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gcse ..english

Hotel california

My son is rather upset because one of the questions in his gcse English paper requires him to write as if he is someone else.  The exact question varies year on year, but usually starts with "imagine ......"

He has told me he cannot do these kinds of question as he struggles with seeing things from another perspective.

The question carries 20% of the marks, so a lot to lose.

Does anyone know if asc children can do a different type of question instead, as it seems unfair to me to expect him to do something he cannot.

Parents

  • I know that at university level these standpoints are not popular with students. They are used, especially in exams, to discourage people from brain-dumping everything they know (including a lot that's irrelevant), and to get students to argue a case in an applied context, rather than be merely descriptive.

    Possibly this is asked in schools to prepare them for university, but it is broadly valid as it is to discourage purely descriptive facts for facts sake writing. Also employers complain bitterly about the writing styles of school leavers and graduates being too essayish and florid and not really useful to a business or scientific application.

    It is also a pain for examiners and tutors as we have to vary the questions so they all start from a different premise - explain, discuss, elucidate with examples, debate etc. Questions which don't show enough variation can be thrown back at a tutor from the examiners, and you can get into quite a bit of trouble for not being good at setting premises.

    So I'm afraid it is likely to remain a scourge of school pupils and undergraduates for the forseable future.

Reply

  • I know that at university level these standpoints are not popular with students. They are used, especially in exams, to discourage people from brain-dumping everything they know (including a lot that's irrelevant), and to get students to argue a case in an applied context, rather than be merely descriptive.

    Possibly this is asked in schools to prepare them for university, but it is broadly valid as it is to discourage purely descriptive facts for facts sake writing. Also employers complain bitterly about the writing styles of school leavers and graduates being too essayish and florid and not really useful to a business or scientific application.

    It is also a pain for examiners and tutors as we have to vary the questions so they all start from a different premise - explain, discuss, elucidate with examples, debate etc. Questions which don't show enough variation can be thrown back at a tutor from the examiners, and you can get into quite a bit of trouble for not being good at setting premises.

    So I'm afraid it is likely to remain a scourge of school pupils and undergraduates for the forseable future.

Children
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