Computer Science GCSE in Disarray After Tasks Leaked Online (bbc.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: The new computer science GCSE has been thrown into disarray after programming tasks worth a fifth of the total marks were leaked repeatedly online. Exams regulator Ofqual plans to pull this chunk of the qualification from the overall marks as it has been seen by thousands of people. Ofqual said the non-exam assessment may have been leaked by teachers as well as students who had completed the task. The breach affects two year groups. The first will sit the exam in summer 2018. Last year 70,000 students were entered for computer science GCSE. A quick internet search reveals numerous posts about the the non-exam assessment, with questions and potential answers.

Comments

Apprenticeship is the right way

[Anonymous Coward]

Using the study–test paradign to pass on the knowledge and skills of a complex subject just doesn't work.

Your proof of ability should be your portfolio, and your working relationship with actual professionals.

Sure, medical doctors do take exams along the way, but they'll all tell you that what really counts are the endless hours of working with their betters until they themselves become somebody else's better.

Education needs to be re-arranged around this apprenticeship model; interviewing and testing are bullshit ideas—your movement through society's functions should be well defined.

Terrible summary

[ardmhacha]

GCSEs are exams given to 16 year olds in the UK, not that you would know that from the summary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re:Terrible summary

[OzPeter]

GCSEs are exams given to 16 year olds in the UK, not that you would know that from the summary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Don't worry .. even TFA doesn't define it.

Re:Terrible summary

[Marxist Hacker 42]

That's what I thought they were, which indicates a VERY easy change to make that will blow them all away: Change the language the student must answer in from Java to ZX Spectrum Basic.

Re:GCSE?

[Anonymous Coward]

What is that? No idea. Ain't America.

And you can't search ? I guess an American cares not about what happens beyond its borders.

General Certificate of Secondary Education .

Re:GCSE?

[110010001000]

Why would I care about something outside my border? I don't think the UK exists in real life anyway.

Re:GCSE?

[modi123]

Oh, the UK certainly does exist. I saw the UK on a documentary I watched this last weekend about some fellow named "Harry Potter" (I think he's high up in the government). Sure his early life was broken up over many episodes so it drug on more than it should, but it provided some excellent background into UK youths.

Re:Information wants to be free!!

[jeremyp]

The assessment for many GCSE's is done in two parts. There are the formal examinations and there is course work. The formal examinations are done in invigilated conditions, the course work is done by the student during the time they are taking the course.

What happens is that the exam board sets a task e.g. "write an algorithm to shuffle a deck of cards" or "write a simple pre-emptive multitasking operating system with a Posix compatibility layer". The student then goes away and posts the task on Stack Overflow. Somebody else answers by copy-pasting the Fisher Yates algorithm from Wikipedia.