34 Comments

1. 

   @TLDRnews

   December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

   Compare news coverage from diverse sources around the world on a transparent platform driven by data. Try Ground News today and get 30% off your subscription: https://ground.news/tldr

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2. 

   @breadmonkeys

   December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

   Didn't turn up to school for the last two years, went to the exams, got alright results. This was 10 or 11 years back. School bored me. I liked learning, but school taught me next to nothing. I always wanted to work with animals, there wasn't a gcse for that, but I got 100% in my biology and that was good enough to do a good course in animal management. Got a distinction, despite a high level of absence again. (Personal issues.) Then got my dream job working with dogs. Probably helped that I used to volunteer at animal sanctuaries instead of going to school though to be fair. School really is not useful for some people.

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3. 

   @kicci.kim007

   December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

   Bruh. I'm screwed😃

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4. 

   @redshift739

   December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

   3:59 A U and a 1 are both seperate grades with a 1 being the lowest grade and a U not even being enough to award a grade

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5. 

   @replix4458

   December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

   a 1 isnt equivalent to a u, a u is below a 1

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6. 

   @Scorpio9809

   December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

   Exams are an insane way to judge academic achievement, it tests your ability to memorise not real comprehension.

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7. 

   @wojtek24msz

   December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

   Well shit. Im fucked.

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8. 

   @phoque121

   December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

   It is because of Idiocracy. Stupid people have more children than smart people. The population will keep getting more and more stupid in the future 🤷‍♂

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9. 

   @emmafrost13333

   December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

   But why do you need to compare the grades of students of different years? Isn't it just the grades for the year in question, and then the universities will compare in between students anyway when receiving their applications?
   Back home we had a bacccalaureat style exam, where we had the final score as around:
   – 50% of the grade made by the average of the 6 final exams.
   -25% of the grade from exams given by the school, which you had twice every year in the 3 main subjects
   -25% of the grade from the average of all tests you were given in school years from your teachers.
   It meant constant competition, and by the time you had your final exams you were more than prepared for them from all of your prior mini-exam experience.

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10. 

    @kitmckenzie5781

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    I would be interested to see how the change in teaching styles affected students, eg, for SEND students or those with undiagnosed hidden disabilities. How many send students score much lower on exams but are brilliant day to day. Teachers who work with send students are definately likely to be more accurate in their assesment of send students than the exams are.
    Also, i got bullied by teachers in school, so i would be interested to see how the teacher graded system could be appealed by students if they thought it was unfair/non-reflective of their abilities.

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11. 

    @generalgrievous6689

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    The exams were not necessadily hard for A-levels, however the grade boundaries skyrocketed. I was a straight A*/A student throughout my time at college but got below my expected results in nearly every subject. I still got into my first choice, however they were a huge shock and I have to congratulate anyone who got high grades this year.

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12. 

    @d_dave7200

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    Neither teacher assessed or grading on a curve make any sense. They're both stupid systems which no education researcher would recommend. (For background, I have a Masters in education and have studied assessment methods.)

    You can add project-based work to help those with exam anxiety, but in general you want to measure based on objective standards. If everyone knows all the material and gets an A*, who cares? That means they deserve it because they have the target level of knowledge.

    Have a set bank of questions that test specific skills and knowledge, and then just rotate the questions to test to those specific standards. If kids want to practice the whole bank of questions, that's fine too — they still are demonstrating knowledge and/or skills. All you need to do is have enough questions in the bank that they're not outright memorizing skills-based answers like math problems and similar. Beyond that, it shouldn't matter what the grade spread looks like. All that should matter is that we're measuring their achievements as objectively as possible.

    If you want to add harder tests that see if students already have degree-level knowledge, go right ahead. Then you can differentiate between students for university places. No problem with that. But grading on a curve gives hugely misleading information about students' level of achievement. A student from a previous year can never be compared to one from this year. Not ever. You don't have the data with which to do so. Kids actually are far better now than students from the 90s, but you'd never know it based on the normalized results.

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13. 

    @jakovvodanovic9165

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    Teacher assessment is very unfair, some teachers will be unfairand give everyone good grades, another also unfair and give eveyone bad grades, and both may have similar knowledge

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14. 

    @tyrionpapersdotcom

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    Congrats to those who didn't fail!

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15. 

    @VenturaAdventures

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    I do like and watch TLDR (multiple channels) but the promos are now getting excessive … 27% of video dedicated to ads. If the video was longer I can understand a 3min commercial but on an 11min video it's kind of ridiculous.

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16. 

    @JessicaC-vm7ct

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    The thing is they expect so much from us and this gives us so much stress and making us retake them if we fail doing English the stress of trying to memories 15 poems along side romeo and Juliet and the Christmas carol let alone having to learn so much some people are braking down of how stressful this is by not having high high grade levels for math and English can ruin someone future say they want to become a mid-wife you would need high levels for maths and English but they wouldn't need to memories poems a girl called Maisie committed suicide over them gcses is just torture they beat young people down becuase they can't do one thing.

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17. 

    @carrot2735

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    My sister was lucky as she got 2 9’s but no 8’s and mostly 6’s. She’s a lot smarter than me so I’m screwed

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18. 

    @domispablo7992

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    All ill say is that im happy with my results and can go to my first choice 6th form. Having said that i am extremely fortunate to have gone to the school i did. No grammar or private or anything just a really good state school. Ik that isnt the case for everyone. I hope you all had success with your gcses this year

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19. 

    @luvsnaya9584

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    they're setting us up to fail. they don't want us to pass. why does grade inflation even exist if these grades stick with us forever and have an impact on our future education? its stupid, this is why im not going to sixth form, im doing an apprenticeship. much better, easier to get a job, and i won't have to worry about getting graded on anything, its just work. and im getting payed for it. id rather go into real estate than study at uni for 4 years, paying student loans, graduating and then letting those uni grades decide which job i get. im doing a real estate apprenticeship and in 2 years, they offer me a job in their company. working in real estate at 18 sounds much better than being stuck in uni for a good 4 years. id encourage anyone who can't go to college/sixth form, or just don't want to do a levels to do an apprenticeship, don't throw away your life just because of some numbers on a piece of paper. they don't define you, or your academic ability.

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20. 

    @ThePoker31

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    I think that centralised exams in an essential part on keeping teachers in check. Locally teachers will raise grades for students they like and do opposite to those they don't. However, with exams coming teachers can't really deviate too much from the actual capabilities of the child. This affected my opportunities a lot as my grades were substantially lower than exam results and this will affect my children as I just don't see them sitting through all of the boring lessons 😂 Keep the exams so the wise ass at the back of the class can have his cake and eat it as well 🎉

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21. 

    @mikeyallen6758

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    Honestly both of these systems have flaws, single exams have a high level of stress and a low level of information retention (crammed revision is awful for retaining knowledge) additionally, not everyone is as good at exams and as such the majority of students arent graded to their actual level (think the whole thing with testing animals based on their ability to climb a tree).

    On the other hand teacher assessments can solve these issues, being less stressful for the students and more personal so as to better reflect the actual ability of the students (which honestly is what i think is happening with the "grade inflation"). However this can introduce personal biases that are hard to prove or filter out. For example a racist/homophobic teacher might grade their minority/LGBT students lower. It also brings a lot of worse actions to the forefront (which i wont get into out of respect for other people's trauma)

    I think a hybrid system would be ideal, where the usual exam contribution is halved and the rest is filled with teacher assessments. Additionally exams would be shorter, more frequent and more spread out so a student doesn't have to deal with a month long period where they spend the days leading up to an exam cramming only for them to forget it immediately and move onto the next subject. If there is major discrepancy between the two results then the grade can be disputed by the student, as well as if there is any reason the teacher grade may be lower

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22. 

    @shushui3878

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    I used to go to a grammar school but due to the strict requirements, which i missed by not a grade but by ONE SINGLE MARK, I cant continue. Im currently reviewing my papers, so I hope I can actually get back in.

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23. 

    @jamesabestos2800

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    500 A.D

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24. 

    @ZaynShah871

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    I got my GCSEs and I did well.

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25. 

    @edwardatson4042

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    I thought I would get 4s and 3s but I actually got mostly 5s and 6s so Iguassú it worked well for me😂

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26. 

    @deangregory2676

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    Worse teachers

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27. 

    @allycarder3588

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    I sat my GCSE exams in 2018 with the new system, and we were massively disadvantaged as teachers had no idea what to teach as well as very few mock exams or resources for us. It impacted me in the long run as i was refused to do A level Maths achieving only grade 6 rather than 7. Years later i am now a qualified accountant after an apprenticeship, and yes the Math A level would've been hugely helpful for my future studies.

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28. 

    @lewisstubbs6569

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    One thing they forget to mention is us in 2018 who sat the GCSE exams only had two years to do a three year GCSE as we were the first year to do the new exams.

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29. 

    @Jasminetries

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    im 23 here. only did maths n eng in 2016, was homeschooled, ripped up the science paper, got Es but here i am again after nearly a decade to re do them and not give up on my future. i dont have a dream career route. dont know what i wanna do in life. probs be self employed oneday but thats big. being a ytber is my dream but will be a hard industry to break into. but to all year 11s and higher even if you failed, you can always try again. its never to late. even if your 55. my auntie did them at 55. and if you did pass congratulations. gcses arent easy but well done to everyone that sat the exams cause i tanked it but here i go again at 23 in 2023

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30. 

    @tfive24

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    Y can't they use both methods to grade students? Some people like myself, I'm a terrible test taker. I think that would give a better grasp of the student's abilities.

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31. 

    @Alex-ur3vt

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    A former A* is actually now meant to be represented by an 8, with 9 being the top cut of all A*s. A 'U' grade actually still exists, and 1 is the step up from it.

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32. 

    @kawron4832

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    Aaahh Good old GCSE’s as useful as UNI Degree. Vital qualifications to become McDonalds staff

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33. 

    @alexien2716

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    Diagnosed autistic/adhd well over a decade after high school, I loathe high percentage exams. I already struggle/struggled with time management, test anxiety, malnutrition in the week/weeks leading up to exams, chronic pain, etc. To have my "worth" as a person measured by one or two exams that I know I was and am still unable to complete to the best of my ability is frustrating and discriminatory. I'm glad that some schools now have accomondations, but my experience in university showed that many professors are unwilling to grant those. Some teachers who want to be able to give those accommodations are unable to due to space, understaffing, multiple classes, or department interference. I hope that changes. I get that the GCSE is The One across the pond, but I'm glad that students had a couple years of an alternative that better represents them.

    Great video as always! In future, a visual number under the circle graphs for visual clarity would be very helpful.

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34. 

    @CarlosKTCosta

    December 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    Grades by teacher assessment are inherently unfair since teacher standards can change widely and be, even if unconsciously, affected by context.
    That being said, leaving everything to one single day has oh so many issues.
    The only fair way to do this, IMO is nation wide examination on a regular basis, 3 times a year for instance and then a final calculation that would take into account all your progress an maybe reward people who got better with time, maybe not consider the top result not the lowest one so that flukes and “bad days” are accounted for.
    The human element is the best and the worst of education, it is it’s biggest tool and also the source of the worst problems

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