"An 'A' is equivalent to a 'C' two decades ago"

What's the difference between the two figures? (7% and 3%) apart from the obvious 4% difference? I mean, what's the difference between '7% got A*s in certain exams' and '3% of the population actually got an A* overall'? I'm a bit dopey.

A question from 1971 that doesn't use anything off the current syllabus:

(i) If x+y = a and xy = b express $x^3+y^3$ in terms of a and b.

If $p + p^{-1} = 3$ find the value of $p^3 + p^{-3}$.

(ii) Show that x-1 is a factor of $x^m - 1$ for all postiive integers m.

Prove $76^n - 76$ is an exact multiple of 100 for all positive integers n > 1.

If $\sec \theta - \text{cosec} \theta = \pm p$, prove that $p^2 \sin^2 2\theta + 4 \sin 2\theta - 4 = 0$ and conversely that if $p^2 \sin^2 2\theta + 4 \sin 2\theta - 4 = 0$ then $\sec \theta - \text{cosec} \theta = \pm p$.

Hence find, to the nearest minute(*) the two values of $\theta$ in the range $0^o$ to $360^o$ which satisfy the equation $\sec \theta - \text{cosec} \theta = \frac{1}{2}\sqrt{5}$

simply write x +y in terms of x, a and b then make x the subject, slot it into the x^3 part, do the same for y.



(P+1/p)^2=9...
p^2 +p^-2=7

(p+p^-1)^3=27
P^3+p^-3=(p+p^-1)^3 -3(p^2 +p^-2) = 27-9=18



(x^m/2-1)(x^m/2+1)=(x^m/4+1)(X^m/4-1)(X^m/2+1) etc
eventually you will get a term m/n=1



76(76^n-1-1)... the last digit of (76^n-1-1 ) will always be 5.
=

(36^N-36)(2^N+2)
(36(36^N-1)(2^N+2)
(36(6^n-1+1)(6^n-1)(2^N+2)
36((6^n-1-1)(3^n-1+3)(2^n-1-2)(2^N+2)
4*9(6^n-1-1)(3^n-1+3)(2^n-1-2)(2^N+2)

(6^n-1) is a factor of 5, always

this 1 is more tricky cant find a second factor of 5... I will edit post once i get the solution



Another question:


TOO EASY CBA
(*) For people who don't understand what this means, you can solve it to 2 d.p. instead (which is a little easier). But also remember that back then, you had no calculator, just tables.

maybe i'll come across as arrogant here...

ah, what you've done is to confuse "arrogant" and "ridiculous".

Given that medicine is the hardest/most respected course (IMO) that is rather significant. If someone off here got BBC and went to med school they'd be bloody ructions on!

I sat my A-levels in 1991. My offer for the university of Cambridge was (the then standard) AAB. It was the case then that if you undershot, it was still worth calling them to see if they'd been unable to fill the places on the offers made. Anyone getting 3 As would be photographed in the local press. 4 As would see you in the national press and called "boy/girl genius" by the Daily Mail.

And at that time a far smaller percentage of 16-18 year olds sat A-levels. Even going into the 6th form or to college was quite a big deal: "The Sixth form, is it? The Sixth Form, no less? We shall have to call you The Professor".

20 years ago, 20% of the population (selected for their being bright) were doing A-levels, and 10% of these got an A in any given subject. Now, >50% are doing A-levels, and as many as 33% of these get an A in any subject. But possibly it is because "the teaching is better", yes.

I didn't get my AAB, in the interests of full-disclosure. Completely fouled up Economics and went to the University of York, my reserve choice for which I was holding an offer of BCC. Yes, that got you into York way back when.

Imo it's hard to compare papers as they would have different specifications etc. But I feel A-levels have gone easier mostly because of retakes and modules, and to a lesser extent, the (lack of) content.

E.g. before in Maths there was Pure Maths, and now we have Core Maths with Core 1 being what used to be in the O-level papers.

Imo it's hard to compare papers as they would have different specifications etc. But I feel A-levels have gone easier mostly because of retakes and modules, and to a lesser extent, the (lack of) content.

E.g. before in Maths there was Pure Maths, and now we have Core Maths with Core 1 being what used to be in the O-level papers.

I think the main problem is retakes. 90% of the people I know wouldn't have got the grades they got without retaking units. That's why I don't think it's necessarily a content problem, although I'm sure it's got a bit easier.

Well, I sat my A-levels in the 80's. The standard offer from Cambridge was AAA1 or AAA22 (for both Maths and NatSci). At my school, there were 4 people who got AAAA the year I took M/FM A-levels, and this was at a comprehensive school. (It was a freak year, to be fair).

I left school with 6 A-level grade A's, and that was only 'local paper' coverage, nothing national.

When I went to Churchill, Cambridge, I'd guess that 98% of people (who'd taken A-levels as opposed to different exams) had AAA; for maths I found that at least 80% had AAAA11. There were many people with 5 A-level grade A's. (FM and General Studies tended to be "extra" A-levels).