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Exam Season: The 8-Week Countdown

By Alexis Westlake, British International School of Houston, School Buzz Reporter | May 4, 2022

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BIS Houston student, Liam W., studying for his Midcourse Assessments.

As BIS Houston’s students slowly get back to school life after our half-term break, students in year 11 and 13 are having to get themselves prepared and ready for the exam season.

The year 11s have 8 weeks until their iGCSE and GCSE Edexcel exams begin after the Easter break and each one of them is feeling their own form of anxiety, nerves or even excitement for it to end. Every student must take seven subjects, in which they all have their own number of exams that come with it. For example, those taking triple science will need to complete nine exams, three in each science (Biology, Chemistry, and Physics), whereas math only requires two. No matter how many subjects or exams one must take though, they will all be stressful. Especially because they do not span over only a couple of weeks.

Due to the exam schedule having to be in line with the UK’s exam schedule, the exams will spread over 6-7 weeks. Now although this may seem more reasonable and even beneficial, it could also be more stressful as you have to continuously study with few breaks until the exam season is over. Additionally, to add to those nerves, one doesn’t truly get to relax before going back to school after the summer holidays and being thrown into the IB curriculum. This is because all exams must be sent to UK to be moderated by the exam board, so you do not receive your results until late August.

However, there is a similar fate for BIS Houston’s IB students taking their IB examinations after the Easter holidays. It is laid out in a similar way however the exams are over a shorter period of weeks since they are marked and moderated in the US and do not need to be aligned with another institution’s exam schedule. This also means that the IB students get freedom from school a little sooner than the year 11s and rest of the school. Once their exams are over, the year 13 students are no longer required to come to school, unless it is for collegiate reasons or graduation practice and the final ceremony. Nonetheless, they too have the gruelling time of wait for their results that don’t get sent out until mid-July.

Either way, no matter if you’re gearing up to do your exams in year 11 or year 13 in the next 8 weeks, wishing you the best of luck.