Exams

It’s shocking. Children are supposed to be lovingly guided through their education with kid gloves, never facing the prospect of getting anything less than a B+ and a gold star, thereby preparing them for a life of constant angst and confusion upon their entry to “the real world”.

Instead, we’re told, some of them are reporting symptoms of stress and anxiety before sitting their NAPLAN tests. To stave off this epidemic of totally normal behaviour, teachers are reportedly “teaching to the test”, spending extra time teaching what will be tested in the exam, and even making them sit dummy runs in the lead-up.

This means children are being made to learn things such as maths and reading and writing. Won’t someone think of the children!

Continue reading "Breaking news: kids don’t love sitting exams" »

It’s an injustice for the ages! A student of an elite Sydney private school who achieved a rank of 99.95 out of 100 in her uni admissions score has lost her appeal to higher authorities that she could’ve done better in her exams if she’d been given more special provisions.

The student was claiming the Board of Studies had unlawfully discriminated against her in exams because they only provided her with rest breaks to help her recover from her hyper joint mobility of the wrist. She says she could’ve done that little bit better if she had a computer or some extra time, Fairfax reports.

There’s a lot to say about this. First, everyone’s wrists hurt during exams. Plenty of people who developed inflamed hyper-essayitis of the hand from scribbling analyses of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead had steam bursting out of their ears when they heard about the situation.

Continue reading "Sometimes, getting 99.95 out of 100 is good enough" »