We're failing teens by putting them through the torture of exams

THIS week, thousands of teenagers across Scotland opened exam results feeling the starter gun had fired on their lives or they were out of the race.

- ANNIE BROWN

As torturous experiences go, exams are up there with waterboarding and listening to experimental jazz.

The UK is the only European country to have high-stakes testing at 16 because, although our nation is naff at a lot, it gets an A plus in making kids iserable.

There is so much pressure on today's children to excel in their education, their looks, their wealth, number of Facebook friends, it's a wonder they ever pull back the duvet.

I don't know the answer (which was what I wrote beside "what is x?") but there must be a more humane way of preparing our kids for the world of work.

As someone who passed Latin after a spectacular all-nighter and wouldn't know amas from Xmas, it's also a terrible way to ensure the retention of knowledge.

My friend's daughter would regularly text me before an exam to tell me she would inevitably fail and was destined to live in a bin.

I once found her stretched out, face down in a rug because she was so mentally exhausted and, admittedly, also her favourite on Love Island was voted off.