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Whats the Easiest Non Black List A level?

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Original post by IrrationalRoot
Your argument is absolutely correct. Maths is objectively the easiest subject at A-Level. With how ridiculously predictable the questions are and how algorithmic the methods are, you really need to be doing something terribly wrong not to get an A after working very hard (doing all the past papers etc.). You definitely don't need natural ability in maths.
All is required is that you learn the formulaic methods for each topic, practice lots of questions and you're fine. Understanding some of the material may help as well, but it's probably not even essential.
What about the few odd questions that require a student to be intuitive? Will the students that just practice the way to answer the standard questions that come up each year do well? This is evident in AQA C3 where unprecedented questions were given to them to answer. As a result the grade boundary for an A* was 53/75 raw marks. The best problem solvers will be intuitive and answer the questions correctly.
Original post by Dynamic_Vicz
What about the few odd questions that require a student to be intuitive? Will the students that just practice the way to answer the standard questions that come up each year do well? This is evident in AQA C3 where unprecedented questions were given to them to answer. As a result the grade boundary for an A* was 53/75 raw marks. The best problem solvers will be intuitive and answer the questions correctly.


Those few odd questions that come up on more recent papers differentiate between the A candidates and the A*/100 UMS candidates.
Even then, if any effort is put in to actually understand the content, these questions shouldn't be particularly problematic either.
Original post by Mvpmb
So Not general studies/citizenship?


Original post by Abstract_Prism
So what you're saying is that Maths students are naturally of a higher caliber and work at a higher proficiency, than students of any other subject. That students who take Maths are naturally better at Maths.

That's ridiculous, and you can look at all the other subjects to prove it.
...


Researchers have "done the maths" to answer this question:

www.score-education.org/media/3194/relativedifficulty.pdf

Zoom to figure 1 for a nice summary.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/official-some-a-level-subjects-are-harder-than-others-857643.html

The sciences and further maths are the hardest - along with general studies(!).

Maths turns out to be medium difficulty subject.

The easiest traditional one would be English lit (not counting art and drama).
Reply 43
Original post by Mvpmb
So Not general studies/citizenship?


What's a blacklist A level? The ones that some unis don't accept? I did Critical Thinking and got into uni but I think that's one that some unis wouldn't accept. Is this what you mean?

Whoever said philosophy is easy I'd definitely disagree with that. I'd say media studies is one of the easiest. But perhaps this counts as a blacklist subject. Like I say I need it defining to me haha
If you're naturally talented, Maths and English literature are very easy - you learn the technique and get down to it. Little memorising, but a lot of intuition and a good mind frame. It really comes down to the person. A hard-working person would find economics or history easy as it's more about doing essays over and over again and knowing data. Some people find languages very easy.
I personally found Physics A level very very easy - I had to work much harder for Chemistry and Further Maths, but I enjoyed them a lot more in the end; and I consider myself good at languages.
Original post by Abstract_Prism
This is a ridiculous argument. What, so everyone who takes Maths is smart?

Absolute nonsense. Maths is an easy subject. The syllabus has remained the same for over a decade. All you have to do is go through past papers and you have an easy A.

No, it's true. Your logic is poor. If you're right, then why doesn't English or any other subject have such a high number of students getting top grades? Because it's those who are proficient in English who are taking it, as it is with every other subject. Yet only Maths and other STEM subjects have so many students getting top grades

The problem is with the subject.

As if Maths students are the only students who are more proficient in their subject and that's why they all get high grades. That's bloody hilarious. Actually, it isn't, because it reeks of STEM elitism, and it's wrong. It's just incorrect.


I know you think their post is 'elitist' but actually there's some truth to their post seeing as most people who succeed in A level maths have achieved at least a B in their GCSE. This is the same as with the example of English you quite rightly pointed out but there is a key difference which I will come onto. I have no idea what kind of high school you attended and I wouldn't like to make assumptions but at least in the school I went to, half of the class dropped A level maths for A2 because they ended up finding it too hard. It might seem 'easy' to you and I but then again I took STEP I/II a few years back so obviously that's the case (and TSR is disproportionately full of mathematicians). Actually, I'm curious, how do you explain 60% of further maths students getting an A/A*? Or do you just think that's an anomaly?

To my main point: drawing comparisons with English or History or other humanities is not a good idea. Remember that English exams are marked subjectively every year and as such very bright students end up, sometimes, with C's or D's in their exams in spite of being very intelligent and getting high marks in their coursework (I know this from personal experience as people in my family are English teachers). You might be right that people who are proficient in English take English, but because of different marking systems and syllabuses you simply can't draw a comparison with maths.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by Paraphilos
I know you think their post is 'elitist' but actually there's some truth to their post seeing as most people who succeed in A level maths have achieved at least a B in their GCSE. This is the same as with the example of English you quite rightly pointed out but there is a key difference which I will come onto. I have no idea what kind of high school you attended and I wouldn't like to make assumptions but at least in the school I went to, half of the class dropped A level maths for A2 because they ended up finding it too hard. It might seem 'easy' to you and I but then again I took STEP I/II a few years back so obviously that's the case (and TSR is disproportionately full of mathematicians). Actually, I'm curious, how do you explain 60% of further maths students getting an A/A*? Or do you just think that's an anomaly?

To my main point: drawing comparisons with English or History or other humanities is not a good idea. Remember that English exams are marked subjectively every year and as such very bright students end up, sometimes, with C's or D's in their exams in spite of being very intelligent and getting high marks in their coursework (I know this from personal experience as people in my family are English teachers). You might be right that people who are proficient in English take English, but because of different marking systems and syllabuses you simply can't draw a comparison with maths.

I guess.jpg
Law is easy in my opinion. Especially at AS. Easily got an A
Politics-easiest A in my life
Original post by chazwomaq
Researchers have "done the maths" to answer this question:

www.score-education.org/media/3194/relativedifficulty.pdf

Zoom to figure 1 for a nice summary.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/official-some-a-level-subjects-are-harder-than-others-857643.html

The sciences and further maths are the hardest - along with general studies(!).

Maths turns out to be medium difficulty subject.

The easiest traditional one would be English lit (not counting art and drama).

See, what I don't understand is that they say Film Studies is the easiest subject, yet how can this be when less than 2% of students get an A*?

How can STEM really be more difficult when so many do so well in them?
Original post by Abstract_Prism
See, what I don't understand is that they say Film Studies is the easiest subject, yet how can this be when less than 2% of students get an A*?

How can STEM really be more difficult when so many do so well in them?


It's a bit statistical to explain in a forum, but you can read the report and the ones it cites to get the methodology.

Either smarter students take STEM or people put lots of work into it or teachers are really good at teaching it (or some combination).

I think the first option is the most important factor (speculating).
Original post by chazwomaq
It's a bit statistical to explain in a forum, but you can read the report and the ones it cites to get the methodology.

Either smarter students take STEM or people put lots of work into it or teachers are really good at teaching it (or some combination).

I think the first option is the most important factor (speculating).


Right.

Well.

I reject that wholeheartedly. That sort of thinking is what drives STEM elitism.

I remain resolute that so many people get the top grades in STEM because it is easier to get these grades, mainly due to the droll repetitive learning style, the predictability, and the completely objective marking.
Maths is probably the easiest to get an A in
Original post by Abstract_Prism

I remain resolute that so many people get the top grades in STEM because it is easier to get these grades, mainly due to the droll repetitive learning style, the predictability, and the completely objective marking.


Is that idea based on evidence or opinion?
Reply 54
Original post by Mvpmb
I would pay credit to your intelligent for finding chemistry easy but also say that your claim that it is easy is ridiculous. 25/30 people in my class failed it, and i only got a D(after getting an A at AS!) it requires an insane amount of discipline and functional thinking that most people just don't have


I believe you may have misinterpreted what I said: my point was that finding a subject easy is not universal as, just as I found Chemistry easy, many struggle with it greatly; as well, I found English Literature to be of great work for me but others found it to be almost second nature to them.

Essentially what I meant to say was that a single subject cannot simply be pin-pointed as the easiest as there are different variations of intelligence.
Original post by Abstract_Prism
Right.
I remain resolute that so many people get the top grades in STEM because it is easier to get these grades, mainly due to the droll repetitive learning style, the predictability, and the completely objective marking.


More people getting As != Easier. Your jumping to a conclusion based on what you want to be true.

Your opinion isn't fact, there's literally research comparing the difficulties of a levels thats been linked to you.

If your choosing to ignore it, your just being stubborn.


Anyways how is math not being the easiest a level ever stem elitist? smh
Reply 56
Original post by SunnysideSea
Done Philosophy (AQA) by any chance? No? Thought so. Many people find it extremely challenging - it was the only A Level my brother didn't get an A* in, for example, and he's doing History and Politics at Oxford.

Posted from TSR Mobile


By your reasoning, I'd have to do every subject with every exam board just to be able to answer this question. Yes you're right, I did not do AQA philosophy but I still stand by my opinion that it is the easiest. Your brother may not have gotten an A* in it but that could be due to a variety of reasons other than simply "it's harder".

Oh and the fact he's doing history and politics at oxford doesn't make my opinion any less valid, especially considering I'm starting history at oxford too.
It depends what you're good at. I knew some A* students (STEM students) who still thought a comma was for "when you take a breath" so i think they would have found English pretty much impossible. Equally, I've met people who worked their *** off to get a C at GCSE maths but got a As in History and Classics A level.

I would say when speaking generally that its easier to get top grades in STEM subjects because they have much more objectivity. You are objectively right in maths and they cannot drop you marks. Compare this to History, it doesn't matter how good at History you are there will always be something related to the topic you're writing an essay on you didn't put in (people write 2000+ page books on the same thing) so its easy for the examiner to go "hmm, its good but its not 100% good".

Coursework subjects are nice because you have essentially unlimited time to do the coursework (Ok, it is limited but i refuse to accept you were working non-stop for 4 months) which means its easy to get grades well beyond what you'd get in an exam to bump you up. Doesn't make the content easy but it makes it easier to get decent grades.

Overall though, I think maths is the easiest A level to get an A/A* in because you can just do 100000000000 questions and even if you naturally suck at maths you'll be able to do well simply because of how repetitive the questions are. If you're unlucky and your year has a curveball question you would miss the A* but you can reliably get an A and I think almost anyone can.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by MHI
By your reasoning, I'd have to do every subject with every exam board just to be able to answer this question. Yes you're right, I did not do AQA philosophy but I still stand by my opinion that it is the easiest. Your brother may not have gotten an A* in it but that could be due to a variety of reasons other than simply "it's harder".

Oh and the fact he's doing history and politics at oxford doesn't make my opinion any less valid, especially considering I'm starting history at oxford too.


Nope, by my reasoning you wouldn't have to do every subject by every exam board, just read what people who have done them say about them (which you aren't doing).

The reason my bro gave was that it was harder, and I have no reason to believe he'd lie. The fact he's at Oxford doesn't make his opinion any more valid, it just shows he's a clever cookie, who got straight A*s at GCSE (12), 4 As at AS level, 2A*s and an A at A Level. In other words, the only subject he ever dropped a grade in was Philosophy (AQA) A Level. Because he found it hard. This doesn't sound like the easiest A Level. As a historian I'd have hoped your judgement would be a little more sound, I dread to think what your conclusions will look like.

What college are you going to?
Original post by Abstract_Prism
Easiest is Maths by far, 50% of students get an A or above nationally.


Do you do maths?

Also is that statistic correct? Because I know a lot of people who didn't get an A in AS maths
(edited 7 years ago)

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