Queensland Studies Authority Reviews

after pulling out those Macbeth questions they deserve no stars, but the cafe here has good coffee

you deserve 0 stars. your assessments are not a true representation on what us grade 12 students have been taught. you have achieved nothing except have hundreds of the class of 2020 end up with severely poor mental health, resulting in anxiety and depression. shame on you, you clearly do not have the students best interests at heart.

The implementation of the new system was rushed, and neither teachers nor students were fully prepared. There should have been more QCAA mock exams provided, since past exams don't apply. Would rate a 0/5 for academic trauma.

My recommendation is to just drop out in year 10 to save the severe anxiety and depressing states you will experience while going through this train wreck of an ATAR system. so far the highlight of my life will be leaving this terrible system behind.

quit it with these stupid PDF files, they are ridiculous.
absolutely horrible.
ridiculous.

Made me want to die. Childhood is gone. happiness is gone. hope for the future is gone. nothing but pain and tears. would not recommend.

Way too strict on limitations and terrible examples of assessments. 'A' standard isn't even 'A' standard!

everyone who thought the english exam question would be on a main theme or character =

Really stitched me up in business, thought it was a unit 4 exam... power interest grids

Hands down, THE worst management team on planet earth. Complete disrespect or care for humans. Complete incompetence. Avoid at all costs.

I'm seeing a lot of negative reviews and I want to disagree, but its mostly true unfortunately lol

Using a different style of marking guide for the external exams without any kind of consultation or warning for students until mock exams 4 weeks out from externals was an extremely inconsiderate call and shows that the QCAA does not prioritise the success of students.

It's been nearly twelve months and this Government "organisation" has done NOTHING to address the biblically accurate angels crowded outside the Springfield Lakes IGA.

Thank you QCAA for the lovely graduation gift , I won t be forgetting the depression that you have gifted me anytime soon , so thoughtful.

Worst exemplars ever. What they think is 25/25 is realistically 18-20/25.

what the flying hell was that english exam. MACDUFF?? YOUVE BEEN TELLING US FOR TWO YEARS TO PREP FOR AMBITION AND LADY MACBETH QUESTIONS. this isn t fair. lower the pass rate. WHY would you change the system suddenly with zero space to acclimate students. you have ruined my senior years. i haven t felt peace since grade 10.

If you are going to make externals that hard at least give us mocks the same difficulty level. Particularly for the maths exams (specialist very much so) were 10x harder than the mocks and had one of the smartest girls in my grade crying. Not to mention those Macbeth questions... Hard work seems pointless.

Why don t the public and school mock papers resemble the actual exam? I am really disappointed and offended

They claim that they want to see us succeed yet the exams they write and their decisions say otherwise. Worst experience I ve had in my schooling career. These people have destroyed education. Learning new things was meant to be joyful, QCAA obviously don t think that.

honestly can't even give them a 1 star.
Changing the syllabus would have been fine, but the way they implemented the change was horrible. we have been brought up doing the OP system our whole high school life, and then all of a sudden in our senior we are getting tested is a completely different way. Putting thousands of kids, who have no idea how to study into massive external exams, which tests bulks of knowledge, may not be the best way to do it.

Has definitely ruined a large portion of seniors lives this year. >:0

Unbelievable that a group this incompetent has been tasked with managing the education of the children of an entire state. Their mismanagement of the first few cohorts of students under the ATAR system has been the cause of declining mental health in our state and as we will soon see, a drastic decline in final results. Pathetic.

Cheers for the anxiety and depression and making me feel worthless

QCAA making promises and failing to deliver since their beginning. How is it, with so much time given to people writing, moderating and approving the assessments, that they have failed to be relevant to the curriculum, failed to compare to the mock exams, and effectively caused a state wide graduating class to be in a constant state of depression, anxiety and feeling of failure.

An organisation focused more on following policies and procedures then actually making Year 12 students feel supported and able to effectively complete their schooling. Give out external exams questions based on nothing previously practiced or implemented in the classroom. Y'all can't sleep when there's monsters nearby.

Currently sititng in class, preparing for my math methods exam. Will do ANYTHING for answers. hmu @charles.churchward

Honestly If i could give less than one star I would. External exams seems like they have been set up for 2020 year 12 students to fail. Exam questions were irrelevant and completely deviates from the significant part of the topics. Considering Year 12 students are literally the guinea pigs for this new system where a whole years worth of knowledge is being assessed they should ve at least shown some compassion and actually write the exams in a way that will give a lot of students a more chance of success.

A poor example of an 'education system, setting up kids to fail and then wondering why suicide rates are so high. Teachers aren't allowed to share practise exam answers which is stupid because there's no other way to learn other than knowing the answers. Pathetic excuse of a curriculum.

As a Year 10 student, I believe the management of assessments and student feedback is to be frank, woeful. Certainly, they have a lot to learn from other nations when it comes to education. Same could be said about this matter federally. Needs a total revamp.

Yeah sorry all they care about is statistics not the actual education of they're students.

QCAA needs to explain why exams for Maths/Science subjects are spread out, while HASS subjects are generally not.

Also, why are marks for assessment items rounded down and then in some cases rounded down again when the results are tallied and scored?

PS Some of the sample assessment pieces had errors in them

Your tactless implementation of this new system has destroyed my mental health, and that of the people around me. There was a time that every day for about a month, I would have really awful panic attacks before coming to school because I couldn't cope with the sudden change of the system. I can't even bring myself to study anymore. You have destroyed the joy I used to feel from learning. And those Macbeth questions? Why on earth would I study when the questions will be irrelevant to what you prepared us for? At least make the mocks have some kind of relevance to what the actual exam would be. You sent us in the entirely wrong track, and then you made it so we couldn't bring a book into the exam, despite that being the opposite of what we were taught for the past 12 years. Thank you for being so tactless, you have really fixed Queensland's education problem, haven't you? Thank you for destroying my high schooling years. You've really made a cohort of students peak in 10th grade. Truly inspirational.

As a parent of a 2020 graduating student I have witnessed the decline in her mental health, and subsequent decline in physical health. Whilst the majority of her School has been supportive, those focused purely on academia have failed time and time again to acknowledge the impact the events the last two years, and in particular 2020, have had on the 2020 Year 12 cohort. With feedback coming out on the External Exams, it has become abundantly clear that absolutely no consideration was given to these students as individuals - young adults doing their best in exceptionally trying times. No - the external exams have proven that Academia rule at their worst, at the very worst of times.

I was happy once, when the QCAA decided to change everything it made me depressed. so thanks I guess.

Dear QCAA
You make everything hurt even more than it has to.
PS, who ever wrote the Macbeth questions I'm coming for you and your family.

I hope you sleep well knowing you ve screwed over an entire graduating class with your disregard for student perspective. Your incredibly flawed move to a new system couldn t have been executed any worse, successfully driving state wide anxiety in the vast majority of students.

I... I remember a time when I could smile... It seems... so long ago...

literally hope they realise that they've made all the year 12s in 2020 feel worthless and hopeless

They have no reason to make the external exams so distant from the mock exams, especially after the circumstances this year

Worst meal I've eaten in a long time. My barcode sticker was probably the highlight, the staples being the real drag in both flavour and texture. The rules they enforce are rather bizarre, making me put my drink on the floor and carry my belongings in a plastic bag like I'm some kind of terrorist. The staff are lacklustre to say the least, with planning, response and the occasional stimulus or formula booklet, this three course meal is a real let down.

This curriculum was implemented too quickly and has ruined the mental health of year 12 students!!

Had I been able to leave 0stars I would. We love the messed up Macbeth questions on the EA which didn't follow what we've been taught all year and the general math questions that are on par with extension math. Thank you Qcaa you truly gave me another reason to die soon

One star for the physics department, the rest worth no star.

I don't get what everyone is saying is so bad about it. I love having my future tossed around and basically none of my teachers, let alone me know what's really happening. It's great fun 10/10 Thank You For A Great 2 Years Miss Welton

You know, I would be afraid that somehow QCAA will track me down and make sure I go to TAFE for this 1 star rating. But after sitting the exams I'm pretty sure TAFE is where I'm headed.

Somehow they think that 1 mole of any gas at STP will occupy 27L WHICH IS SOOOO WRONG, I got a chem test wrong because of this THANKS QCAA

they have written the poorest excuse of a curriculum on this planet. thanks for giving me crippling anxiety and making me have no future

Would not recommend, typical government organisation who over-promises and under-delivers. Poor communication and pathetic curriculum. Personally what a waste of two years, TAFE is a better option.

The QCAA system has been nothing but vague and has lacked ANY form of clarity to students and teachers
The spreading out of the externals also strike me. Does it really make sense that someone who has all 6 exams in the first week will perform as well as someone who has their exams liberally spread out in the 4 weeks?

A flawed confusing system that was implemented in a dodgy manner. Impossible and irrelevant questions on all the exams because they love to see us fail and go nowhere in life. They aren t setting us up for success rather setting us up for failure. Can t wait to see how harshly they mark everything when it s actually written well. Thanks for all the sleepless nights, the anxiety and depression and fear over these exams. I bet you get pleasure from seeing us suffer. Considering we had to deal with Covid-19 this year, they really have no sympathy whatsoever. Thanks for nothing guys.

I wish I could give a score less than 1 star. From what I have seen, heard and experienced QCAA and their method of implementation of the new ATAR system is simply appalling. The exemplars for their ideal assessment that was not reflective of their confusing marking scheme. What QCAA deemed to be 20/20 or perfect marks is seen to be a C exemplar at our school's standards. Yet, when the assessments came back from QCAA for moderation, marks went down by 3~5 not on the IA1 but the IA2 instead. From the IA1, teachers thought their interpretation of the ISMG was correct. This is indicative of how poorly managed the schooling system is. It is in fact, not a flaw in the ATAR system itself but rather the people behind the scenes. It is not an excuse to say that 2020 is an unfortunate year as many students - who will lead this country - depend on their ATAR scores which determines their future. Calling the 2020 year 12 students as guinea pigs and only seeing us as test subjects to this already-flawed system is not just and equitable. I hope reading this and other review on here will help the authorities understand how disjointed this is especially for the grade 12.

Ah, QCAA. They re incompetent. They make life despondent. They change their minds every day. Not good at anything in any way. They don t listen to anyone s feedback. Their external exam questions are all out of whack. Rewriting the syllabus a million times. But its QCAA, are we even surprised?

Oh QCAA, you've done the whole of Queensland Year 12's dirty for the past two years. Incredibly petty with marks as well for the confirmation process. And about today's ENGLISH exam questions? Uh what? In the grand scheme of the play, Macduff's FAMILY is irrelevant babe. And the questions for Orwell's 1984 were written terribly, as were all the others. Sad sad sad.

Can't write relevant General English external exam questions!!!

i hope you sleep well knowing you ve screwed over an entire graduating class with your disregard for student perspective. your incredibly flawed move to a new system couldn t have been executed any worse, successfully driving state wide anxiety in the vast majority of students. p.s the questions for the general english exam regarding macbeth could not have been more irrelevant xx

Gave me crippling nicotine and alcohol addiction, would recommend

How do you sleep at night knowing what you have done :( every night I cry and every day I wait for another setback from the QCAA.

exams made no sense, study was useless. internal was fine but the externals were nothing like we were learning or told to study. Absolute joke of a education

Would recommend avoiding at all costs. Move out of the state if need be. They had two years to make sure everything was going to ensure we students had a chance of passing, however with only a few weeks before exams we were told that they weren't happy with the science practice exams and basically said that the final exams wouldn't look anything like them in content and how they look. Thanks for doing us such a massive favour QCAA.

Idk about anyone else but the food here is awful. Yeah when you sit down to eat your name is on the table but the food, it tastes like paper at best. Worst of all the waiters have a complete disregard for food safety standards especially as we are in a global pandemic they serve food without plates. Like with their hands!!! Its fowl and i think this establishment should be shut down.

Don't blame QCAA for your misfortune. It was all Liam Goodwin's fault.

I have felt personally attacked by QCAA; throughout my senior education. QCAA should send me a free subscription to a therapist.

Do not recommend
1/5 stars.

An organisation run by people who clearly failed at teaching

Love what they have done for us, they were really generous and gave everyone anxiety and depression! What more could we ask for? Quite frankly I believe this was done perfectly with no problems whatsoever. All we need now is for an entire grade of students to graduate with a >30 atar and the year will be amazing!

absolutely horrific - the fact that all the maths marks for SCALED DOWN.... SCALED DOWN??!!
terrible - methods exams were shocking, too hard and no consideration that we are actual humans with lives and not robots who study 24/7? sorry but the system supposed to save queensland education is really doing the opposite x