The Official Off topic thread-the place for off-topic stuff

Well, here it is. This is the place where Off-Topic stuff can be discussed. Many of you have asked for it, but there are some things to bear in mind.
Firstly, the normal rules of the site apply. You cannot start a discussion about contentious issues, Politics, Religion, Etc. The flip side of this arrangement is that there will be a much stricter enforcement of the "no going off topic" rule which has always been the case anyway, on the other threads.

Secondly, the normal rules of the Saints board will apply, (except that you can go off-topic obviously). This is not going to become a "private GC Lite." Personal insults will not be tolerated, and neither will goading someone to draw them out. The whole tone of this board has suffered over the last few days as differing views have been aired and there have been far too many angry exchanges. This has to stop. If you have fallen out with a poster put him on your ignore list and don't rise to the bait!

Over the next few days there will be a bit of a tidy up and some threads may disappear and others may well be severely pruned of the off-topic material. For the moment I am asking people to restrict their OT stuff to this thread as there is so much of it out there, we hardly need any more just now. Once everything is sorted out, I would propose that we go with Beefs suggestion which seemed to get a fair amount of support, whilst we all wait for Admins final word on the OT lounge idea.

Two final things. If you see content which is not appropriate, please send the mods a PM rather than fronting up the poster and let us deal with it to save a bun-fight. Lastly, if a thread is closed or deleted by one of the Mods, and you have some good reason that it should reopen, then send us a PM with your reasons. Simply reposting the same thread again to be confrontational would be considered very provocative and would probably lead to action being taken.

Hopefully we can all now get back to some friendly banter and live in peace and harmony..... over to you.

 

So, lets talk about Religion.....

 

So, who here hates Jews?

I kid, what are we gonna discuss then? It's weird when it's not spontaneous.

 

Actually while I think of it... DTLW, you probably know. What's this big fuss over GCSE results this year about?

 

Yeah it is "You guys, sit here and talk about something". So much pressure.

 

Kids are getting thicker and thicker.

 

It might well do eventually. Or Fodders Folly. Or something else, probably Beefys corner.

For the moment, I just thought that it would be better if it was "exactly what it said on the tin"

Play nicely.

 

Exciting isn't' it

 

That was my 6,000th post. I'm proud I used it on insulting you guys.

 

Ouch. This subject hurts me but I will oblige. It's been alleged that this year the government and in particular Michael Gove, have ordered the exam boards to mark down students in English GCSEs, and deduct marks as Mr Gove has said previously "exams are too easy". Gove denies manipulating or authorising the manipulation of results, saying exam board 'AQA' acted of their own accord. AWA dispute this and say the government had control of the figures. However, what is particularly unfair about this in my opinion, is that papers marked in January (papers taken early by some candidates) have been marked more generously than those marked in June (summer candidates have received mark deductions). This isn't fair as they are from the same academic year. The issue for me is that I was 3 marks off the next grade up. Had I achieved that grade I would have been able to stay on at my Sixth Form, and continue to study as I wanted to. The entry criteria was 10 points, I had 9, and was just the 3 marks off. Needless to say I was pretty annoyed with that, but what can I really do now. It just seems extremely harsh. The number of student passing English has fallen, and people who are borderline C/D or a narrow C, have been knocked down to D's. I have no issue with raising the bar, and the marks required - but to move the goalposts mid-game doesn't seem to encourage a level playing field.

It goes without saying that we have appealed and made complaints, not that it will get us anywhere with the government.

 

Hey, how about as a fun twist we talk exclusively about southampton in this thread

 

That's funny. Reckon we'd get told off for it?

 

Seems to me like the only unfair thing is the January/June difference. Grades had risen every year for god knows how many years so clearly either exams were getting easier or marking was getting more generous. Or kids were getting smarter...

 

I agree that it's fair enough to increase the marks required to achieve the higher grades. That's understandable. There's a total overhaul of the GCSE system ahead (return of O-Levels), and the previous system from a year or so ago has also been changed. We were the first year to go through it. For those who don't know.... Coursework is gone. Due to interfering parents and the like, that no longer exists as such. Instead you have "Controlled Assessments" where you are given the task, and have 4-5 hours for example, to produce your piece for assessment. Almost like in-class coursework I guess. It's done in lessons, so for me, over the course of four one hour lessons. I did about 8 of these over the 2 years and scored well in them. Your best ones are submitted but all are marked by your class teacher. The exam board then requests a selection of written pieces from students in order to provide a "quality check", and to make sure the teacher is marking correctly basically. You do several pieces of writing, fictional and non-fictional, including reviews and motivational speeches amongst others. Then there is also in class "Speaking and Listening" assessments, again, marked by the teacher. However the school placed particular emphasis on the examination results, a bit gutting for me.

But I think it is criminal that they have been allowed to mark one set of exams with one criteria and another in the same subject area with a different criteria.

I was in a school where we were not given the option of taking the English GCSE examinations early, so naturally I think that what has happened is pretty shabby and not fair on some of the GCSE candidates of 2012.

 

So how come you ars all up so late ? I am having trouble sleeping , what's your excuse ?

 

Having lived the last 3 years as a student, I have become accustomed to going to bed at 4am.

 

If some of the older generation got their way, we'd only be able to use an abacus in our Maths exam and we'd have the prospect of having family members murdered if we failed.

 

****ed up sleeping pattern.

 

Amen to the ****ed up sleeping pattern.

 

Oh right . Will let you youngsters get on with it then . TTFN !