ABSTRACT

The Department of Education has carried out a number of inter-subject comparisons, but these have involved little more than ‘experts’ inspecting past examination papers and noting similarities and difference in demand. School examinations for secondary aged pupils were inaugurated in the mid nineteenth century when Oxford and Cambridge universities were asked by schools to produce a series of tests across a range of subjects. Examining is big business and, according to one anonymous senior examiner, monitoring of individual performance is less strict than in former years. Schools need to teach students specific examination and revision techniques, help students manage negative thoughts and provide support for managing any physical symptoms of stress. Major difficulties centred on the design of suitable diagnostic assessment tasks, ways of identifying students’ learning weaknesses from assessment outcomes, the ability to evaluate the student’s readiness for future tasks and the giving of appropriate feedback which would allow students to move forward.