In a previous article we joked that three things are certain in life – of course, death and taxes were the first two, but we added on a third for exams, at least up until the age of 18!

Additionally, another recent blog post of ours discussed how the UK is obsessed with exams and relies too heavily on quantitative assessment.

Drawing from this idea, there might be a good alternative or which strikes a balance between having exams, but changing the grading system which currently exists, or, dare I say it, making the grading system useful!

One thing that most of us ‘learnt’ from a very early age, was that if you got an A or a high score in an exam or test, you were generally speaking good at a subject.

Conversely, if you got a lower grade (C or below), or failed a test or exam, you were not.

I put learnt in inverted commas there more to signify that this was not something we were actively taught, more something that we picked up!

This seems ridiculous (and is), but the grading system in the UK and many parts of the world is designed to operate as a stick to beat young people with and more often than not, focuses on exclusion rather than an inclusion.

Ie, if you don’t get a certain grade you cannot do a university course, or you cannot take a subject for A-Level.

I remember that when I scored an A at Chemistry for GCSE and wanted to take it for A-Level, the school I was at didn’t allow me to, because I hadn’t achieved an A* at GCSE (don’t get me wrong, I’m really grateful they did, as I patently was not suited to it and would have likely failed the A-Level).

What might be the solution, is to maintain some form of quantitative grading, but instead of just saying ‘you’ve done well’ in a subject or ‘you’ve done poorly’, we can actually use student results in different subjects to give them a breakdown of university courses and/or careers they might be suited to.

Then instead of giving them grades in the form of A*-E, they would be given ‘recommendations’, higher or lower, depending on what they might be better suited to.

I feel like this would be better psychologically for so many young people and not only leave feeling more enthusiastic and positive about their futures, but better mentally too.

The crushing defeat of getting poor results at such an early, developmental age can really stunt young people’s potential, sometimes in a manner from which they can never recover.

A new grading system in this manner I believe would drive positivity, productivity and enfranchise thousands of young people who feel mistreated and a disconnect from the British education system.

Further Reading: Lindsey Macmillan, Jake Anders and Gill Wyness – How could the UK’s education system be reformed to equalise opportunities? (Economics Observatory)