The Student Room Group

Are A-levels a better measure of intellegence than degrees?

Reasons why it might be better to compare a level results than degree results:

1/ degree difficulty varies across unis but the work in a levels and the a level exams are the same.

2/ degrees involve moving away from home which can be stressful and distracting.

3/ degrees involve more self study so if you're clever but lazy you won't be exposed to the information needed to do well whereas in a levels you're all told the information you need to succeed pre exam so it's all about how well you process that information and use it.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by nohomo
Reasons why it might be better to compare a level results than degree results:

1/ degree difficulty varies across unis but the work in a levels and the a level exams are the same.

2/ degrees involve moving away from home which can be stressful and distracting.

3/ degrees involve more self study so if you're clever but lazy you won't be exposed to the information needed to do well whereas in a levels you're all told the information you need to succeed pre exam so it's all about how well you process that information and use it.


Due to the fact that A Level grades are standardised whereas degree difficulty is not, I would expect A Level outcome to correlate better with intelligence than degree outcome across the whole population.

However, within a specific degree at a specific university, I would expect degree performance to correlate better with intelligence than A Level performance (not least because the sample will likely have scored very similarly on the latter to begin with).
On the other hand, performance in A-levels is more dependent on environmental factors such as how good your school is, or how useful your parents are.
Iq is probably less interesting than people here think. Edison said success is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration (or something similar)

Might be worth considering that employers could be a lot more interested in avoiding the lazy and those unable to cope with stress and distraction than getting an extra 10 iq points when they're looking at applicants.
Reply 4
Avatar for TheVortex
TheVortex
Possibly so. But you can argue that it is more a measure of who is the most desired students and who can cope understand pressure. Particularly with how A-Levels are going with the proposed plans that all exams will be at the end of year 13. There will, unfortunately, be students who are intelligent but won't be able to cope with that system. In fact, the stronger your desire the more likely you are to put pressure on yourself. A lot of students simply won't be able to cope with that system and I strongly disagree exams should all come at once, that being a key reason.

It also depends on what you define intelligence as. Degree level is obviously harder and someone going away, putting time into their studies and developing their own arguments and essays is probably has more of a focus on intelligence than someone who is reading out of A2 Religious Studies the arguments for and against the cosmological argument and simply converts that into an essay. A lot of A-Level performance will depend on the school, teaching and of course a lot of students and staff will guess questions and predict what is coming on, so there is obviously more luck involved at AS.

Although degree difficult with vary from subject to subject and university to university, you'll struggle to find any subjects where the 2nd or 3rd year in particular are easier than A2.

Degree is much better, in my opinion. Both demonstrate different skills though.

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you