Do you know your counties from your countries?

How good's your Geography of the UK? More to the point, can you locate the counties of England on a map?

Well, can you? Follow this link to find out...

SATs - Stress About Tests

A little controversy for a Tuesday night.

According to last week's TES, an online survey has revealed that many parents believe SATs cause too much stress in children and that they also have little or no confidence in the abilities of their children’s teachers.

Now - putting the SATs thing to one side for a moment - as a teacher and the parent of a child at school, I immediately feel very defensive about such a finding. But the fact remains that many parents do perceive teachers in this way, which is as much a damning comment about the image of education in this country as it is about any particular teacher's ability to do the job.

And certainly exams will always bring with them a certain amount of anxiety but the important thing is to learn to manage this stress. I suspect that some of those parents who think that SATs are too stressful for children are also the ones worrying about how their children will fair and so impose their own anxieties onto their children, making the whole thing a self-fulfilling prophecy.

To read more about this topic click here. To find a simple solution to exam stress, click here, and take with a warm drink at bedtime.

A-levels: are they getting easier, or are students getting smarter?

The A-level results for 2008 were published on Thursday and, once again, show that more exams were passed than ever before - with more students achieving grade As.

This seems to be a common occurrence in recent years and instantly provokes comments that exams are getting easier, whilst the poor A-level students are wanting to celebrate their fabulous achievements.

But the question remains: are exams getting easier, or is the teaching and learning that's taking place becoming more effective?

A top Welsh academic last night hit back at A-level critics by saying this year’s exam questions were as hard now as when he sat his exams in 1961. But at the same time it was reported that the Maths department at Warwick University are getting prospective students to sit an extra exam to rate their mathematical ability.

And so the debate rages on. To read what Mary Bousted has to say in the Independent, click here. To read about how the introduction of diplomas as an alternative to A-levels next year will help give students a broader range of skills, click here. And to read about how the A-level pass rate now tops 97%, click here.

What do you think? Are you the parent of an A-level student? Are you a celebrating examinee yourself? Or are you preparing to take A-levels in the next year or so? Whoever you are, why not have your say here?

But, for now, congratulations to everyone who's celebrating exam success this summer.

Match Wits with your 11 year-old self

As has been reported elsewhere, Match Wits with the Kids is not the only book out at the moment that reminds parents of what they once knew. But now a new book of exam questions taken from the old-style 11-plus exam has begged the seemingly perennial question - are exams getting easier?

You can read more about The Eleven-Plus Book: Genuine Exam Questions From Yesteryear here, and try out a some of the questions from the test for yourself here. Do you think exams are getting easier? Do you think that teachers should make a return to the teaching methods they used when you were at school? Let us know how you get on and have your say on the matter here.