A Simple Solution to the Exams-Are-Too-Easy Issue

18th July 2012

Everyone enjoys getting their pants in a twist over the thorny question of whether or not exams have got easier.  I’ve always thought the solution to this was reasonably straightforward:

Give each student a copy of their marked exam so they can show it to employers, universities, the press, et al. so they can make a judgement about whether or not you have the required skills for their purpose.

Given that the majority of exams are scanned and marked online, how difficult can it be to transfer that scanned information back to the candidate once it has been verified?  All GCSE or A-Level exam papers could sit in an online portfolio available to each candidate for which they get emailed the password on results day.

Students could then log in, see their grade, see their exam paper, print it off and send to any employer concerned that their exams were ‘too easy’ OR they could be emailed on to universities OR anyone else who wants to understand exactly what a ‘D in Media Studies’ looks like (e.g. The Telegraph)

Of course, there’s nothing to say that employers or universities actually think it is useful to see these exams.  But if the exam are not useful for telling us about students, and employers don’t think the exam paper will tell them much about people’s capabilities, why are we spending so much time getting upset about these exams in the first place?