This year, I was accountable for our results. It does change things. It was, as I am sure, many experienced Head teachers will attest, an anxious and exciting time. It was also necessary to find a balance. Balance between my …
I am not rushing to the defence of the exam boards, the perennial “results day” articles* rarely fail to direct some meagre attack or critique towards them. This year, the exam boards have put forward their own infomercials, here and here, to reassurance their various audiences. Furthermore, …
A few months back I asked all the exam boards if they could share the most common exam mistakes made by candidates, common exam blind spots or pot holes. I did ask for trade secrets, nor what was going to be in the …
Confidence, reassurance, familiarity (with the environment, with exam rubrics and with questions), reading skills (decoding questions, responding to command words, identifying keywords) writing/responding skills, myth busting, what ever the benefit, walking pupils through an exam paper has benefit. This years vogue (2015), the “walking, talking …
MCQs get a mention in Glenys Stacey’s speech at the recent Westminster Education Forum A Level Reform event. We also found differences in assessment [comparable international qualifications], for example, the more prevalent use of sophisticated multiple choice items in assessment …
It has been a very busy two days. Presentations, meetings, department time, emergencies, emails, data preparation and a serious sprinkle of reality, reviewing our students reading abilities. To be “functionally” literate you need to have a reading age of 11. …
This morning I asked an AQA examiner two simple questions. @KristianStill: @elliejcox as an AQA marker – best tweet tip? And most common writing pitfall to avoid? Thanks? Ellie duly replied. @elliejcox: @KristianStill Answer the question and use key words …
12 months ago I was shown pivot tables in Excel 2007. I was very impressed but I think I only had one real purpose to use them, when analysing ICT OCR National results. In all honesty, with just 4 grades …
