"Bring on Oxbridge quotas"

You forgot to mention the truly shocking (and obviously not accidental) symbolism of black tarmac being driven over in a violent manner by white drivers in F1.

You might find the following interesting reading; it seems a little slanted towards being critical but not ridiculously so.

https://disidealist.wordpress.com/2014/07/25/mossbourne-academy-the-model-for-us-all/

What a mean-spirited and jealous rant!

Get something of excellence and do your utmost to put it down. Of course Mossbourne is oversubscribed and a lot of academically bright children or middle class children now want to go there.

They'd all want to get into the Mossbourne Academy if it was in Hull given half the chance too, but instead because of people with a mentality like the author, they'll have to make do with the current Sink School in Hull.

You might find the following interesting reading; it seems a little slanted towards being critical but not ridiculously so.

https://disidealist.wordpress.com/2014/07/25/mossbourne-academy-the-model-for-us-all/

What a mean-spirited and jealous rant!

Get something of excellence and do your utmost to put it down. Of course Mossbourne is oversubscribed and a lot of academically bright children or middle class children now want to go there.

They'd all want to get into the Mossbourne Academy if it was in Hull given half the chance too, but instead because of people with a mentality like the author, they'll have to make do with the current Sink School in Hull.

The summary: "It is a neat trick : pour huge amounts of cash into one exemplar school, helping it to push up results; obfuscate this fact with superficial fripperies and a loud-mouthed egomaniac headteacher; then cut budgets to other schools, while telling them that money is irrelevant, as the results are all about “proper” uniforms, academy status and high expectations. Another triumph of evidence-based policy-making."

The problem is that running exams in itself operates as a deterrent to schools. in the other thread I listed the four papers I wrote for the Oxford entrance exam which involved over 10 hours of invigilation. Once that had been lost as an expectation on schools, it is difficult to get it back.

Various entrance tests are using Pearson's network of driving test centres because of the difficulty of offering them through schools but that constrains the nature of the examination.

I don't know whether you have seen this

http://www.admissionstestingservice.org/for-test-takers/test-of-mathematics-for-university-admission/about-the-test-of-mathematics-for-university-admission/

but very few centres seem to be offering it.

Of course even this approach was poor, exam success alone can be a pretty poor indicator re ability, it was merely what was available, now I think all universities, not just Oxford and Cambridge, need to take a long look at admissions criteria and reinvent the wheel.

I think admissions quotas appeal to those who take a Marxist approach to matters @Fullofsurprises ; who see academics looking after their own through the admissions process. Quotas negate that. I accept the bona fides of academics; that for the most part they are genuinely trying to select the most able.

George Bernard Shaw intended his aphorism that "justice is like the doors of the Ritz Hotel, open to all" to be ironic. In the case of university admissions, some @AllonsEnfants! believe it to be a simple statement of the truth.

I think any totally objective admissions system will be gamed by the sharp elbowed. My view is that quotas should be used to increase the size of the pool, not who is fished from the pool.

If you say A*BB is acceptable for admissions, then every Wykehamist with those grades will apply. If you say that A*BB will be acceptable for kids from Bash Street Comp only, then you might well get kids predicted to get A*BB applying from Bash Street Comp without being swamped by the mediocre of Winchester. You can then interview the comp kids alongside the Wykehamists with straight A* predictions. The corollary to this is that there is no point in giving everyone the same conditional offer,if that offer is out of reach for people identified as having the requisite ability.

I used the example of A*BB because i think this one of the evils of the UCAS process. The key to admission for any competitive course is a candidate's weakest subject and that is one of the advantages of the teaching at the best schools. They get people with only moderate talent good grades. "I'm sorry Mr Shakespeare, we can't admit you to our creative writing course with that E in geography. How can anyone who thinks Bohemia has a coastline possibly succeed in writing fiction? Rather than that second rate grammar school in Stratford, you should have attended Eton or even that new academy alongside Ye Mosse Bourne."

Oh and Shakespeare would (under my quota system and improved admission procedures) have rightly been rejected at the entrance as an imposter and stand in for the real author, Sir Henry Neville - who also (rightly) would be denied a place due to downranking after his privileged access to school in Waltham St Lawrence, Berks - far from attending Merton, he would have had to make do with studying English at Southampton. And a jolly good thing too.

but Shakey did not go to yoony tho' ?

I know Bear. I was imagining him approaching my quota-managed Oxbridge in a flight of post-truthian fancy. In his favour would be some promising poetry and a criminal record for deer poaching, plus a Dad in financial trouble. Against would be an A-list grammar and a tendency to accept cash to put his name on other people's work.

.... what about the gloves ?

but Shakey did not go to yoony tho' ?

But if he had gone to The King's School in Canterbury he might have ended up at Corpus Cantab like his contemporary. Marlowe.

How do you measure the ability of a student in a sink school in Hull? You measure it like every other applicant according to their proven academic performance to date and performance in academic assessment tests.

Corpus Punctorum

Wasn't that St Sebastian?