The Joy of Exams

My younger daughter, Sarah, is currently in the midst of her GCSE's and I must admit I don't envy her. When I was taking my O levels (and there is a phrase that I've used frequently in conversations with Sarah, much to her aggravation), there did not seem to be the same sort of pressure as there is on teenagers today. These days I believe that expectations are much higher than they were when I was sixteen; back then our teachers wanted us to pass our exams and they wanted us to realise our potential but now it seems that simply passing GCSE's is not enough; these days it seems that everyone is expected to gain A* grades in everything. The publicity that is generated about the number of students achieving A* grades fuels both the belief that the qualification is getting easier and the pressure that students are under to obtain that grade.

The proportion of GCSE entries awarded an A or A* increased every year between 1988 and 2011. Illustration: Paul Scruton for the Guardian

There has been a lot of debate about whether GCSE's (and A levels) are easier than they used to be. From what I have seen of Sarah's school work it is difficult to say if it is easier or not, but it is definitely different. Successive governments have altered the format of GCSE courses and whereas when I took my O levels it was a case of one, two or maybe even three exams per subject at the end of two years of study, these days students are taking formal exams, submitting coursework and undertaking controlled assessments. Changes are afoot to put more emphasis on the end of year exams and while that would be my personal preference, obviously there will be a lot of students who are more comfortable with the current regime of coursework and controlled assessments in addition to some formal exams. Everyone has a different learning style after all, so everyone will have their preferences as to the form their exams take.

When I was taking my O levels (there's that phrase again!) and indeed when I took A levels, the format was simply formal exams and that suited me. For me there was an adrenaline rush about going into an exam hall, sitting down and turning over the paper and being (usually) happy that the questions matched the areas of the syllabus I had specifically revised. For that the teachers at my secondary school have to take a lot of credit; by and large they were pretty successful in predicting what sort of questions we would be facing and therefore directing our revision into those areas.

Most of us tend to look at the past through rose tinted spectacles and skip over the bad bits so you may think that I am recalling the days when I took formal exams purely with the benefit of forty years of selective hindsight, however it was only a few years ago that I put pen to paper in a formal exam when I studied for a Diploma in Business Analysis and Operations.

In 2004 my then employers, HSBC Bank, offered a Diploma in Business Analysis and Operations (DipBAO) course in conjunction with the Institute of Financial Services (ifs) and having received an email inviting me to take the course, I applied. I was encouraged to do so partly because I thought it would be interesting, partly because I wondered if after such a long time I could actually undertake any formal study or not, and in part because other members of my team seemed keen to take the course too. You will notice that I did not consider possible advancement in my career as a potential benefit of taking the course, I was (and still am) too cynical to have believed that to be likely!  As it turned out, having applied and been accepted, I found that none of my colleagues had actually applied; I was on my own!

The Diploma course was made up of four modules; Managing People in Organisations, Managing Information, Business Analysis, and Project Management. The first two modules consisted of distance learning which required two written assignments to be submitted plus a formal three hour written exam. The latter two modules required attendance on bank run courses after which written assignments were required.

In the summer of 2004 I received the course material for the first element, Managing People. It was daunting now to realise that I had to start studying for the first time in three decades, and studying via distance learning too, something I had never previously tried. Even more daunting was the realisation of how big a commitment I had made as I tried to fit studying around a full time job and my home life. Frequently this meant starting my studies at ten o'clock in the evening and working through until about two in the morning. Having obtained passing grades in the assignments, the really hard work started as I began revising for the exam. There are lots of different ways to revise, most are a matter of personal preference. For me it largely consisted of re-writing my notes in a particular format as my memory is quite visual; if I can call to mind the format of the page it helps me recall the content. One thing I found out while revising was that sleeping on it was important. I would sit revising into the small hours and find that little was sinking in. I would go to bed and wake up to find that, like an overnight database job, my mind had ordered my thoughts and I could remember a lot more than I had been able to before I went to bed.

One thing that took a bit of practice was writing for three solid hours. Most of us now probably write very little with pen and paper and here I was embarking on a marathon session with a biro. Anyone thinking of taking a written exam in the near future would do well to spend a good deal of time just practicing writing for long periods; there is no point in going into an exam with all the answers in your head and not be able to get them down on paper because you go down with writer's cramp after thirty minutes.

 Interestingly, as I was at that time not a line manager and had no experience of actually managing people, I was able to treat this subject as a purely academic exercise; I had no preconceptions to get in the way of learning the subject and producing the sort of work that met the examiner's expectations. Whereas I gained a Distinction in the Managing People in Organisations element, I just scraped a pass in Business Analysis, ironic as I was (in part) employed as a Business Analyst, which sort of proves my point about approaching formal study without preconceptions.

As you will have gathered (it's in my profile on this blog after all), I managed to pass the whole shooting match and am now entitled to the letters DipBAO after my name; well I would be had my membership of the ifs not lapsed and I'm blowed if I'm prepared to pay over a hundred quid a year solely for that privilege (and a regular magazine).  In March 2007 I received my Diploma in an awards ceremony at Southwark Cathedral, which is up there with the proudest days of my life. It wasn't exactly a cheap day; hiring gown and mortar board and having an official photograph taken cost a tidy sum, but it added to the sense of occasion.

Southwark Cathedral

With some of my fellow students at our graduation.

Taking the Diploma was one of the hardest things I've had to do (in terms of fitting it into the rest of my life, if for no other reason), but also one of the most rewarding and it certainly makes me sympathetic to the testing times that Sarah is going through at the moment. To all of you who are in the throes of taking some form of formal qualification I say the very best of luck and to all of you who aren't but have a family member who is... good luck too!