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Exam Cancellations: One Year On.

Ella Gilbert

As the anniversary of the UK’s first lockdown looms, I cannot help but reflect on my position last year and where I am today. This last year has been tough for everyone and students have certainly faced more than their fair share of troubles. As a collective, we have been repeatedly let down, yet our government displays little remorse and an inability to learn from their mistakes.

I was due to sit my A-level exams last June. As Covid-19 became more of a prominent issue and other countries began to lock down, we started to worry about how the last months of sixth form might turn out. There was talk of possibly having to finish the course at home but nobody even considered that exams might be cancelled. The lack of preparation across the country for school closures shows how much we underestimated the situation. On 18 March, the government announced schools would close and that GCSE and A Level exams would not take place that academic year. That was it, no further detail.

“Exams are not a perfect way of assessing students.”

Naturally, some were thrilled about the cancellations but the overall mood was despondent amongst my classmates. My sixth form was sending frantic emails trying to calm us down despite being just as panicked as we were. There was no support that they could offer us; they knew nothing more than us and had to try to reassure us without any official guidance. The government certainly had their hands full but announcing cancellations without any clear plan was incredibly harmful to students and teachers.

Exams are not a perfect way of assessing students. However, students were left for months with no indication of how their grades would be decided. The Education Secretary presented an algorithm to regulate centre assessed grades (CAGs) based on previous performance. It was not until results day that we fully realised the chaos this system would cause.

What emerged from this sparkly new algorithm was essentially a postcode lottery over exam grades. Countless students missed university offers due to their grades being adjusted. Ofqual reported that approximately 40% of grades were moderated lower, sparking protests and petitions. It is completely unfair to give someone a U, usually given to those who fail to write anything, when the student had no chance to prove themselves. The areas hit the hardest were disadvantaged areas. There has been a push for higher education to provide opportunities to those from poorer areas, but this new policy went completely out the window on results day and once again favouritism was shown to those from more prosperous areas.

The uproar over grades led to the government completely changing their policy only days after reaffirming their confidence in the algorithm. Students would now receive their CAGS. This provided some relief but there was still the huge issue of university placements. Many people had missed their offers and places had now been filled. Universities, which typically offer more places than their capacity, now faced the dilemma of what to do with this excess of students. Many students had lost their places and had to go through clearing, despite meeting their original offer, and others were offered deferred places instead. This results day crisis has called into question the university admissions process and its fairness.

Although using CAGs was undoubtedly better than their previous solution, it was by no means a perfect system. Some students suffered from the bias of teachers and others who had missed a large proportion of school were underestimated despite all the work that may have been going on behind the scenes. There are always people who lose out each year in education. However, this year all students suffered, not only from stress but also the huge grade inflation. Consequently, the value of the top grades was lessened and there were more people fighting for top university places. This will impact the several following academic years who will now have to compete for university places – and jobs – against a cohort with inflated grades.

“The current exam years have been let down even more.”

The whole A-level experience was traumatic for so much of the 2020 cohort. I found the six month wait before results day incredibly anxiety-inducing. In a time where everyone was stuck inside, the situation raised real concerns surrounding students’ mental health, none of which seemed to be addressed. Students were left to cope with this changing situation for themselves whilst being continually let down by their government.

One would hope that we could learn from the chaos of the 2020 cohort and handle the summer of 2021 exams slightly better. Alas, this was not the case and the current exam years have been let down even more. Williamson confirmed that exams would “absolutely” not be cancelled. Students had to prepare themselves for their changing assessments until it was announced that exams would be cancelled for the second year running. The problem of teacher assessment is far more difficult, having only spent five months at school before lockdown and have since been trying to navigate online education. These students are now expected to put all their faith in the government after seeing last year’s chaos.

Fortunately, it worked out for me and I am now studying at my top-choice university, but for so many others this was not the case. It was certainly not an A-level experience that we are going to forget. I worry for the upcoming exam years and can only hope that the government learn from their mistakes and all the stress they have caused students.

Ella Gilbert

Featured image courtesy of Windows on Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.

Ella is History and Spanish student at the University of Sheffield. She is the social media manager for Empoword and a keen writer for various publications. When not writing or studying (which is far more often than she'd like to admit), you can find her exploring the outdoors, going out for drinks with friends, or in bed with Netflix and TikTok.

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