Improve Tuition, a learning tutoring provider for 5 to 19 year olds, is making future governments aware of the importance of retaining functional exams that aims to show students’ mastery of concepts taught in high school are used regularly in real life.
SAT, and GCSE’s need to reposition itself as an achievement test, using “real-world applications” of math, reading, writing and science to identify students ready for post 16 year old life.
Our GCSE English reading portion of the test, students should be asked to analyse “relevant” words in context of usage in real life. A criticism of the present and previous exams has been the use of obscure vocabulary that a typical 11 or 16-year-old child wouldn’t use and acquired only through rote memorisation.
“Governments should make a sincere exertion to improve the exams in the sense of making them more relevant to real life,” said Peter Mason, a psychologist in the UK who has studied entrance exams at degree level.
“Previous governments have used “heavy makeup,” said he would like to see more creative thinking, practical thinking or ethical reasoning in our exams” says Gulam Dabhad.
“We need make the test better by making them even more relevant to real life,” Dabhad said. “Unfortunately, most of the revisions are marketing bells and whistles for governments to win elections.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Gulam Dabhad in UK at dabhad@improvetuition.org
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Simon Temple at temple@improvetuition.org
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