Have A-Level grade boundaries changed?

I did my A-Levels 25 years ago, and landed a place doing Physics at Leicester with BCC. Out of curiosity, I looked at the same course again yesterday and the requirement is now ABB, and a lot of courses I looked at before now have significantly higher entry requirements. I don't buy the 'A-levels aren't what they were' argument any more than I think people have suddenly got a lot cleverer, so have the boundaries between grades moved significantly?

Reply 1

dragonblazer11

4

Original post by nick2491

I did my A-Levels 25 years ago, and landed a place doing Physics at Leicester with BCC. Out of curiosity, I looked at the same course again yesterday and the requirement is now ABB, and a lot of courses I looked at before now have significantly higher entry requirements. I don't buy the 'A-levels aren't what they were' argument any more than I think people have suddenly got a lot cleverer, so have the boundaries between grades moved significantly?

I think the grade boundaries are similar but the exams have gotten more difficult as people are getting higher grades and so the uni requirements are also higher because there are more people applying to top unis, and it's more competitive, so the requirements are high

Reply 2

Compost

19

Original post by nick2491

I did my A-Levels 25 years ago, and landed a place doing Physics at Leicester with BCC. Out of curiosity, I looked at the same course again yesterday and the requirement is now ABB, and a lot of courses I looked at before now have significantly higher entry requirements. I don't buy the 'A-levels aren't what they were' argument any more than I think people have suddenly got a lot cleverer, so have the boundaries between grades moved significantly?

There used to be a set percentage of entrants who got an A - it was around 10%, and then a set % who got a B. When this was abandoned (about 25 years ago) the % of candidates getting top grades went up every year until about 2 years ago. Not only has the % of the population taking A levels increased dramatically but the % of the people taking them who get top grades has also increased dramatically. The same % of a year group who got 5 A*-C grades in 1997 now make it to university.

Reply 3

nulli tertius

21

Original post by nick2491

I did my A-Levels 25 years ago, and landed a place doing Physics at Leicester with BCC. Out of curiosity, I looked at the same course again yesterday and the requirement is now ABB, and a lot of courses I looked at before now have significantly higher entry requirements. I don't buy the 'A-levels aren't what they were' argument any more than I think people have suddenly got a lot cleverer, so have the boundaries between grades moved significantly?

Someone kindly posted this from a don at Corpus in Cambridge.

http://www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/mw141/Annex-current-1980s-Qs-small.pdf

Almost all the material on exam difficulty that is published concerns maths. In many ways it is understandable because 2+2 hasn't stopped equalling 5. There is virtually nothing on changes with arts exams.

Reply 4

troubadour.

19

Original post by nulli tertius

2+2 hasn't stopped equalling 5.

You might want to edit that. :erm:

Reply 5

nulli tertius

21

Original post by Hydeman

You wanna edit that? :erm:

You mean it has changed :tongue:

Reply 6

skeptical_john

13

Original post by nick2491

I did my A-Levels 25 years ago, and landed a place doing Physics at Leicester with BCC. Out of curiosity, I looked at the same course again yesterday and the requirement is now ABB, and a lot of courses I looked at before now have significantly higher entry requirements. I don't buy the 'A-levels aren't what they were' argument any more than I think people have suddenly got a lot cleverer, so have the boundaries between grades moved significantly?

I think part of the increase in grades is around how it's got easier to take these exams. The colleges focus a lot more on what is going to be tested - they teach to the exam. Also, you can get 10 years of past papers (something you could not do 20 years a go). The exams never really change so you can just get the muscle memory of how they work, it's just changing the number round.

Reply 7

XxKingSniprxX

21

Original post by nick2491

I did my A-Levels 25 years ago, and landed a place doing Physics at Leicester with BCC. Out of curiosity, I looked at the same course again yesterday and the requirement is now ABB, and a lot of courses I looked at before now have significantly higher entry requirements. I don't buy the 'A-levels aren't what they were' argument any more than I think people have suddenly got a lot cleverer, so have the boundaries between grades moved significantly?

There are plenty more resources available today than 25 years ago.

Reply 8

nulli tertius

21

Original post by skeptical_john

I think part of the increase in grades is around how it's got easier to take these exams. The colleges focus a lot more on what is going to be tested - they teach to the exam. Also, you can get 10 years of past papers (something you could not do 20 years a go). The exams never really change so you can just get the muscle memory of how they work, it's just changing the number round.

There is certainly a significant element of that. A large part of that in turn is the reduction in the number of exam boards and syllabuses which means that textbooks are written for the syllabus not the subject.

However if you look at past papers, you will see that the format of questions has changed. The questions lead candidates though.

Interestingly the recent research with maths indicated that maths exams stopped getting easier in the 1990s.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35632198

Reply 9

skeptical_john

13

Original post by XxKingSniprxX

There are plenty more resources available today than 25 years ago.

This is a big difference between now and the 90s. When you were doing your homework over the weekend and got stuck there was very little you could do until your next class. Most homes did not have the internet whereas now you can resolve issues in a couple of clicks. Also there are extremely focused textbooks aimed at the exam you are taking. Back them there was just general math textbooks and were of little use to 15 year old.

Have A-Level grade boundaries changed?

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