If GCSEs really are an ‘accurate measure of future success’, that’s exactly why we need to get rid of them

A new study asserts your exam results will tell you how well you’ll do later in life. Former teacher Ryan Coogan (who messed up his exams) says there are far better ways to predict someone’s future than that

There’s something very insidious about the fact that we put so much stock in a series of exams that we force kids to sit before they’re legally old enough to buy fireworks (PA Wire)

My favourite thing about exam season is when, on the day students are queueing up to receive their GCSE and A-level results, every op-ed columnist and internet commenter in the country races to be the first person to declare “well, I failed all my exams and I turned out fine!” Bonus point if, as is often the case, the person commenting did not in fact turn out fine.

That being said, I have a confession to make: I did really badly in my GCSEs and my A-levels, and I really did turn out fine.

How badly did I do? Well, badly enough that I had to do an extra year of A-levels so I could get into university. Badly enough that I had to play catch-up during my degree because I was behind everybody else, even though I was a year older than them. As for how fine I turned out… well, that’s relative. But I am (humbly) pretty proud of where I ended up.