#the exam system is so fucked i the uk like this is basically my whole life now.

[thessalian]

Thess vs School Guidance

New Tory guidance incoming: schools will be forced to out trans kids to their parents. Apparently there’s an expectation of an exception if doing so would put the child in danger, but I’m not so sure. I mean, even if there were, how the fuck would the school know if they didn’t talk to the kid first? Apparently they’re not even really going to ask the kids what’s going on - they’ll be going by ‘flags’ such as ‘a boy wearing a skirt’ or a kid using a different name. Which makes me wonder what the hell’s going to happen to girls with names like, say, Alexandra or Christine who go by Alex or Chris, or who prefer to wear trousers. But since trans girls will be banned from girls’ competitive sports, I have a feeling that a lot of this is just targeting trans girls in general. Particularly since, apparently, “rules will be relaxed for non-contact sports”.

Then again, given that today’s dead cat is Sunak talking about changing the maths curriculum in schools so that everyone up to age 18 will be forced to take maths courses because “everyone needs to know basic maths”... Oh. I should explain. In this country, the school system is set up a little different than in North America. The sort of curriculum you find in a US school, with required courses in history, English, maths, science, etc? That only goes to the end of what would be a US student’s sophomore year in high school, and is technically the end of required education for a UK student. See, UK universities do a three-year degree course; they don’t spend a whole year sticking freshmen students in general education courses. So what would be a US student’s junior and senior high school years are “lower and upper sixth form” here, and you do exams they call A-levels at the end of those two years. The two year prep courses for those are really intensive, so you only do three, maybe four (though there are some overachievers who do five or so), and they’re a lot more specific to the kind of thing you want to go to university to study for. So if you’re going in for computing or economics or STEM, sure, you’re probably going to do a maths A-level. But if you’re going for English or history or media studies or the arts, you’re probably going to skip the maths in favour of something that’ll prepare you better for your upcoming degree course - English, history, theatre studies, art history, stuff like that. And A-level maths courses are hard, okay? They’re in no way to be considered ‘basic maths’. I took one year of just half an A-level maths course (you can do that; they’re called AS levels) and I had to drop the course because we were getting into calculus and my teacher was ... just ... really bad. She barely explained things, and when I didn’t understand her explanations, she just said, “I’ve told you what you need to do; work it out”. And that was in an independent (private) school with a relatively small class. I can’t imagine how that’d go in a state (public) school environment where everyone in their year is forced into the course. Plus we apparently don’t have enough maths teachers for this as is, so they’ll apparently double the size of maths classes and drive teachers into early graves through stress. No wonder the poor bastards are striking.

So, yeah, the maths requirement thing shows Sunak being completely out of touch with how the school system in his own country works. Thus, it’s probably another dead cat, which is the term for “Look at this so you don’t see the fuckery I really want to slip past you!” I’m not sure if the trans school guidance bullshit is another dead cat or something they want to slip past us (though I’m kind of guessing the latter, because the news about it came out on a Sunday, which is not a day to put out any significant news), but I do know what Sunak doesn’t want us talking about - the fact that he didn’t declare an interest in a childcare agency (technically his wife’s shares in said agency, but still connected to him, and a lot of what he did as Chancellor directly benefited his wife’s financial interests, so...) before setting out a childcare policy that would directly benefit childcare agencies, including the one his wife has interest in. So I’m guessing if the guidance requiring schools to out trans kids to their parents was meant to be a dead cat, he’d be waving that one around instead of the maths thing.

Stupid part? Apparently a whole bunch of people believe that it’s good that the PM is so wealthy and with so many commercial interests. Because they think it means he’s “doing the job for the right reasons because he doesn’t need the money”. I just ... cannot, with that. People that wealthy will never be satisfied, whereas I’d just be happy with enough money to move out of this horrible country and not have to push my disabled ass to its limits in a job just to be able to eat properly and keep the utilities going.

Oh, and of course, Labour is basically singing off the same hymn sheet as the Tories in terms of the “schools outing trans kids” thing. They’ve about stopped short at Sunak literally saying, “100% of women do not have penises”, but his response to schools outing trans kids to their parents seems to have been, “Of course I’d want to know. I say that as a parent”. Stops short at saying what he’d do about it, mind you.

This country is a horror show, and I hate being stuck in it. And of course, King Jug-Ears’ fucking coronation is coming up in about three weeks so I know what I’m doing that particular weekend - hiding. London as a city is great on the whole, but the thing that sucks about it is that it’s where all the Big Deal Shit happens. The funeral, the coronation, the Olympics awhile back... Thankfully it’s mostly over in Central London and I don’t have to look at it, but I always feel this overwhelming urge to vandalise the “Prepare For The Coronation!!!” shelves at various supermarkets. Yes, there are whole shelves dedicated to the ingredients for very British treats for people to make and eat while watching the coronation at home. I mean, I don’t, because I don’t reckon the people who stocked the shelves and would have to fix the damage are at fault for any of this, but ... incandescent rage. People are still struggling to feed themselves and we’re supposed to get excited about some seventy-something dude getting a hat full of shiny rocks stolen from other countries stuck on his head? Excited enough to spend money, time, and energy we don’t have on making a trifle to eat while watching said ritualistic bit of bullshit?

But of course, an awful lot of people will.

Fuck. This. Country.

#Thess vs the Tories #Thess on politics #Thess vs the monarchy

[k0kichiimagines]

"all pupils should study maths till 18" is rlly fucking dumb lol, i hated maths i was so glad to drop it at 16, the maths gcse gives you ALL the basic maths you need there is literally no need for extra

the whole UK education system is set up so you can technically finish at 16, sure most people do something else until 18, but it doesnt even have to be education. wtf is the point of making everyone do one randomly specific subject for another 2 years? some people arent mathematical and its FINE, and they shouldnt be forced into an extra two years when they wont gain any thing from it. i hate the obsession people will have with the idea that everyone needs to go as far as they can and do as much as they can in terms of education and university, and when you finally finish in your fucking 20s your expected to waste your whole life away in a job. and when you dont they call you lazy and stupid lol

it also doesn't make sense in terms of literally every others law, how r you gonna say at 16 you can have sex, consent to anything medical, move out, leave the country, but cant say 'nah i dont want to do maths any more' 😭 fucking stupid, i would have hated that, my maths hw would take me HOURS and my teachers refused to let me drop down from higher for foundation it ruined my mental health so badly

i think its dumb. it wont gain any thing except stress, and for what? and also how is this going to work? further maths? or you only get 2 a level choices? both really stupid ideas, and the whole point of a levels is for the first time YOU get to chose all your subjects, theres nothing you *have* to do. you can chose them on future career, on hobbies, no one cares do what you like.

i think the education system as a whole isnt good. you spend 2 years studying just for it all to be judged only on 2 exams? i dont think its fair, i think other things should be used, even if its just more exams to make it mlre accurate, the schools give you exams as well anyway. the nhs is falling apart. people are striking because of how horrifically underpayed they are. why tf is ur concern forcing teenagers to do maths for no good reason ? 😭 this country is a mess i want to go home pls

#y is he so obsessed w the idea

[31st]

Sorry for asking, I'm not from England, but has this happened before? That sounds just like straight up favouritism???? Aren't a-levels the same for every single student, because if that weren't the case, the government has been wrong all along. Even people from my country were accepted in universities in England, but it would be soooo fucked up if native students are not accepted because of covid + somebody's decision to fuck over a whole school

no this hasnt basically in england how it works is in our last two years of high school we take 3 or 4 a levels which are 2 year courses in certain subjects and the final grade is in most cases 100% dependant on final exams at the end of the two years which is like .... a flawed system in itself bc if u just get unlucky on the day u can end up with like an E after getting A* on mocks all throughout the course.... But anyway because of covid all the final exams were cancelled so there was no way for our grades to be determined so the government had to make this new system and first they announced they were using predicted grades but in the uk everything is graded on a bell curve system kind of (well in secondary school at least im not experienced with uni) so they were like . If they used predicted grades the grades this year would be 12% higher than last years and they were like oh we cant have grade inflation so they asked teachers to rank all the students in the year in order of ability and they created this statistical model that takes data from the past 3 years of results from the school and then assigns students so basically the same number of students in an area will get the same or around the same amount of certain grades as the past students in that area have which us stupid because a) what do ten people getting like an E in a subject the year before have anything to do with students the next year b) the system disproportionately targets people in deprived areas (which is the reason scotland which previously gave out final grades based on the same algorithm reversed the decision and switched back to teacher precicted grades). Like students in rich areas and private schools had their grades downgraded over half as much as students from poorer areas did for no reason other than they live in richer more generally well educated areas ... and the algorithm downgraded over 40% of all grades so the majority of people got their grades lowered had that done for no reason other than they live in poor areas of the uk. Like since its a bell curve system and only a certain amount of people in the uk can get an a grade or b grade and people in rich areas were prioritized that means that lots of people who deserve those grades aren’t getting them again just because they live in poorer areas. The government didn’t even consider teacher predicted grades in courses that had over 15 students per school so what you achieved throughout the years doesn’t matter at all if you go to a larger school - and again the majority of sixth forms/colleges (the last two years of high school are a seperate school here) have around 2,000 students and its almost 100% of the time (excluding some grammar schools) private schools that have course sizes of under 15 students ... Like i can not think of a single public college/sixth form that has more than one course with less than 15 people subscribed. Another problem i have with this is really a problem i have with the A level system in as of itself ... in my opinion there are very very few people who perform at an E or U (or even D like i think the majority of D students are C students who perform poorly on the day of the exam) level thoughout the two years and the majority of E and U grades people get just because they happen to be unlucky on the day... so in that case there’s literally no way to predict which students will get these lowest grades but since the government insisted on giving broadly the same amount of each grade out literally random people are getting fails with literally no basis because in most cases it would be entirely up to chance? but yeah lemme show example pics since its easier to express that way sorry for the huge paragraph nobody asked for btw

#long post #ask #anon #like in example my school over 50% of the mock grades were higher than final grades when normally like 80-90% of final grades are higher #than mcks #take the phrase results/final exam results w grain of salt as well as nobody sat any exams #also universities tried testing their algorith and found its only accurate in 20% of cases

[thatludicrousdisplay]

okay i don’t expect anyone to read this but...

here in england it’s a-level results day. shockingly, it has been fucked up. even more shockingly, private schools are the only ones who haven’t really seen a dramatic decrease in grades. 

NOW. i have some fucking views on this. especially here in the uk private schools are massively biased. it’s very much a who you know not what you know situation. two thirds of boris johnson’s cabinet went to private school. overall 29% (as of 2019) of the current members of parliament attended private school, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but this is four times higher than the electoral they represent. elitism is prevalent in british politics. i could go on for far longer but lets get back to what’s important. 

here in the uk, more specifically england, us gcse and a-level students were promised that our grades would be based off of teacher assessment. basically, teachers would say what they thought we’d get in the exam and rank us in our classes. seems good, right? well, in the last two weeks or so new things have been being told every day. at the start of the month, the scottish results came out and complaints were made. 

we should have taken this as an omen. 

today, it was confirmed that nearly 40% of a-level grades were a whole grade below teacher expectations. in almost all cases, teacher assessments have been ignored. now i don’t know if this is true, but i have heard that students have been graded based off of postcode, the school’s past results, gcse results (in case of a-level students) and fucking SATs. exams we did in year 6 when we were eleven!!!! 

the postcode thing especially gets on my wick. i live in a pretty dumb area, not gonna lie. my school is probably one of the strongest in the area, but it’s still not good, last year especially. i’m due to get my gcse results next thursday. i do not deserve to have my grades lowered because of other people in my area. 

shockingly private schools have seen the highest raise in grades. this makes me so angry. i’ve always been to faith schools, but they’re still government funded, not church funded. the school hasn’t been refurbished for thirty bloody years. our grades are okay, but not amazing. we’re not gonna see a huge rise in grades. but private schools do. the assumption is always there: if you go to private school, you’re automatically more intelligent. 

horse shit. absolute fucking horse shit. 

but it’s always there. when i was doing public speaking we were the only non-private school there. during our area final, we were cheated out of first place by this other school. they were much worse than us, and it took them so long to decide. it was clear as they announced it that two of the three judges have been overruled by this one other. why, you ask? because the winning school was private, and we were state. the whole time we were there people were giving us almost pitying looks, the teachers whispering and snickering at us. everyone else had “debating champions” or other shit, we had a maths teacher was a damn good attitude. we still went through. we still won our first competition. 

basically what i’m trying to say is that the system is hugely biased towards the upper class and their kids, and it always will be. it’s now at the point that it is harming normal and disadvantaged students’ futures. it has to stop. 

i suppose we’ll see how it goes next thursday when the gcse results come out

tl;dr: the british schooling system is broken as fuck, the government is stupidly biased and it needs to fucking change 

#rant #honestly just ignore this #i had to rant #a levels #results day

[thursdayg1rl]

im still stressed abt my exams I cant stop sdfhdf

#like something inside of me is screaming that I need to do revision like its ingrained in me rn #ughdfgd #really curious to see what I got tbh #bcz then I can see whether my study techniques and exam techniques are useful or not #i think i did try my best in most of the exams. #like French writing and the last half of the maths exam were. interesting but other than that it was okay #English language creative writing was also not that hot #i wrote really really little like i think ur expected to write 500 words to get a decent grade and i did 300 at most #i just cldnt think of a plot it was crazt #the reading went well though ugh i love analysing media like 😼 #yeah everything else i think was okay #i take so many essay based subjects though so you can never be sure it might have been really shit idek #hopefully for French my listening and reading make up for the abysmal writing #and the low grade boundaries in maths are going to save my life i can already tell #need around 45 percent for a 7 which is ridiculous but. yeah #hopefully i scraped an 8. if im lucky #the exam system is so fucked i the uk like this is basically my whole life now. #yeah ayways. forcing myself to relax #feel so sorry for the ppl who still need to do exams on Monday rtfdhdfg couldn't be me #i did have to do 2 per day for a week which i dont think anyone else had to do.. #its becasue i took like such basic subjects like history rs geography French. #so they wanted to do those like first i think #why did i pick such hard subjects though like rs is the only easy one.. #should have done like. food studies or smth dxfghbxdg #or gcse pe like the science part of that is just stuff i already know out of just interest in the human body.. #but yeha #maybe i will revise a bit like it cant hurt can it #i do genuinely enjoy learning its just the examification of knowledge which infuriates me #also need to clean my room its a mess