Year 10 mock exams are happening, hands are cramping, children are stressing out. For 5 hours each day, they sit in a yellow hall, with tables made of a yellow wood. Even the floor is a dull, powdery brown. 

 

“I don’t have any emotions towards it,” said Yi Ray Wong, a student revising vigorously for exams.

“All I can do now is hope for the best”

 

When asked what they thought of exams, many students had negative views, with some making suggestions on how to reduce stress on students caused by exams.

 

“I think the exams should be more spread out to limit stress on people,” said Maria-Alexandra Papadaki.

“Exams are stressful and unnecessary,” she expanded.

 

Another year 10 student, Kelechi Ukaegbu, said: “I think exams make school unnecessarily stressful.”

She suggested that “there should be just like a bunch of smaller exams instead of a massive exam at the end of the year. It just makes everyone a lot more stressed.”

 

This view was supported by Isobel Williams, who said: “I think exams are unnecessary.”

 

Overall, students considered exams as “unnecessary” and “stressful”, with many believing that this exam stress can be reduced if the exam schedule was different.

 

Not only that, students are concerned that for the past 2 days of mocks, they have not been able to have an allocated break, with reports of them only being able to leave that dismal yellow hall at lunch and when they needed to go to the lavatory.

 

Year 10 mock exams are happening, but the negative effect that they have on these students – 14 and 15 year olds – should not be ignored.