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So, are A-Levels really getting easier?

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Where the questions were structured, candidates seemed well prepared and confident and were able to pick up a reasonable number of marks. Once the more demanding questions and concepts were reached many candidates made little progress and their work showed a lack of organisation and the inability to work with equations, both in terms of the algebraic demand and their relevance to the question.

This was from a Maths A-Level examiners report about 6 years ago! Although I could easily have quoted something similar from one of this mornings newspapers.

Things never change :rolleyes:

Reply 81

Llamas

Jools

Do people agree that the ability to repeatedly resit papers until you get a good grade is just stupid and there should be a limit of 1 resit?

I doubt many people do more than one resit for a module, especially since most people spent two years in 6th form. A2 modules in particular you would probably only have one opportunity to resit.

I think that universities should have access to information telling them how many times a person has taken a module though.

Up until this year exam boards would only let you have your two most recent sittings on record. It was abolished because it took too much effort and time to do and only really applied to very few people.

Reply 82

stephx

Jools

Do people agree that the ability to repeatedly resit papers until you get a good grade is just stupid and there should be a limit of 1 resit?

yep i agree. i suppose 1 resit is justifiable in some cases; a good candidate might have a bad day for whatever reason, dont think having a bad day should result in someone getting a worse grade than they deserve.

but multiple resits are unfair on those of us who do well the first time. i know someone that got a D in P1 january last year so decided to retake it the following academic year in the November resits. this time they did even worse, so retook it again in the next january exams, and this time got a C which they were happy with. what people forget is, by this time, theyve had a whole years more maths teaching than those taking it for the first time, and in this case, their parents were willing and able to pay for private tuition for the retakes.

in terms of the whole a level, this C grade will have just the same weighting as one acheived by someone taking the exam for the first time and not resitting.

Reply 83

stephx

oh and just as an aside... our GCSE coursework *did* involve calculus for those doing higher tier. it was the maximising use of fencing as mentioned earlier. admittedly only coursework, just thought id give it a mention. :smile:

Reply 84

randdom

IntegralNeo

ahhhhhhh
finish this useless debate...Alevels are worth nothing thats true...the real challenge which proves ur something is people like paul jefferys...won 2 gold medals in International Maths Olympiad...by the way im gettin my results tomorrow but its not gonna make me happy if i get 5 As its not a big achievement... :mad:

When you say things like that how do you think it makes people feel. I mean people who maybe aren't as smart as you and aren't predicted 5 A's. If this is A-levels 5 A's is a huge achievement. Even if A-levels are getting easier which I don't think that they are, I don't think that anyone would say that getting 5A's isn't an achievement.

Reply 85

Llamas

There's a good comment piece in today's Guardian on this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1285365,00.html

Here's a choice quote:

This is a dispute that goes much wider than simply education policy: it is a classic division of right and left. The right believe - and here comes the perniciousness - that if anything has value, that value is diminished the more people have access to it. That might be true of some commodities like oil or diamonds, where value depends on scarcity. But a good education is a good education, whether one person has it or 10 people have it.

The right don't see it that way. For them education's value does indeed vary according to scarcity. That's because it is linked in their mind with status. In this view, a place at university meant something when only a privileged few could get it. Now that the comprehensive-schooled, estuary-accented many are storming the gates, the share price is tumbling.

Proof that the right's charge is more ideological than logical comes in the absence of any empirical evidence to support the dumbing-down accusation. Miliband cites independent assessments of exams which show that today's papers are just as tough as those of the past, while Ofsted has concluded that teaching standards have improved. Bottom line: these kids have got into the high-achievement club fair and square - it's just the old guard preferred the old days, when membership was exclusive.

Reply 86

Brown Patrick Bateman

amylouise

So you think that only a small percentage of people should be allowed to go to good uni's???

Yes!

amylouise

To make the admissions process all that more selective, A-levels would have to be astonishingly difficult, & barely appropriate for 90% of students.

a) Putting in an A* at 540/600, or splitting the A grade into A1-A4 as they've considered, will be able to differentiate between the top students whilst making A-Levels still at the appropriate level for everyone else.
b) Making AEAs/STEPs accessible to everyone good enough rather than a small elite of schools could help to differentiate whilst keeping the A-Level standard the same.

Reply 87

priya

Jools

Yes!

a) Putting in an A* at 540/600, or splitting the A grade into A1-A4 as they've considered, will be able to differentiate between the top students whilst making A-Levels still at the appropriate level for everyone else.
b) Making AEAs/STEPs accessible to everyone good enough rather than a small elite of schools could help to differentiate whilst keeping the A-Level standard the same.

my god i would never get an A* if that was the case this time round. apart from maybe Art. but never in anything else

Reply 88

firebladez777.5

priya

my god i would never get an A* if that was the case this time round. apart from maybe Art. but never in anything else

Me neither. I'm so glad I'll be finished with A-Levels by the time any of these absurdities are implemented. :confused:

Reply 89

an Siarach

firebladez777.5

This raging debate seems to have permeated the national consciousness so as to have become an accepted part of the British summer. The continual rise in the percentage of students coming out with A grades seems to have devalued this grade to the exrtent that many are saying it is now almost worthless.

It does sort of set my teeth on edge though: most of us have worked really hard for these exams, and I for one did not find them a walk in the park. Yet on the radio, there's this constant back-and-forth: David Miliband versus...well, all the critics. To a certain extent, I agree with Miliband in that schools are becoming better at bringing out the best in their pupils (and all his independent investigations have claimed that standards are being maintained).

On the other hand, we were given past questions from ’93 and ’94 as preparation in chemistry, and I have to admit they were a darn sight harder than the ones you get nowadays. But this could be because the syllabus has shifted and changed so much.

Ultimately, I guess they are wrong to compare exams today with exams of yesteryear. I mean, it’s not really fair is it? You’re not comparing like for like.

The Government has everything to gain by not telling the truth (assuming that the truth is standards are falling) while the universities and employers gain nothing by accusing standards of falling. This leads me to conclude that exams are indeed getting easier.

Reply 90

Brown Patrick Bateman

priya

my god i would never get an A* if that was the case this time round. apart from maybe Art. but never in anything else

See right now there's people getting ~590/600 in 4 subjects, others are getting ~490/600. Both have AAAA, yet there's a tremendous difference in effort/intelligence between the two; as much as between a B and a C.

For AS I just had no motivation to bother working hard thinking an A at 480/600 wouldn't require effort; if there was A* for 540/600 there'd have been a challenge to aim for.

Reply 91

Geogger

Jools

Yes it would be quite easy with 60 or 50 marks between grades to go for an A at 480 and A* at say 530 and an A** at 580.

Reply 92

A0307

Whether or not they're easier A-levels have certainly been devalued. The modular system, introduction of AS levels, allowing (multiple) re-sits, adjusting UMS marks, and no doubt also changes to the syllabus/style of exams have all added together and made A-levels so difficult to fail that under 5% of people actually do. Any "exclusiveness" the qualification had is totally gone.

Without meaning to turn this into another argument/comparison, I will mention that the (often ignored) Scottish system does not appear to have this problem. We have pass rates of 70-75% at both Higher(AS) and Advanced Higher(A2). Highers are our "standard" university-entry qualification, but not only is the pass rate 20-25% lower than A-level, but we also tend to do more of them (5 on average), which allows them to retain value and universities to be able to differentiate between candidates easier. Advanced Highers are far more "exclusive" here than A-levels, and generally only the top Higher candidates sit any, which is reflected in the number of exams sat- the number of AH sat each year is as little as 10% of the number of Highers.