Angry parents of Welsh pupils, who last week sat what teachers have described as the hardest exam they've ever seen, have hit out at the exam board's "disgusting" decision. The WJEC has come under fire for its AS-level maths exam on May 19, which teachers and students said included questions that were not on the exam content specification.
Parents said their children had been left in tears while one teacher emailed all her students to apologise for the paper. Another teacher said they would not have been able to answer one of the questions without using a part of the specification that had been removed.
Responding to the criticism the WJEC denied any questions were based on content not in the syllabus. The exam board also responded to similar criticisms about the chemistry AS. Writing under WalesOnline's post on Facebook about the exam hundreds of commenters – many of whom were parents – waded into the row, criticising both the difficulty of the paper, as well as the decision to make candidates, who have never sat exams before due to Covid cancellations, sit them for the first time this year. You can read all our stories about Wales' schools here.
Kelly Skel wrote: "My son was so upset and stated that there was questions that on the exam they have never revised!" Tamzin Caryl said her child had the same complaint, writing: "My daughter sat maths this week and told me it had a question on a theme they had categorically been told had been removed from the syllabus. Disappointing."
Paula Davies branded the paper was "deeply unfair" and "no amount of revising" would have prepared candidates for the questions. She wrote: "The problem wasn’t because it was difficult. The problem was that there were questions on the exam paper that the students hadn’t been taught, it wasn’t on the syllabus and they had no idea how to do it."
Lisa Durbin said that while she supports the fact students should get back to normal she felt the paper was "totally unacceptable". She wrote: "My son sat this exam yesterday and came out of there extremely disappointed with his performance. He was confused as there were two questions included in the exam that had been removed form the curriculum and yet expected to answer. I’m sure this had a massive effect on his performance and all students taking that exam. This is so unfair WJEC."
Meanwhile Lara Hilton slammed the WJEC's response that the exam was "fair". She said: "Fair??? It’s difficult to believe that teachers from different schools throughout Wales have ALL misunderstood the brief. No young adult can meet their potential in an exam when parts of the exam have not been taught. Low grade boundaries might be the answer but that does NOT take into account the stressful two and a half hours they have had to endure; THEN having to go into another exam after an experience like that!"
An older student who sat the exam said even she "felt like crying". Sherrie-Anne Paling wrote: "It was stupid and I agree there was a lot that was not on the syllabus! It was truly awful and I am a 38-year-old woman! I cannot imagine how the younger generation feel after sitting it."
Joanna Eydmann said it was "disgusting" that the exam would affect children's futures and she asked what was going to be done about the "fiasco". She continued: "My son did the exam today and said it was horrifically hard which is simply not fair with what they have had to go through."
Niki Stark Devlin pointed out that while the WJEC may alter the grade boundaries to account for the difficulty of the exam "that can not compensate for the harm it will have done to these children’s confidence levels". She continued: "WJEC you need to be removing the question that was off syllabus from the marking all together and you need to be bearing in mind what impact having that question there had on their ability to complete the rest of the paper."
Sarah Jane Thomas also felt altering the grade boundaries wouldn't be good enough, writing: "The pass mark will probably be about 15%, but why make it so hard to begin with? It’s just demoralising for the candidates." Others felt pupils should not be sitting exams this year to begin with owing to the disruption from the pandemic.
Rachel Hagerty said candidates "didn't stand a chance" this year. She wrote: "I'll say it again... the children should not be sitting exams this year full stop. They have missed out on so much schooling...Some children have missed so much they should never be expected to sit them."
Siân Fenton echoed this, commenting: " Current year 10s through to year 13s should not be sitting the traditional examinations. They have not had the same building blocks to be able to revert back to traditional exams. It is widely known that these age groups are struggling with their mental health – and then this happens to them! It’s disgusting."
Michael Charles said he had hoped the pandemic would have made room for a debate on whether examinations were the best form of assessment in school. He suggested looking at "alternative methods to assess, or at least for exams to be given less credence, a balance between classroom assessments and essay assignments". He continued: "This would put people on a more balanced level as many struggle with exams due to the pressure and others excel in exams because they're able to retain information for a short span and can just cram the night before and then so on either side they don't necessarily reflect a person's full understanding of a topic. Feels a real shame to just go back to normal without there seeming to be any exploration of the alternative." To get more stories like this sent straight to your inbox every single day click here.
