Teachers, as we know, love to moan. So, it has to be said, do students. And the biggest moan we English teachers have had to put up with this year is the changed GCSEs. ‘It’s not fair that we are guinea pigs,’ they mutter into their books. ‘It’s not fair that it’s so much harder for us.’ Well, harder for you than for whom? And are you really guinea pigs? The big whine is about going back to a 100 per cent examination-based award. The next whine is about the ‘closed book’ policy. In English, students have four exam papers, and they are not allowed the texts in front of them. They have to know fifteen poems very well, and write an essay comparing two of the poems they have studied, one of which is printed on the paper in front of them. Their questions on a Shakespeare play and...
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