The latest social media monster has arrived and is rearing its ugly head, this time in the form of the “online tutor exam guru”.
Over the past couple of years, there has been a boom in online tutoring videos, with some real gems helping teachers and students alike in preparing for GCSEs.
This year, however, things are very different. A quick scroll on my social media feed brings up a slew of so-called experts claiming to have the answer to a grade 9 essay, a leaked set of topics or even a guarantee on how to get full marks in Year 6 Sats. And it’s immediately clear just how damaging these videos can be.
TikTok exam advice
I opened TikTok on Sunday evening for a quick scroll and was almost immediately confronted with an overwhelming number of videos claiming they could teach me how to get full marks on the next day’s GCSE English literature paper one.
Video after video flashed up, making impossible claims about exam content and proposing that certain linguistic phrases (that I didn’t come across until the second year of my degree) would “guarantee a 9”.
Most worryingly, I also saw a mocked-up exam paper with this year’s dates on, which had had more than 28,000 likes.
These videos have extremely damaging consequences.
There have been reports in the past week of students hyperventilating over the belief that an obscure character or source would be the focus of an exam after coming across a video, and others who have been sorely disappointed when focusing revision only on what an online tutoring video claimed would be on the exam.
So, what can we do to help our students navigate this deluge of misleading “help”?
You can’t stop them going on their phones, but you can remind them about what really matters and warn them about the dangers of what they see online. We need to recognise the threat, take it seriously and be vigilant about when and how our students are using online resources.
In my department, teachers all delivered the same message: gently reminding students that the only way they can truly prepare for the exams is by knowing the texts really well, remembering taught essay structures and taking time to plan and review answers.
Misguided advice
We were explicit that students needed to step away from social media and look at the resources we had prepared with them.
Short of setting up our own channels to counter the spurious work of online creators, this is all we can really do.
It’s incredibly frustrating that there are content creators out there who are sharing at best misguided advice, and at worst incorrect or falsified information, simply to garner likes.
It’s really unfair on already anxious students that they are exposed to this content that causes so much worry. But as the online world continues to mesh ever further with our real lives, it is another issue we must be vigilant about.
Laura May Rowlands is head of English in a secondary school in Hampshire
For the latest research, pedagogy and practical classroom advice delivered directly to your inbox every week, sign up to our Teaching Essentials newsletter
