AS Exam Timetable Rant

spirit · 14 May 2006 at 15:51

Tommy B said:
Don't tell me how long my exams are ffs. Each unit lasts ONE HOUR, and we get one half an hour break every 3 UNITS.

Doing a job and sitting in a dull room speechless staring at a bit of paper is DIFFERENT.

I sat them (edit - how time flys) two years ago. SO i know exactly about it. And trust me, its harder to make decisions in a millisecond which mean the difference between life and death than it is to do a trivial question in economics/physics. You have no idea mate, no idea.

Andelusion · 14 May 2006 at 15:52

At least you'll get them over sooner.

I've got 2 2.5hr long English Language exams back to back during June sometime (really should look at my timetable more

).

5hrs isn't too bad but my hand is going to be screwed as it's all essay writing.

Oh woe for us students :rolleyes:

Tommy B · 14 May 2006 at 15:55

The point of this thread was to share my thoughts that, at ANY LEVEL, sitting that amount of exams in one day is unfair and affects your RESULTS. At no point did I intend a comparison to surgery and life/death situations. Obviously you lot are perfectly happy sitting your 8 hours of exams or whatever, and if you had the chance to change it you wouldn't. I know for fact that sitting the two subjects on DIFFERENT days would increase my chances of doing well, and that is that!

Someone close this thread please.

PikeyPriest · 14 May 2006 at 15:55

No its not. The reason you do exams is to assess your abilities to function in high level jobs. If you cant make yourself focus for one day of "hard" work now, how do you ever think you could compete in a competitive field later on? Though exams dont fully assess peoples abilities, they do show quite a lot and if you cant cope with 6 hours of exams in a day, how could you cope with a stressful job???

I had chemistry and history on the same day aswell. Its not the end of the world. If you work hard before hand and know your stuff you will still get a good mark. At uni it isnt uncommon to do 3 hour exams mon/tues/wed/thurs asssessing your knowledge from the entire year (or more). That is tough.

Andelusion · 14 May 2006 at 15:57

Tommy B said:
The point of this thread was to share my thoughts that, at ANY LEVEL, sitting that amount of exams in one day is unfair and affects your RESULTS. At no point did I intend a comparison to surgery and life/death situations. Obviously you lot are perfectly happy sitting your 8 hours of exams or whatever. I know for fact that sitting the two subjects on DIFFERENT days would increase my chances of doing well, and that is that!

Someone close this thread please.

Relax baby have some cheese.

/Burnt Face Man

Tommy B · 14 May 2006 at 15:58

Andelusion said:
Relax baby have some cheese.

And as I've already said, there is a difference between having a cup of coffee and sitting in an office for 12 hours.

punky_munky · 14 May 2006 at 15:59

PikeyPriest said:
No its not. The reason you do exams is to assess your abilities to function in high level jobs. If you cant make yourself focus for one day of "hard" work now, how do you ever think you could compete in a competitive field later on? Though exams dont fully assess peoples abilities, they do show quite a lot and if you cant cope with 6 hours of exams in a day, how could you cope with a stressful job???

I had chemistry and history on the same day aswell. Its not the end of the world. If you work hard before hand and know your stuff you will still get a good mark. At uni it isnt uncommon to do 3 hour exams mon/tues/wed/thurs asssessing your knowledge from the entire year (or more). That is tough.

So on your CV you would write about taking 2 exams in one day? It proves nothing in real life. Having them on the same day makes the exams needlessly harder.

spirit · 14 May 2006 at 15:59

Tommy B said:
The point of this thread was to share my thoughts that, at ANY LEVEL, sitting that amount of exams in one day is unfair and affects your RESULTS. At no point did I intend a comparison to surgery and life/death situations. Obviously you lot are perfectly happy sitting your 8 hours of exams or whatever, and if you had the chance to change it you wouldn't. I know for fact that sitting the two subjects on DIFFERENT days would increase my chances of doing well, and that is that!

Someone close this thread please.

Oh my god, you wouldnt have survived in the old non modular system lol. Exams are meant to stress you, and dont worry a lot of people are in the same boat as you.. its not unfair neither does it affect your results you should be able to handle that amount of work.

PikeyPriest · 14 May 2006 at 16:02

punky_munky said:
So on your CV you would write about taking 2 exams in one day? It proves nothing in real life. Having them on the same day makes the exams needlessly harder.

How did i say that?? What i mean is that is NOT a BIG DEAL at all to have 2 sets of exams on one day and is quite common with people taking 4 AS subjects. Having 2 exams in one day doesnt prove anything, but if people are to talk about it like the world is ending, then they have no idea what real life is really like. LOTS of people will be in the same situation this summer, but it will make little difference to your mark if actually work more than the night before to learn your topics......

Tommy B · 14 May 2006 at 16:04

spirit said:
Oh my god, you wouldnt have survived in the old non modular system lol. Exams are meant to stress you, and dont worry a lot of people are in the same boat as you.. its not unfair neither does it affect your results you should be able to handle that amount of work.

WHAT is it meant to be testing me on then? The ACTUAL subject I've spent years studying, or my ABILITY to work under stress. It certainly isn't the latter!

Why are so many people having a go at me. All the teachers have told me that the exam boards have been under immense pressure to resolve this issue. Are you lot obsessed with hard work or something?

spirit · 14 May 2006 at 16:07

Tommy B said:
WHAT is it meant to be testing me on then? The ACTUAL subject I've spent years studying, or my ABILITY to work under stress. It certainly isn't the latter!

Why are so many people having a go at me. All the teachers have told me that the exam boards have been under immense pressure to resolve this issue.

well seeing as my teachers wrote a few of the edexcel econ units and didn't think anything of it, i doubt it. If you had studied then it wouldn't make much difference if it was after a few hours of exams or not - especially since you get a lengthy break inbetween.

not obsessed with hard work at all, its not hard work, its life just deal with it.

oh and if u keep up with the alevels, then youll have econ 6 and physics cosmology next year on the same day too.

edit:

exams should be hard. the english system has really deteriorated, it can no longer seperate the wheat from the chaff.

Cyanide · 14 May 2006 at 16:18

Last year I did all of my A/S exams on the same day - 2 Electronics, 3 Chemistry (2 of which were re-sits) and 2 English.

That was a loooooooong day

At least you haven't got to have someone stay with you overnight like some of the poor kids a couple of years ago :eek:

Tommy B · 14 May 2006 at 16:19

I've worked like hell and am predicted straight As. (except in Physics)
So actually I'm kind of arguing for people who aren't as likely to do as well. It's a joke: Test of mental stamina, not ability! It wouldn’t hurt anyone to space them out a bit.

spirit · 14 May 2006 at 16:21

Tommy B said:
I've worked like hell and am predicted straight As. (except in Physics)
So actually I'm kind of arguing for people who aren't as likely to do as well. It's a joke: Test of mental stamina, not ability! It wouldn’t hurt anyone to space them out a bit.

well if you able you are quite likely to have mental stamina ? plus its not exactly an exam marathon, you have breaks 1hr20 should be more than enough to recharge :|

Seft · 14 May 2006 at 16:47

I did it so you can too

Besides, physics is a really easy paper.

spirit · 14 May 2006 at 16:53

Seft said:
I did it so you can too

Besides, physics is a really easy paper.

agreed

tis a bit of a shame, i mean even the americans who dont do any calculus have rotational momentum in their papers

thats in mechs 3 here hehe.. tis a shame that mechs1 is more complicated than physics exams but at the same time im glad, meant much less work for me

the_brainaic · 14 May 2006 at 17:35

Tommy B said:
I've worked like hell and am predicted straight As. (except in Physics)
So actually I'm kind of arguing for people who aren't as likely to do as well. It's a joke: Test of mental stamina, not ability! It wouldn’t hurt anyone to space them out a bit.

Physics is properly easy! Much easier than Chemistry or Biology at any rate. Theres hardly anything to learn. I'm taking Maths A2 and STEP I, Chemistry, Biology and Physics AS this year and I'm finding Bio the hardest of the lot.

spirit · 14 May 2006 at 17:37

the_brainaic said:
Physics is properly easy! Much easier than Chemistry or Biology at any rate. Theres hardly anything to learn. I'm taking Maths A2 and STEP I, Chemistry, Biology and Physics AS this year and I'm finding Bio the hardest of the lot.

itll be chemistry next year man - thats what all my mates said, organic chemistry or osmething

good luck with it, if your doing FM why you takign STEP 1

Hate · 14 May 2006 at 17:38

i'd rather have the exams done with

quit stamping your feet.

or maybe to get my point across I SHOULD type in UPPERCASE and bold

Inquisitor · 14 May 2006 at 17:43

The Pat said:
My sister's friend ended up with all 8 of her A level exams on on day. It was a Friday and it wasn't physically possible to get them all done in one day. So she had to spend the weekend round at an teachers house, so she could not communicate with other people to find out what was on the other papers. You think you had it bad.

Ouch.