How students missing exams in pandemic felt 'stressed and alone'

For most students getting A-level results this week, their first set of formal exams followed almost three years of disrupted education.

Part way through their time in Year 11 the coronavirus pandemic hit and schools were closed as part of national lockdowns.

Their GCSE exams were cancelled and further school closures affected their learning up to 2021 and in some case into 2022.

This meant that for many, A-levels this year were their first experience of sitting formal exams.

The impacts on Covid-affected students differed depending on where they lived and how their schools and families could cope with the many challenges of the pandemic.

But one thing is clear - these students did not have a normal school experience.

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Diya from Leicester said home learning during the pandemic meant "Year 12 virtually didn't exist".

Covid took away the "full college experience", she said, adding that at the start of Year 13 she did not know her whole way around the school.

The 18-year-old is going to study at Nottingham Trent University and said her college prepared well for her A-levels with mocks, but sitting the exams was still a "scary experience".

Diya admitted that missing out on GCSE exams left her feeling "deflated".

Remembering the day she found out the news that GCSEs were being cancelled in 2020, she said: "I think I started crying and thought what was the use of all this work."

The basic everyday task of getting to school also became more difficult during the pandemic when there were capacity restrictions and limited services on buses.

"I cannot express how poor it was", she said, explaining that some students struggled to get to and from college.

For Diya - who will be studying interior architecture and design - this meant that in some ways she preferred home learning because she saved a lot of time travelling and realised how much support was online.

Learning online took a mental toll, however, and made it "hard" to get to know classmates.

Teachers were available on email but learning in person "is so much more impactful", she added.

Only going into school two days a week during the pandemic was a "massive disadvantage", according to Ben, who is going to study human geography at Lancaster University.

The 18-year-old from Derby said that at first he joked with friends who were attending school full-time that it was "nice being at home", but "now looking back I wish I had been at school learning properly".

It made a "massive difference in how I remembered content", he said, adding that he found it easier to remember lessons taught when he was in college full-time.

"It was really hard to revise the content from year one" but he said his second year in sixth form was a "completely different experience". "That was the strongest I felt with exam content."

Ben said online learning at home also made it "hard" to interact with his teachers and he felt the support on offer "wasn't enough".

Taking A-level exams, he said, "I don't think I realised how scared I should have been".

Whereas he thinks he would have been "fine" if he had taken his GCSEs in 2020.

After studying at home, 18-year-old West Bromwich student Praise said she was "ecstatic" to hear students were returning to school as lockdowns ended.

Home learning had been "hard", making it tougher to connect with teachers.

Her college was supportive but her previous routine at school was "all of a sudden obstructed" during the pandemic.

As a result of her GCSEs being cancelled, Praise said she was "praying" her A-levels would not go the same way.

She said she had felt prepared with mocks, but it was "quite difficult" taking the exams without the practice of GCSEs and by her third paper she "really felt the tension".

"If I was born three years earlier and had a normal school year I would have felt more confident going into [A-level] exams."

"Covid caused a lot of disruption", said Praise, who is hoping to study to become a nurse with the RAF.

She also said she felt it was the "wrong time" for grades to be lowered to be closer to the marks in 2019, explaining how badly her year group was impacted by Covid.

"I know they're trying to get things back to normal, but it was not the right time to do it."

"We had sat mocks beforehand" but it was the "emotional side" of taking A-levels that Abi says she did not know how to deal with.

People in her class became closer because they "were all in the same boat" of going through something they had never experienced before.

Despite describing herself as an independent learner, the 18-year-old from West Bromwich said studying at home during the pandemic had been "difficult to get used to"

She felt "isolated" from the classroom, had less contact with her teachers and struggled to stay motivated.

"Being alone was quite difficult", added the A-level student who is hoping to do a degree level apprenticeship.

She also said it was confusing being told her GCSE exams were cancelled and a "hard experience" too because of all the work she had already put in.