Chalk Talk: Pay attention, class - test your knowledge of Gove's reforms
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Your support makes all the difference.So, have you kept abreast of Education Secretary Michael Gove's GCSE reforms? If so, have a grade eight for answering these questions correctly. (PS: if you didn't know eight was the top grade in the numerical system replacing A* to G grades, start with minus one)
1. Is an O-level: (a) an exam for bright 16-year-olds abolished to make way for the GCSE, (b) the new name for Education Secretary Michael Gove's new exam, (c) an exam still used in Commonwealth schools to test 16-year-olds.
2. In future, students of English Literature will have to study: (a) only 21st century poets and authors, (b) a 19th century novelist, (c) Chaucer.
3. How many exam boards will set GCSE exams: (a) one national exam board, (b) each exam board will bid for core subjects, (c) The five currently supplying them.
4. The English Baccalaureate Certificate (a) is the new name for GCSE exams, (b) is a school league table measure, (c) doesn't exist.
5. Climate change is: (a) no longer taught in geography, (b) part of the science curriculum, (c) an element of the new geography GCSE syllabus.
6. The term "sudden death" is used to describe: (a) the new GCSE exam system, (b) the future for GCSEs, (c) the fate of any school that fails to reach the Government's floor target for GCSE passes.
7. The I-level (a) is the new name for GCSEs, (b) is an IQ test for entry into private schools, (c) doesn't exist.
8. SPaG is (a) an Italian dish, (b) a new GCSE exam, (c) a national curriculum test for 11-year-olds.
Answers: 1 (a). There is no new name for GCSEs and (c) is the IGCSE: 2. (b). 3: (c) Gove wanted (b) but dropped the idea fearing legal action. 4. (c). The league table measure is the EBacc. Gove dropped the EBC after Lib Dem opposition. 5 (c) New national curriculum proposals suggest a switch from geography to science but it remains in the syllabus for GCSEs. 6. (a) All pupils face "sudden death" end-of-course exams. 7. (c) it was mooted as a new name for GCSEs. 8 (c). It is the name for the new spelling, punctuation and grammar test.
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