Goves plans for end of 2yr exams

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This is not the case

I may have missed an announcement as I've not being paying close attention since maths changes will be a year later but my understanding is that while the new AS qualifications will be de-coupled from the A level qualification, examiners are aiming to ensure that they are co-teachable with the new A levels. It was certainly the intention of my HoD that students take AS exams whether or not they intend to complete the full A level.

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Reply 21

Mutleybm1996

Original post by Aquacel

Do you not think the mass voters care about cuts to the NHS, education and councils? Do you think most people agree with Gove's education policies? Labour is going to be the best of a bad bunch and the Tories will not get in again. Nobody cares about the deficit when their front-line services they use every day are being chopped up. Joe Bloggs doesn't care how much his country is in debt when he needs to go to A&E for a broken arm and he needs to get his daughter into secondary school.

The cuts are to save money and reduce the deficit. Less deficit=less cuts

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Reply 22

Mutleybm1996

Original post by gdunne42

Agreed, this is what i heard

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Reply 23

viddy9

Gove and the Conservative Party, as is often the case, are on yet another ill-concevied and ideological adventure, this time scrapping AS-Levels despite condemnation from a plethora of major universities. As Oxford's head of admissions stated: “The loss of AS levels will have a really significant result on the likelihood of students from a disadvantaged background progressing to higher education.” And, as others have noted, this will lead to more reliance upon predicted grades and GCSE grades.

As some have noted, the Conservative Party may not be in power in September 2015, but by then it may be too late for some of these silly policies to be reversed by Labour. At least tuition fees will come down, though.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 24

limetang

Well if their plan is to allow a levels to better prepare people for university then they're going about it the wrong way seeing how most universities follow a modular yearly system of assessment (bar I think Oxbridge and maybe a few others), and I can't really see that changing anytime soon.

Reply 25

ChaoticButterfly

It did used to be like that.

Reply 26

TenOfThem

Original post by gdunne42

There is a lot of talk of co-teaching - especially from the exam boards but even subjects that start teaching in 2015 have yet to see approved specs and the talk from the Dfe is that AS courses should be 2-year courses and that the content/assessment style of the AS and the A Level will be very different

The content consultation from ALCAB for Maths should be with us now or at least soon

The discussions that I have heard suggest that AS and A Level maths may not be co-teachable, that the assessment style would make this very difficult, that the content of the AS may not be compatible with the content for the A Level

Of course this is still in the air but it is wrong to assume that maths or any other subject will be easy to co-teach

Reply 27

nulli tertius

Original post by gdunne42

I think the exam boards are trying to deliver co-teachability, but there is some intention to make assessment distinct. That means that preparation time could be wasted on material that is irrelevant to the qualification being aimed for. For example 12 science practicals will be needed for A level but none for AS level.

Maths may be different in that fundamentally the way you assess a 7 year old and the way you assess a wrangler are the same, it is only the questions that are harder.

I think most large VIth forms will have an A level stream who completely ignore AS and an AS level stream, a proportion of whom go on to do A levels. It will be very much like the end of CSEs when very many O level marginal candidates dual entered.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 28

Moosferatu

Original post by meenu89

Tories will not be in power. They need to be 8% ahead of Labour to get a majority of 1.

Oh god don't say that. I know Cameron's basically ripping about the fabric of our country but we can't have Milliband as PM.

Reply 29

Mutleybm1996

Original post by Moosferatu

Oh god don't say that. I know Cameron's basically ripping about the fabric of our country but we can't have Milliband as PM.

Nor Nick Clegg *cringe*

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Reply 30

1drowssap

Original post by sophus18x

Recently as you might have heard, education minister Michael Gove has announced plans to give A levels a 'face lift'. He plans to move all As/A2 exams to the end of the 2 year course. Surely this would mean fewer passes and less people going to university. Is Gove attempting to revert to past stage whereby university was just for the richer classes? It seems like it. Years ago when there was exams at the end of the 2 yrs few working class kids went to uni as they weren't inspired or failed to achieve whereas the middle classes did because of their cultural, social and economic capital. To me these plans seem unfair and very extreme. I fail to see where Gove is coming from. I am sure that he thinks Alevels these days are 'easy'. Well I'd love to see him sit his a levels today and see how he does. The students of this generation aren't being given enough credit for all their hard work. This is disgusting.
What are your thoughts on these soon to be changes?

Reply 31

jelly1000

Original post by sophus18x

Well both my parents were working class and both went on to teacher training college/university having taken their A-Levels at the end of 2 years. When the exams are doesn't make a difference to whether kids are inspired or not, its their parents and the schools they go to that do. I've done my A-Levels and found them nothing more than a memory test, they weren't easy for me because I struggle to remember much. Personally I don't think it will harm working class kids much more than anyone else.

Reply 32

Old_Simon

I am not clear why abolishing AS levels is being predicted to impact on disadvantaged students disproportionately ?

Reply 33

username1221160

While I dislike Gove, I don't see the problem with exams after 2 years. It may be more of a challenge, but that is a good thing as it will allow universities to differentiate between good and average students.

Reply 34

Dalek1099

Original post by andrew2209

Removing AS Levels is going to give Universities hell, as they'll be at the mercy of predicted grades, which could be "inflated" by some schools.

As far as I understand it there will still be AS qualifications but as a separate qualification.It would probably be advisable to get the AS done in first year even though it won't count so that colleges can kick out those on course set to fail based on their results and universities can run their application process as usual.Although, this may cost colleges a lot more though.

Reply 35

Moosferatu

Original post by Mutleybm1996

Nor Nick Clegg *cringe*

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Clegg is finished at the next election.

Reply 36

TheDimpleboy

Michael Gove is a complete and utter ****, something which even the Conservatives I know agree with.

Also the lad earlier in the thread on about the deficit might be interested to know the Tories pledged to match Labour's spending during the 'boom' years, except they wanted further deregulation and more tax breaks for high earners, so I'm struggling to see how this is a stick for Conservatives to beat Labour with. For what it's worth it's the PFI deals you should be focusing on, but even they were introduced by Major and have been continued under the coalition.

Reply 37

Dalek1099

Original post by sophus18x

I think the changes are good in some ways because the amount of students passing a degree isn't equal to the amount of graduate jobs available.I would like to see a system where passing your degree virtually guarantees you a high earning job due to a lack of competition due to the amount admitted to university being planned so that the amount who pass will equal the jobs available this will be hard to do so they will have to prepare for some uncertainty in the job markets in the future.

I fail to see how poor students will suffer under these changes please elaborate.I think it could help give them enough time to reach their potential if they struggled with motivation at GCSEs where as under the AS level system their hopes could be crushed after a year.Students who are intelligent will do well as usual but possibly not as well and those who aren't will struggle.I think if colleges get students to sit AS in first year(although it doesn't count) then the system will work roughly the same except it will just be much harder because those first year marks won't count.

Reply 38

miscounted_time

Original post by sophus18x

True. However... in a sociology class we discussed that as many politicians are middle class it is in their interests to introduce such policies. Just something to think about. I mean if you think about it, it was Labour who raised the tuition fees to £9000..isn't labour supposed to be representing the working class?

Labour didn't raise the fees to £9000, that was the coalition. Labour I introduced the £3k per year fees and it was the coalition who tripled those fees.

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