IT USED to be a year for personal development. GCSEs were a distant memory and gone were the shackles of school uniforms and strict timetables. But, instead of those carefree days in the lower sixth form, days spent adjusting to advanced levels of learning, taking on extra sports activities and new pursuits, there is now a culture of exams, exams and more exams.

Anna Saxby and her friends thought college would be more fun than school with less rigidity to their timetables. They would at last be in charge of their own studies, narrowing down their options for an eventual specialism at university.

But instead, Anna and fellow 17-year-old students at Darlington's Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College, Laura Howard, Ashley Robinson and Mary-Jane Hamilton, have found the work piling on and the pressure increasing.

Anna explains: "It depends on what type of person you are as to how you cope. You have to think the year will go quite quickly, it's just a stepping stone, and everyone says that, at university, it gets better.

"When I first heard about the AS levels, I thought they were a good idea, it meant you didn't have to narrow your options, but there's too much information to take in. You don't feel that you're achieving what you could because you've got so much on you can't concentrate."

AS levels were introduced last September under the Government's Curriculum 2000 reforms in an attempt to give students more variety in their A level studies.

AS levels - a half-way house between GCSE and A levels - can add up to university points, but students usually go on to a second year of study for their A2s. Pupils take between four and five one-year AS levels before narrowing their choice to three or four in the upper sixth. Students also take Key Skills exams in communication, application of number and information and communication technology (ICT).

If they fail their AS levels or want to improve their grades, they can also re-sit them in January. Before they take their A2s in the summer that is. It is this "exam factory" mentality - with pupils now sitting public exams at 11, 14, 16, 17 and 18 - that parents feel is putting constant pressure on their children.

Mary Ledger's son Nick, 16, attends an independent school in the region. He is taking three AS levels - business studies, geography and art, plus a GCSE in Christian theology. On Friday, he had to sit his Christian theology and two business study exams in succession, in total lasting more than three hours, so they could be squeezed into the timetable.

"He said he had terrible cramp and I know some of the boys had blisters on their fingers," says Mary, who lives in Durham. "When he was very worried and anxious about it, he said 'I don't have time to live' and I thought that was quite a telling comment. I feel that they have worked hard for their GCSEs and they need to give their bodies chance to recover. Not only does it put excessive pressure on the students, but it also does on the teachers and the schools."

Exam clashes have caused a constant headache for schools. Dennis Richards, headteacher of St Aidan's High School in Harrogate, says staff have been forced to deal with 109 exam clashes.

"The big difference is exams happening in the lower sixth as well as the upper sixth," says Mr Richards. "What we've had to do before has been doubled. But we've coped by supervising youngsters at lunchtime who've had a clash in the morning and by supervising about half a dozen overnight where necessary."

Darlington student Laura Howard found she had to take a number of exams straight after each other because of time-table clashes.

"I had to revise for so many subjects in such a short space of time," she says. "At lunchtime I couldn't go home and relax and I didn't get very long between exams. The staff were really good about it but I think they were feeling the pressure as well. I think it's difficult having to do AS and Key Skills at the same time. If they'd introduced them separately, it may have worked out better."

David Heaton, principal of Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College in Darlington, says headteachers are also concerned whether there will be enough examiners of sufficient calibre and if the AS results will be out in time.

"The exam boards are under huge pressure because their load has literally more than doubled. There have been multiple exam clashes which is a problem for the students and an administrative headache for the colleges," he says. "Normally, we can get most of our students doing A levels in three halls but one day last week we needed all of those and another 20-odd classrooms.

"Students are having to study more and work harder and there's more pressure on the staff. There is definitely greater breadth in the programme of study (with AS levels) but there needs to be a more balanced and reasoned look at the changes."

Now that new Education and Skills Secretary Estelle Morris has announced an urgent review into the sixth form exams, following an admission from their architect Nick Tate, then head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), that he'd got it wrong, schools and colleges hope the problems will be tackled.

But Ms Morris has stressed she remains committed to the fundamental reforms, stating although "everything is not yet right", the new qualification will retain its rigour while not placing "unreasonable burdens on students, schools or colleges".

A report is expected next month. By then, the resilient young students sitting with Anna Saxby in her Darlington garden will be already thinking about their A2s. For them, even an urgent Government review has not come quickly enough. Mary-Jane says: "I think things will get better. I think they realise we've had hassle from it, but that's no consolation for us, it's too late."