A levels now test ones intelligence.

Before people used to say that hard work was all that was needed to do well in A levels, and of course maybe a bit of intelligence.

However, recently there has been changes in exams. Instead of pure repetition of questions which can be done through rote learning, exams have started to test a student on their ability to apply knowledge. This is very relevant for Maths, where you may have to apply several concepts into one question.

This way, the examiner can determine the students true understanding of concepts by reviewing their ability to apply many key concepts, rather than just answer questions based on knowledge only.

Therefore, people may think to succeed in A levels, you must equally have intelligence and be able to work hard

Do you think A levels have started to focus more on the intelligence of students? Maybe intelligence may soon be a more important role in succeeding in A levels rather than work ethic. What do you think?

No m9. The grade boundaries are gonna plummet to adjust to the new difficulty. My exams went down to the 50% raw mark region for an A for crying out loud. The exams themselves will require more thought - but the grading will all be the same.

This argument would make more sense to Oxbridge/Imperial admissions tests, along with something like the UKCAT

are you talking about the new 2017 a-levels?

if you are, i swear its more about memory cos you have to remember content over 2 years.

if your talking about subjects like maths well then yes. but alevel maths has always required application of concepts

All a levels currently in general.

for me, gcses were just memory, apart from computing/ bio/chem/physics which required application & so i did like 1/2 past papers for those subjects.

For a-level, yes theres alot of application and using your knowledge to solve problems. Especially for me cos i do maths and economics.

No m9. The grade boundaries are gonna plummet to adjust to the new difficulty. My exams went down to the 50% raw mark region for an A for crying out loud. The exams themselves will require more thought - but the grading will all be the same.

This argument would make more sense to Oxbridge/Imperial admissions tests, along with something like the UKCAT

Before people used to say that hard work was all that was needed to do well in A levels, and of course maybe a bit of intelligence.

However, recently there has been changes in exams. Instead of pure repetition of questions which can be done through rote learning, exams have started to test a student on their ability to apply knowledge. This is very relevant for Maths, where you may have to apply several concepts into one question.

This way, the examiner can determine the students true understanding of concepts by reviewing their ability to apply many key concepts, rather than just answer questions based on knowledge only.

Therefore, people may think to succeed in A levels, you must equally have intelligence and be able to work hard

Do you think A levels have started to focus more on the intelligence of students? Maybe intelligence may soon be a more important role in succeeding in A levels rather than work ethic. What do you think?

which subject was 50% for an A though??? that sounds absolutely mental! also was this the final exam or just a mock test for the class? becuz that would explain the 50%

For the new specification for Mathematics and Further Mathematics, all you have to do is read the exam board endorsed textbook, follow the examples in said textbook (if you still don't understand the concept, you have plenty of resources available - classmates; teachers; the internet...), and do all the questions in the textbook. Once you've done that, find more questions, especially exam-style questions or difficult questions that push your understanding. CGP has recently published their exam practice workbook for both of those subjects and PhysicsAndMathsTutor has questions banks.

And, the way you should do these questions is by creating a constant feedback loop.

Step one: attempt question.
Step two: look at the answer.

If you fail, do it again.

If you fail again, do it again.

And you keep doing it until you're sick and tired of it.

Step four: look at the worked solution.
Step five: if you failed to correctly answer the question beforehand, reattempt the question without looking at the worked solution. If you have correctly answered the question, readjust your solution to look more like their solution or redo it the way they have. Even if you have the correct answer, the worked solution may give you a quicker way to do it or one where it's easier for the examiner to give you marks.
Step six: repeat.

That's how I revise those subject and I've been coming out with as and bs when I give a **** (and I generally give a ****).

Have you noticed something? It's still rote-learning!

Hm I guess it would be more applicable for University admission tests. The new system of difficulty might cause students to become even more intelligent

I have a feeling that you're mixing intelligence with application here. You can't 'become more intelligent', I'm afraid - even if some of us want to! - and if A-levels were based on intelligence, that would be incredibly unfair to those who have worked hard but aren't necessarily intelligent.

Personally, I think the new A-levels are mostly less based on memorisation, definitely, and are more based on application. However, you can learn application by doing practice tests and reading mark schemes - still not based on intelligence.