Taking the Michael

This is the bloke Meddling and Interfering in the lives of children! Why?
He has No Knowledge of Education practice. He's never had any professional educational training yet he's been let loose on the exam system.
"Michael has been MP since 2005. He is an active local campaigner, having run vital projects to protect the local environment, improve public transport and help police deal with anti-social behaviour. Michael worked as a journalist before entering into politics."

Reading newspaper reports this morning has made me annoyed.

From the Independent
There would be an "all-or-nothing" three-hour exam at the end of the course – and pupils would no longer be able to take resits of each module of the exam to bump up their grades. In future, they will resit the entire exam or nothing. In addition, there will be no more modules or continuous assessment of pupils throughout the course period. 

Another example of ministerial ignorance.

I did Ordinary and Advanced Level exams. I taught 'O' level and CSE; endured the change-over to GCSE. It took months of meetings and training sessions before GCSE was implemented. 

Further on in the Independent article it shows that the Dem part of the ConDem partnership is similarly delusional.
Sources close to Nick Clegg said last night the new exam would be taken by 95 per cent of the age cohort. It was described as "a reform to raise the bar but not shut the door".

Obviously these folk have no knowledge of the real world and each lives in a cozy self-fulfilling bubble.

So I did a little search and came across some questions from the 
Wales Educational Trust (Yorks) 1910 - typical paper for 10-11 years of age.

What is the total cost of 19 bags of Whole Meal at 10 1/2d per bag and a side of bacon weighing 65lbs at 10 1/2d per lb?

Postcards already stamped can be bought at the rate of 11 for 6d. Similarly postcards, unstamped can be bought at the rate of 25 for 1d.
Which is cheaper to buy, postcards already stamped or postcards and stamps separately?

If 3cwt, 3qrs, 21lbs of tea can be weighed into equal packets each containing an exact number of pounds, what is the greatest number of packets which may so be made as each packet contains more than one pound?

I must admit that reading those questions brought back memories of sitting the 11+ exam.

Those were the days before metrication when money came in farthings, halfpennies, pennies,  tuppences, three-penny bits, sixpences, shillings, two-bob bits (florin), half-crowns and that was just the 'shrapnel'.

Another example of 1910 school scholarship questions.