Rejected petition Allow exams being taken to be open book

It has come to the attention of A level students that the WJEC exam board has abruptly opted for students to complete assessments without the use of notes. This decision is completely unfair as we were told up until now that all of our assessments will be open book. With the many drastic changes the WJEC has released about how our exams will go about, A level students have been compliant and understanding given the circumstances, but the lack of timely notice is extremely unfair to students.

More details

At the beginning of the academic year, we were promised we could sit our exams. Towards Christmas this changed to assessments with open book. Now we are being told the assessments must be done under exam conditions. This lack of clear communication between the exam board and students will most likely repeat the mistakes made last year, where many students had to appeal their grades and unnecessarily prove their academic skill. We urge the WJEC to take account of the hardships this pandemic has presented to students, and how their sudden changes on how students will be assessed only makes it harder for to stay motivated and aware of what is being asked of them. We urge the WJEC to reconsider this decision of removing open book assessments and continue studying as we were.

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue, or if the Petitions Committee has considered one in the last year.

Another petition calling for this is already collecting signatures:

Allow schools to assess students how they see fit, including the use of open-book assessments https://petitions.senedd.wales/petitions/244793

You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards

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