The Student Room Group

A levels this year will 'drop'?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10946400/GCSE-and-A-level-overhaul-will-lead-to-drop-in-grades.html

Apparently this has been the hardest year for exams and people will see a drop in grades.
Thoughts?

Scroll to see replies

Original post by AlexKay99
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10946400/GCSE-and-A-level-overhaul-will-lead-to-drop-in-grades.html

Apparently this has been the hardest year for exams and people will see a drop in grades.
Thoughts?


I know nothing on how they chose the grade boundaries for exam grades, but i have learnt from GCSE english, that they can change the grade boundaries. Im unsure if the information im giving you is correct, but i have heard that if pupils havnt done well, they drop the boundaries, making it easier to get better grades. but i have also heard that they are making them harder to ensure less pupils get A* etc. im unsure if this is actually true, but that is what i have heard. :smile:

I am too worried about my grades, especially since the sixth form go to, you get kicked out if fail 2 of the subjects :frown:
Reply 2
Original post by Alice Moody
I know nothing on how they chose the grade boundaries for exam grades, but i have learnt from GCSE english, that they can change the grade boundaries. Im unsure if the information im giving you is correct, but i have heard that if pupils havnt done well, they drop the boundaries, making it easier to get better grades. but i have also heard that they are making them harder to ensure less pupils get A* etc. im unsure if this is actually true, but that is what i have heard. :smile:

I am too worried about my grades, especially since the sixth form go to, you get kicked out if fail 2 of the subjects :frown:

Its so worrying! And all the reforms don't help at all. Its so unfair that they just decide to punish everyone like this :frown: I hope you get the grades that you want. I done English Literature for A Level and it is my most important exam so I'm scared!
(edited 9 years ago)
Reply 3
Most of my exams were pretty hard:cry:
The grade boundaries have to be low:frown:
Reply 4
Original post by arfah
Most of my exams were pretty hard:cry:
The grade boundaries have to be low:frown:

Hopefully your right. My exams were also tricky.
Original post by AlexKay99
Its so worrying! And all the reforms don't help at all. Its so unfair that they just decide to punish everyone like this :frown: I hope you get the grades that you want. I done English Literature for A Level and it is my most important exam so I'm scared!


I'm sure you'll be fine. and i hope you get the grades you want :smile:
I do hope this is not the case. However, it is true that if the majority of the cohort is unsuccessful, then they will drop the grade boundaries from the last years. They usually do this for exam by 1 or 2 marks, so not making much of a difference if you secure a good grade. It doesn't seem to effect coursework marking as it usually stays the same.

I know my A2 Philosophy exam went awful, the A2 Ethics went a whole lot better. But because Philosophy is harder, their grade boundaries are usually lower and Ethics is higher. So I don't know how things like that work where it's not at an even standpoint.

But I'm just hoping I get the grades I need to get into my firm choice uni!
My thoughts are...

Thank goodness my A levels were last year. :biggrin:
Reply 8
Original post by AlexKay99
Hopefully your right. My exams were also tricky.

Are you in AS?? and what subjects do you do, if you don't mind me asking:smile:
Reply 9
Original post by arfah
Are you in AS?? and what subjects do you do, if you don't mind me asking:smile:

I actually did both in one year. I did English Literature, Biology and Russian.
I found the AS more difficult than A2 which I thought was strange.
Reply 10
Original post by AlexKay99
I actually did both in one year. I did English Literature, Biology and Russian.
I found the AS more difficult than A2 which I thought was strange.

Must have been harder for you then!
Russian?? wow sounds cool:cool:I'm into languages too!
I'm doing English lit, History, Politics and Psychology
Hopefully my A2 will be easier as well:biggrin:
Reply 11
My A2 English Lit exam was a bitch! Plus my year was the second to do these newly set texts so there wasn't much to revise from. Hopefully the grade boundaries fall hard.
Reply 12
Original post by Ndella
My A2 English Lit exam was a bitch! Plus my year was the second to do these newly set texts so there wasn't much to revise from. Hopefully the grade boundaries fall hard.

Yeah, I did EngLit as well, OCR, the poem at AS was a killer!
Reply 13
Original post by arfah
Must have been harder for you then!
Russian?? wow sounds cool:cool:I'm into languages too!
I'm doing English lit, History, Politics and Psychology
Hopefully my A2 will be easier as well:biggrin:

Yep, I was interested in Russian before I started A Level so I studied it for a while now, I hope to continue at university.
I started doing psychology but I had to drop it because of timetable problems but it was interesting, although the methodology was boring.
I would have loved to continue with history at A Level but me and history have a love-hate relationship, I can't handle learning topics I'm not interested in but there is only one course!
Reply 14
A2 AQA physics was pretty god damn hard this year... I need an A too.

Woe is me :frown:
(edited 9 years ago)
This is so worrying.
Reply 16
Original post by AlexKay99
Yep, I was interested in Russian before I started A Level so I studied it for a while now, I hope to continue at university.
I started doing psychology but I had to drop it because of timetable problems but it was interesting, although the methodology was boring.
I would have loved to continue with history at A Level but me and history have a love-hate relationship, I can't handle learning topics I'm not interested in but there is only one course!


That's amazing!! Russian at university! I'd like to do law.. :rolleyes: Psychology is the one subject I cant stand tbh, I'm dropping it next year..I absolutely love History however, I can fairly say it's the best A level choice I have made, I get what you mean about the love/ hate though! Sometimes I cant stand it! but it's the one subject I have some confidence in:biggrin: I think I tend to do well in subjects that require analysing, hence, I hate psychology because the exams mostly require remembering :s-smilie:


Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 17
Original post by AlexKay99
Yeah, I did EngLit as well, OCR, the poem at AS was a killer!


Which poet did you do or are you at A2 now?
Reply 18
Original post by arfah
That's amazing!! Russian at university! I'd like to do law.. :rolleyes: Psychology is the one subject I cant stand tbh, I'm dropping it next year..I absolutely love History however, I can fairly say it's the best A level choice I have made, I get what you mean about the love/ hate though! Sometimes I cant stand it! but it's the one subject I have some confidence in:biggrin: I think I tend to do well in subjects that require analysing, hence, I hate psychology because the exams mostly require remembering :s-smilie:


Posted from TSR Mobile

Oh yes, learning things off by heart is not learning! Law sounds amazing, very difficult but if you love analysing then its perfect for you! I actually want to do English Lit and Russian together, because I love analysing as well! I do biology and even though you have to learn off things there, the exam questions require analysing and applying that knowledge that you have learned to practical situations and so it wasn't that bad.:smile:
Reply 19
Original post by Ndella
Which poet did you do or are you at A2 now?

I did W.B Yeats and I did both AS and A2 this year so its pretty much over for me. :smile:

Quick Reply