A-levels fail brightest pupils

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/8724745/A-levels-fail-brightest-pupils-warns-top-headmaster.html

The exam – seen as the gold standard in British schools for more than 50 years – leaves teenagers feeling “frustrated” because of the lack of demands placed on them in a number of academic disciplines...

Reply 1

nulli tertius

Original post by intellectual1

From the examination board's website:-

The most popular Cambridge Pre-U subject this year was Global Perspectives and Research (GPR).

The course is an excellent alternative to Critical Thinking, General Studies and the Extended Project

- 148 UK schools are teaching Cambridge Pre-U with candidates entered for the 2011 or 2012 exam series

- 45% of schools teaching Cambridge Pre-U are in the state maintained sector

- 90 schools have made entries in the 2011 series

- entries are up 34% on last year.

Reply 2

RonaldJenk1ns

A levels are for the weak. :smug:

An a-leveler: :couchpotato:

Reply 3

intellectual1

The reforms by Micheal Gove are expected to make the A-Level linear and modules will no longer be hmmm

Reply 4

Lightning_Strike

I agree, by the end of A Levels I was just bored and uninterested in my subjects, just because of the exam and syllabus structure.

I think we spent as much time on exam technique as we did on the actual content.

The courses just don't leave any room for you to show any kind of passion for your subject, or to really develop around it. The only subject that came close was history.

Edit: On a side note, when I lived in Paris, I did the IB "Middle Years" programme, I thought that was much better in structure and encouraging academic curiosity.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 5

Phenomenological

GCSE - Did nothing, as the knowledge is totally useless and the courses are dull.
A Level - Did very little, as the knowledge is mostly useless and the courses are dull

Looking forward to university, where you actually gain useful knowledge and a worthwhile qualification.

dey getting easier

Been known for some time now tbh.

Reply 8

Cyborgasm

The title is even more telling than I think was intentioned. The mainly memory driven current A level approach fails students as it does not adequately prepare for the expectations University staff will place upon study. This applies even to the A* students, often more so in some instances, because the mismatch between A* skill set and degree skill set is very real.

You just need to look at the amount of study skills, remedial type material in many current University degree structures to see how big the mismatch is.

Reply 9

nulli tertius

Original post by intellectual1

The reforms by Micheal Gove are expected to make the A-Level linear and modules will no longer be hmmm

This does worry me. I fear Gove has a fixation on how things were when he was young and thinks that if only he can change back the things under his control, the world will go back to that time.

Over the last 30 years A level content has been reduced. It is very difficult to see that by reverting to big bang exams, the content will increase. If anything it is likely to reduce further. To increase content would require an acceptance that many students could only manage 2 A levels, that talented students would do three and that 4 would be reserved for the wholly exceptional.

It is difficult to see why this proposal would diminish the emphasis placed on exam technique. That has just been a learned skill over these years. Teachers won't unlearn it unless it ceases to be of value.

Marking has been dumbed down. That is inevitable as A levels have become a mass exam. When marking was done by a very few, very senior and very trustworthy teachers they could be given free rein to judge the quality of scripts. Now many of them are recent graduates and are often not teachers at all, and there are thousands of them. They have to be given very prescriptive mark schemes.

Reply 10

Chemin10

From personal experience: Got the highest A in my year in Psychology AS, forgot everything I learnt by the time I started A2 the next year. Imitating the knowledge just for the sake of what the qualification means in UCAS points rather than internalising the knowledge for the sake of real world/ job application, or anything that resembles actual useful use of what A - levels are meant to set you up for.

It's the wrong way to go about it but the only way to go about it, for me and most of my friends, bar the A* student who FITS THE BOX but couldn't get through any interviews because ... When you fit the box where's your personality?

When cramming and short term learning are necessary to do well in rigid exams (for some/most), you know the system is screwed up. That BTECs, which for some subjects like Media are far better in terms of what you will learn and the skills you will gain compared to the A-Level equivalent, focused on retaining specific exam information, are looked down upon by Uni's even though the UCAS points are equivalent in theory, you can see it really is skewed.

There should be a more flexible scheme that adapts to individual learning and preference rather than trying to fit everyone in to a very rigid and useless box. The jump from GCSE to A level is ridiculous, and the years wasted from 1-9 at such a slow and meaningless progression that usually has no effect or prep towards getting GCSEs is equally stupid. Some people suck at exams, but does that really mean that in turn they should be crippled in their chances to get into a good Uni, to get a good job? Because you know, in real life, exams are at the core and centre of living. Not.

Sorry about the rant it just gets to me.