Apparently there are teachers that don’t show GCSE students exam papers.
Others leave it until ‘revision’ at the end of year 11.
Some show them parts of a paper but never a whole paper.
I have no shame in saying I teach to the test. I’ve blogged on it before. Not only am I not ashamed to admit this, I propose that if you don’t show them exam papers during the GCSE course you are doing them a disservice. My year 10s could sit a whole paper now and would know what they need to do (they would just lack the content).
We can’t change the fact that they have an exam. We can debate as much as we like whether testing in this way is an effective method of assessing knowledge and understanding but to ignore the fact that they will sit an exam, in my eye, is almost unprofessional.
I liken it to entering a student for a 200m swimming race and they’ve never swum 200m in any training session.
Why would you do that?
missdcoxblog 
Is preparing students for an exam what ‘teaching to the test’ means? I thought it meant teaching only the material likely to crop up in an exam and nothing else.
They do it to prove that they are better people than you or me. That they care for the “person” and not just their grades.
That innocent students have their results, and hence prospects, damaged in the process is a necessary cost in proving how righteous they are.
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