31 Jul 2025
As a school/college, you will be focussed on helping your students to get the best grades possible at exam time. But we all know that come results day, some will not have achieved the levels both you and they might have liked or expected.
Is this the right time to see a bigger picture. Is this an opportunity to reflect too on the personal growth that might have been gained? Is exam success more than just grades on paper?
I know grades signify all the hard work that school, staff and students put into exams, and they open doors to so many possibilities. But as we go through results and come to both applaud and commiserate with our students, it is right that we should remind them of all the effort that has been put in, to this point. We want them to see that their grades – at whatever level, still open up options.
Perhaps the trouble lies in the focus on certain grades as the benchmark for their next step. A failure to get there needs them to have a hasty re-think and to make new plans and arrangements.
Maybe we fail to consider the full range of personal attainments that the exam process inevitably leads to.
Think about the independence, work ethic, and responsibilities that self-study encourages. Also:
- the strengths many have shown in writing, presenting, and formulating ideas
- being able to plan and manage their workloads and time through scheduling and deadlines
- the individual resilience that exams have developed
- the reasoning skills
- self-discipline
- personal awareness
- stress management
and no end of other life skills that may have been honed during the exam season.
No-one should ever feel under-valued, or ‘less than’ because they have not managed to get a grade set by an external body.
During the process, should we not be encouraging them to set their own personal goals? To see that the soft outcomes, so popular in the 1980s are as valuable. That a grade only reflects an external opinion, and is no reflection on any individual progress?
Their personal growth during the run into exams includes the development of many essential skills that will carry students beyond school into the next phase of their life. These are the very skills that will help them manage the next life phase that their new grades make possible.
As exam officers, we should be proud of all of this – the attainments in both personal growth and grades. Our work has supported our students to do this.
Without the background planning, registrations and invigilation processes (amongst many others) that we facilitate, our students and our school would not be able to put on such a seamless exam season.
So as results come around, let us find it in us to remind students of ALL the effort that’s gone into the struggle.
Few know of the behind-the-scenes struggles that we manage and overcome every day in order that students can progress towards their exams.
Please take a moment to acknowledge your own, not insignificant part in the emotions you see around you at results time. Recognise YOUR part in the process and give yourself a pat on the back too for managing their, and your emotions in the run-up.
There may be some whose results may not ‘make the grade’ they had hoped for but this should not be seen as a failure.
Celebrate the positives and the progress that has been achieved and remind students that there are always other opportunities and different ways to get where we want to be.
I’m offering Exam Stress CPD Workshops to help schools mentally prepare students for their 2026 exams! Want me to work with you? ‘Back to School’ September Workshops with free bonus resources for all those booked before September 1st. Download CPD workshop details here www.geraldinejozefiak.com/cpd or email me at hello@geraldinejozefiak.com
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