The exam waiting game is a blight on students' summers

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/12/exam-waiting-game-students-alevels-results

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I do not miss the summers that followed my last three school years. Thinking of this year’s cohort who are waiting for their A-level results tomorrow, I can still feel the ache of nerves that pervaded July and August. And I can’t help thinking that it was all made much worse by the more than two months’ wait between putting down the pen and opening the envelope. In France, baccalaureat students sit their exams in June and this year got their results on 7 July (although timings vary by subject); international baccalaureate students around the world received their results a month after their exams.

Related: A-level results set to show slight drop in top grades

The long build-up acts as a pressure cooker, especially for A-level students who need certain grades to get into university. Daisy Chandley, who is waiting to see if she can take up an offer from Oxford to study politics, philosophy and economics (PPE), said the long waiting period makes you “over-think” how exams have gone.

This can be particularly agonising for those with anxiety issues. Ruby Dawn, a GCSE student who experiences panic attacks, said she “couldn’t do anything except wait”. “I worry that if I don’t do as well as I hoped, all the anxiety and panic surrounding exams will have been for nothing.”

For those hoping to go to university, it is impossible to make proper arrangements. This proved especially complicated for me because, as a disabled student, I had a lot of extra arrangements to make. I even had to hire carers before being absolutely sure I was leaving home.

If you do make the grade, the limbo is replaced by chaos; part nervous, part excited. Suddenly, you need pots and pans and towels. You need to sort out accommodation and, sometimes, travel. Everything must be packed and preliminary reading attempted. Some university terms start in the first weeks of September, leaving very little time between results day and freshers’ week.

If you do make the grade, the limbo is replaced by chaos. Suddenly, you need pots and pans and towels

So why is the wait so long? The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), which oversees exam boards, says that “with 15m papers to be marked and 2.3m A-level and 5.4m GCSE grades awarded each year there are many processes that need to take place in the small window between when examinations are sat in May or June and results day in August. Thoroughness and accuracy are more important than speed.”

According to Katherine Shirley from the JCQ, students here wait longer for their results than elsewhere because our exams have “fewer multiple choice questions, greater subject choice, and they sit more exams”. Thus the only way grades could be issued significantly earlier would be by reducing teaching time and starting examinations earlier, a move that would be unlikely to receive much support from the teaching community, Shirley says.

Teachers report being approached after the marking deadline with offers of double or triple pay to fast-track additional scripts: hardly indicative of a fully staffed system. Hiring more staff would surely help to avoid delays and publish grades earlier.

This seems a small price to pay to free students from months of anxiety and uncertainty. Then, if they do go to university, they’ll be ready for the challenge.