Don't you think that the new 'A*' system hasn't been thought out thoroughly enough?

no, I didn't read what you wrote because that post you quoted from me was a reply to another person.

I can't speak for the other subjects you listed, but A2 English Lit, on my exam board (OCR) at least, is definitely much more difficult than AS. At AS we had coursework comparing 2 texts with a clear link between them and then a close textual analysis of a passage from another book. At A2, the coursework is comparing 3 works (18th century poem, 20th century novel and a collection of 20th century monologues at my school) with very little in common all in one 3000 word essay. For the exam, at AS it was one essay on poetry by a particular author and one on a novel. At A2, all the texts are pre-18th century which instantly makes them more difficult to analyse. We have to write 1 essay on a Shakespeare play and 1 comparing poems by one author to a play by another (not Shakespeare).

AQA Psychology A is also definitely more difficult at A2. The AS papers have lots of short answer questions and a 12 mark question on basic topics in each area of psychology (e.g. stress for bio psych, memory for cognitive psych). One of the A2 papers has 3 25 mark essays on more complex topics (e.g. biological rhythms, cognition and development) and the other has 1 25 mark essay, 1 set of 2/3 questions adding up to 25 marks and 1 set of 1-12 mark questions on research methods adding up to 35 marks. There is also a big emphasis on synopticity which wasn't there at AS - i.e. bringing in general issues and debates and knowledge from other areas of the course. The AS was more of a general introduction.

As I said, I can only speak for the subjects I do (the others are bio and chem), but I suspect this is similar in all the subjects. I can see a big difference in my friend's artwork from AS to A2 for instance.

I think you're right, but the A* system is fairer. A lot of schools didn't give their students chance to do AEA papers- indeed, my school, a good state sixth form, only offered AEA maths. This way, everyone gets a chance to aim for the top grade.

Same - it's terrible! Which texts are you doing? We've read "The Waste Land" (Eliot), "Death of a Salesman" (Miller) and "Hey Nostradamus!" (Coupland).

AEA Maths is the only AEA left afaik. The others were all stopped because of the A* grade but I think that because you need AEA for Warwick the have carried it on for now.

I agree.
People who do exceptionally well at AS get no extra recognition.

Your education is not all about what grade you get

I think you're right, but the A* system is fairer. A lot of schools didn't give their students chance to do AEA papers- indeed, my school, a good state sixth form, only offered AEA maths. This way, everyone gets a chance to aim for the top grade.

Even more unfair than you'd think really.
And that puts an immense amount of pressure on people who have got 90% ums from AS to carry on that level of performance in A2..
And my chemistry board carries the A* 10% of the marks as stretch and challenge, so not even in the syllabus!

What's your Chemistry exam board?

OCR A.

Oh righty, that's okay then. I was worried that it was AQA and that there'd be stretch and challenge in my Chemistry exam as well as in my Biology exams (which is OCR). I hate stretch and challenge and OCR.

Oh righty, that's okay then. I was worried that it was AQA and that there'd be stretch and challenge in my Chemistry exam as well as in my Biology exams (which is OCR). I hate stretch and challenge and OCR.