The Student Room Group

Will AS-levels completely die out in the next few years?

So, I remember discussing with the head of sixth form about the topic of AS-levels and why we don't take them anymore. I understand that they no longer count towards the final A-level grade as they did previously, but I was speaking to someone else who was still going to take an AS-level in mathematics at the end of their first year at their sixth form. The response from my head of sixth form was that it was too expensive to run, and that taking AS-level examinations at the end of the first year would have meant that teachers would have had to teach the A-level courses differently (which apparently they weren't too fond of).

I was also told that some awarding bodies have decided to discontinue AS-level qualifications in a few subjects. Edexcel have already stated that they have: https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-a-levels/mathematics-2017.news.html?article=%2Fcontent%2Fdemo%2Fen%2Fnews-policy%2Fqualifications%2Fa-levels%2Fgeneral-alevel-news%2Fimportant-as-qualification-update&pageTypes=

Also, it's pretty much common knowledge at this point that AS-levels aren't doing too well in this new educational climate, given how many schools have dropped them:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/education/aslevel-killed-off-by-alevel-reforms-as-takeup-falls-by-52-per-cent-a3913146.html

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/as-level-exam-entries-plunge-by-42-after-government-reforms/

https://www.tes.com/news/level-entries-fall-60-cent

AS-levels feel like obsolete qualifications after these reforms. Do they still have a chance to survive, or will they, as my sixth form head said, completely die out in the next couple of years?

Is the death of AS-levels a good or bad thing? They were probably the most accurate indicator of a student's current ability and helped universities a lot, but now predicted grades from mock exam results will probably be used to determine a student's predicted grades.
(edited 5 years ago)

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