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Btw GCSE = Gerneral Certificate of Secondary Education Edexcel = a company that makes courses Coursework = Elongated homework that the grade we get goes to our final grade. Our exams are stupid, they still looks like they are written by a 3 year old for a 3 year old, but need some kind of riduculous scientific answer even when the question doesnt include any scientific stuff. "Jeff wants to know how many worms are on the field. He uses a quadrat. Explain why he uses a quadrat" Answer: Because he [censor]ing feels like using a ******* quadrat, and the fact he doesnt wanna go round the whole ******* field counting every ******* worm because hes ******* lazy. Oh and did I mention the science coursework? Yes thats right science COURSEWORK. "Should the use of cannabis be legalized?" How does this help us to learn science? It doesnt. They give us 1 hour in lesson to do some research, they give us some crappy useless newspapers that are vaguely related to the use of cannabis. They also expect us to find amazing quality graphs perfectly related to the use of cannabis/smoking related to death/illnesses IN THE UK. So after the 1 lesson research, we then have until the next day to get some more, than 1 hour to write it all up. So I wrote 4 A4 pages of, in my opinoin, quality coursework that is related to the use of cannabis with graphs and stuff ect, included a 1 page conclusion which is basicly the bad/good side (I think the use of cannabis should be legalized because, and not because) but I get 1 mark out of 7 or 8 for my conclusion, and a D grade overall. Heres another science question from a practise exam paper we got given: " This question is about ideas and evidence in science. Sam is a research scientist. He has just discovered a new alloy. This alloy is suitable for making car bodies. Sam decides to tell other scientists around the world about his discovery. Deseribe how, and explain why Sam should tell other scientists." I'm not joking, and guess what the answer(s) was? This was in the marking guide: 1. He could phone them up 2. He could talk to them 3. He could send them a letter/email. 4. He could publish it in a scientific newspaper. Heres another question, and one I bothered to answer: (a) State one other advantage and one disadvantage of using photocells to produce electricity. Advantage: I put "cheap" the teacher marked and said no, because "why" even though the question didnt ask for a reason. Disadvantace: "Unreliable." This was wrong too, she corrected "only works in the day" . Another question: " Meat is a comercial product that can be made from whales. What other product can be made from whales?" A stupid question deserves a stupid answer, I put "skin" I suppose they want you to think about oil and stuff, but what could you make out of a whale? Really?............. Our other science teacher (we have two) decides making posters is a better way of learning compared to actaully learning, so he sets us quite a few posters to make for homework. One was about the big bang, so I made an information page about the big bang. I got a B even though I gave a MUCH more detailed explanation about the big bang than other people who got A's but left out a sentance about the "red shift" even though I put it in a box at the end. In england we've got short course IT, and long course IT This year (2006) they replaced long course IT with DiDa (google) Its more of a 'program based' course, which requires you to use programs effectively.......apparently. http://dida.edexcel.org.uk/home/aboutdida/ Here's how it works. DiDa have a website with an 'SPB' for the years course. The SPB IS the course, and it tells you what to do. Well it tells you what you kind of have to do. Heres an example of an SPB: http://dida.edexcel.org.uk/home/spb/0906-spbs/unit1spb0906/ This is the one we did last year First we had to create a data base. Did they teach us how? Nope, because we spend EVERY SINGLE MINUTE (excluding the odd hour we had this year 'leaning' fireworks) doing the course. So we do it, nobody has used access before so it took around 2 weeks (if the teachers knew how to use access, it would have taken 1 lesson instead of 6). Wow database done. Second we had to create a 'reality check' which was a spreadsheet, or an automated questionnaire type sheet, to give children between the ages of 7-9 to fill out how much fruits and vegetables they eat every week. Did the teachers know how to use excel? Nope. Did anyone in our class have any trouble creating the over complicated formula? Yes everybody. This took around 2 months, because nobody knew what they were doing. All the teachers knew was conditional formatting, which was hardly usefell. Then we had to create some more crap such as an information pack, which I just photoshoped in 1 lesson and spend the next 5 lessons doing crap all. Then we come to the end, and have to write a review on the whole thing. More like an evalutation actaully. What we do is: Make a website type file (basic html website) using any program we liked, and displayed all our work their with our evalutation saying what we did. We got supplied with a program called 'open mind' created by a company called 'matchware'. Everyone used it because it didnt take long to create a decent looking website. No it didnt take long at all...how long did it take to actaully get it to work, and export and finally view it on different computers? A long time, because nobody ever taught us how to use this overpriced, tacky crappy program that was made by a company who have never used any other REAL program. Yay, 5 a day finished. Im probably going to get an E/D .... NEVER along the way did DiDa give us any help. They didnt teach us how to use the programs, all they did was vaguely tell us what to do. This year: Another SPB (http://dida.edexcel.org.uk/home/spb/0906-spbs/unit3spb0906/) This one was slightly better. 'Graphics' 3 people in our class know how to use flash/fireworks or photoshop. The others are using paint or word, or using photoshop and failing epicly. We had to make several things such as a flyer and a logo, so I did it in photoshop elements as its all we have at school. Around october/november time, someone read the walkthrough. Look what it says: "How well have vector tools been used to create the logo?" "How well have vector tools been used in the development of the map?" "How well have vector tools been used to design the CD case?" And that for a few other parts Wait, when in the SPB did they tell us to use vector tools? They didnt We have to start again 2 months of work (2 hours basicly) gone down the drain. And again, how many in our class can use a program that only uses vector, 1 person, wow! What does this mean? The other 20 odd people are going to loose a hell of a lot of marks, because they didnt use vector. And there was another SPB (we didnt do) where you had to create a game on. What program did you have to use? It's called "mediator" and its made by matchware also. Two terrible programs created for a terrible course, where were not going to learn anything, and the programs we use (open mind ect) we are NEVER going to use in real life because they are inefficient and terrible and dont work. And I think long course IT was just as bad. What do you learn that you would actaully use the computing business? I learn more usefell computer stuff, pasively, using it at home. Languages: I meet alot of 12~16 year olds on the internet in certain games :) . Most of these are German, French, ect, and they speak fluent english. The amount of, say German, that speak fluent English is FAR greater than the amount of 12-16 year olds that speak fluent any other language apart from English in England. They learn languages at the same time as we do, wait, we dont even learn languages: I took spanish for GCSE, hoping to learn some usefell Spanish. This year, we have learnt how to talk about our schools, and learn vocabulary in relation to shopping markets. Is this usefell? My other German friends that speak fluent English are learning far more advanced stuff than this crap im 'learning' (at the same age as me). Why is this? Apart from the fact that the stuff we learn is useless, the teachers dont teach. All they do is teach us stuff from the crappy EdExcel course, and never bother to personaly teach us fluent Spanish --------- The only good course in our GCSE's im my opinion is Geography. These teachers teach us stuff from the course, which is a very good course because its challenging and all it does it give us USEFULL! information about Geography, not reteaching the stuff we learnt 5 years ago. Also, the teachers teach us stuff were not supposed to know. Maths is also another good course because its virtually the same as Geography. There is one problem though, the stuff we're learning is the stuff that Germans and Americans learnt 2 years ago, the stuff we find 'challenging' to learn is the most basic of that subject. (Basic geometry rays and lines and direction is considered 'vectors'). At 15/16, the class still wouldnt have been told what a function is, whose heads would explode if they saw f(x) in an exam. The stuff that we take for A level (optional education at 16~18/19) is the stuff that Germans HAVE to learn at this age. Calculus is A level stuff, advanced stuff that only people who like maths take, because England thinks its hard >.> . And theres another problem, the Calculus we learn here is still rather basic, so then theres another course, which is Further Maths and is virtually impossible for the average student to get even a C grade (pass) on. (differential equations, matrices, and even Taylors therom). If they take this course, they will have to learn this stuff a year after they just learnt what f(x) means. Is the Government making things easier? So more people can get higher grades, and all employers will look for is A's and A*s, not taking into account that A/A* stuff in that course was probably equivilent to a C grade 50 years ago. Do the Government want more people to get more jobs, and better jobs? P.S As for the science course, we took a Mock Exam recently. Around 1/2 the class got C's. Around another 1/2 got B's, the odd few got A's and D's. (C is a pass). We are in TOP SET, the most intellegent ones in the Science Course. |
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| Disadvantace: "Unreliable." This was wrong too, she corrected "only works in the day" . |