A level exams have gotten much harder?!!

Personally from my experience and what with my sisters experience of doing a levels just last year, these new a level exams are just sooooo much more difficult than the exams say 4/5/6/7//8/9/10 years ago! this is just sooo unfair and is soo evident in maths and science eams where they just throw in the most random and pointless proof questions or how science eorks questions. futhermore the wording for questions these days are terrible and its difficult to even select wht they are asking especially in th elong winded maths questions personally i feel this is very evident in the wjec exams, anyone agree?

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Reply 1

an_atheist

With a bit more coherence please.
The exams themselves have barely changed in my experience, its just that the mark scheme is more demanding in what it wants to see, and the wording has gotten more flowery for want of a better phrase. You can only ask the same question so many times before yo need to reword it.

Reply 2

username2637499

Some people may disagree
But this year the grade boundaries are ridiculous.

Reply 3

sdotd

its all relative. people would say exams were much harder 30 years ago

Reply 4

G.name

Grade boundaries balance it out. Well at least for this year; teachers/ pupils will adapt to meet the new standards soon, and they will rise again. But this time, we will be producing better thinkers.

Reply 5

mass_

Original post by an_atheist

I think your being quite specific to your exam board seeing as you've began to delve into the depths of mark schemes, which quite frankly most probably isn't the case for the rest of exam boards. Having done exams for both AQA and WJEC I feel i am quite qualified to say this and several members of my family who are now pharmacists and doctors themselves have agreed and said that the exam style has become more difficult in marriage with timing, the new reforms which all contribute to a much more difficult a level. Before you state your opinion next time make sure there's a bit more coherence please. :smile:

Reply 6

an_atheist

Original post by AppleB

Some people may disagree
But this year the grade boundaries are ridiculous.

In which way? Ridiculously high or ridiculously low?

Reply 7

username2637499

Original post by an_atheist

In which way? Ridiculously high or ridiculously low?

Imo they're high this year

Reply 8

mass_

Original post by sdotd

its all relative. people would say exams were much harder 30 years ago

i think you must take into account the actual economy/governmental/academic state of tis generation. 30 years ago going to university wasnt a very popular option, these days due to the schools ideology shifting more towards academia rather than skill based education it means that more and mor epople want to go to university and with the demand of university the way in which alevels are really make it unfair and disadvantaged for this generation

Reply 9

gdunne42

Original post by mass_

I have been teaching A level maths for quite some time and have experience with 3 different examiners. I have no experience of WJEC. While there is and has always been some variation (compensated by adjustments in grade boundaries) the difficultly now is not significantly greater than papers in 2005. Each year examiners find slightly new ways to test familiar topics and every year students claim these are the hardest exams ever. The new reformed Linear A levels are certainly planned to be more rigorous and challenging than the exams they replace. In what way is this unfair? All of the students taking the exams are in the same boat. If the exams are way harder, examiners will reduce the grade boundaries to ensure a similar profile of exam outcomes.

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(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 10

an_atheist

Original post by AppleB

Imo they're high this year

How high?

Reply 11

TheonlyMrsHolmes

I remember when I looked at past papers from 2006/ 2007/ 2008 and the questions on them were so simple, almost GCSE style. I would definitely agree A-levels have gotten harder over the years.

Reply 12

mass_

Original post by gdunne42

Listen up fam, i get what your saying and respect your opinion and all that but what you said about the fact that examiners just ask different questions on a particular topi is very true, but the point your missing is now as apposed to like 5 years ago (i stress this next bit) particularly in WJEC the actual maths style has changed, proof is soo much more common and all the topics which students struggled with most are much more prevalent, and in our board many topics in the as level maths which were present say 6 years ago are now part of the gcse course, explain that xo

Reply 13

mass_

Original post by TheonlyMrsHolmes

I remember when I looked at past papers from 2006/ 2007/ 2008 and the questions on them were so simple, almost GCSE style. I would definitely agree A-levels have gotten harder over the years.

exactly, there seems to be a huge transition now between gcses and levels whilst back then the transition was acually bareable with a lot of overlap between the two courses!

Reply 14

mass_

Original post by Mathemagicien

No they haven't?!!

JUSTIFY YOUR OPINION PLEASE, results day is around the corner so I need a good laugh anyway hunny xo

Reply 15

Siberiaan

41 or something for an A in the new spec paper , da***

Reply 16

mass_

Original post by Mathemagicien

OMG LIKE GET OFF MY CASE, results day is around the corner so I cant deal with this hunny xo

FAM GOOD LUCK WITH getting ur results for exams that u think are easy , thanks for the laugh hunny xo

Reply 17

Niyi Aderounmu

I wish I was born earlier. Lol

Reply 18

TheonlyMrsHolmes

Original post by mass_

Lol I just love the way you wrote that all out! XD

I agree about the transition, it's like going from learning your A B C's to being thrown an Oxford Dictionary and being made to memorise every single page. That is how I see it anyway...