Exam fears for WA students
One of WA's education chiefs fears students are not being properly prepared for their final Year 12 exams.
School Curriculum and Standards Authority chief executive Allan Blagaich said an analysis of markers' feedback on the 70 WA Certificate of Education exams held last year found 58 per cent of reports noted many students were failing to read questions properly.
And one quarter of the examination reports said many students were using pre-prepared essays they had memorised.
"For me it is a concern if in more than 50 per cent of the reports the examination feedback says 'you need to read the question'," Mr Blagaich said.
Examiners also commented that many students were unable to work out what a question was asking of them because they did not know the difference between key words such as "state" (express main points) and "explain" (relate cause and effect).
Mr Blagaich said the key words that exam writers used were the same for all subjects and were set out in course handbooks.
"It seems that maybe the kids aren't aware or the teachers aren't focusing on it enough," he said.
Many reports said teachers should give students more practice writing essays under time restrictions.
Modern history examiners said there were still far too many candidates who did not answer the specific questions.
"There did seem to be a higher percentage of pre-prepared essays being 'fitted' into questions, and fitted in poorly at that," it said.
Biological sciences markers said: "Explanations were often superficial and even the more substantive answers typically did not draw different points together to illustrate cause and effect. Also, answers were often given in very vague, imprecise and/or informal language."
Mr Blagaich said it was possible some students were not getting the grounding to develop the ability to present a logical written argument. Increased use of computers in schools could also be a reason that students struggled to write well under test conditions because they were accustomed to editing their thoughts as they typed.
Mr Blagaich said it was important to practise timed writing long-hand, with pen and paper.
The examination reports were released this week on the authority's password-protected extranet, accessible only to teachers.
The authority plans to release parts of the reports to students later this year.
