).

Though some people seem to do better in coursework than exams. So it benefits them.

Chetaing how ever is the major concern, the only way to prevent this is to send all courseworks off to the exam board.