[InTheFade]

This thread was inspired by bananarama's reply to 'drinking age rising to 21' but it's something I've always thought (and not just because my GCSE results were so bad) and maybe some people will agree that exam results are an unreliable way of testing a person's intelligence. This is definitely true in my case, as I said, my exam results were generally terrible and disappointing but it's not because I'm really thick (well not as thick as you'd believe from looking at those results) but because my ability to recall details when I'm under a lot of pressure is rubbish and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I think it's really unfair that your academic future is determined by GCSE results when it should be determined by your actual level of intellect. It's even worse that there are plans to scrap coursework and only use exams to decide pupils' GCSE grades because, in my opinion, you'd get a lot more information about someone's brainpower by analysing a more carefully thought-out piece of work completed by a realistic deadline.