In May 2009, the first report as chair of Ofqual by the former chief exams regulator, Kathleen Tattersall, said: "New national qualifications should not be introduced without first being piloted in full and modified as necessary.
IMGs now take the same medical knowledge examination as USMGs (the USMLE), must all pass a standardized language exam (TOEFL or the former ECFMG English test), and must travel to the U.S. to prove their history and physical exam abilities (ECFMG CSA [clinical skills assessment]).
The school is following the philosophy advocated in the seminal inquiry into exams by former chief schools inspector, Sir Mike Tomlinson, (which was never implemented in full) that the curriculum should be "stage not age", ie pupils should tackle subjects when they are ready for them, rather than at some pre-determined age.
Yet, even as this batch of former fighters took their exams in December, Nigeria's army was battling fresh militant camps in nearby Delta state.Depressingly for Mr Jonathan, new rebel leaders have been springing up to replace an old guard bought off in the amnesty of 2009.
Mark Dawe, former head of an exam board and chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: "This is evidence enough that hitting students over the head with the same form of learning and assessment is not the way forward".
It's just over two weeks to go now until 15 August, when sixth-formers get their exam results.
A former critic of high-stakes exams, he came to embrace standardized testing as an important tool to evaluate students.
Like thousands of other students across the city, he did not do well on the sixth-grade math and reading exams at his former school, P.S. 125.
Last year, former Education Secretary Baroness Estelle Morris suggested the exams should be scrapped and replaced with new tests at age 14.
The exam industry exploded under the former Labour government, with a multitude of different exams being introduced at staggered times in the academic year.
