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A Levels
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Ok with A Level results, including mine eek, coming out on Thursday. The Annual media frenzy over 'A Levels getting easier has begun'
To be honest I have not found my A Levels 'easy' I have worked for them. I am hoping to get B's in all my subjects (Politics, History, Geographygeneral studies ) and I will be disappointed if I dont because i cant go to my first choice uni.
Anyway all this media bashing A Levels, surely they must at least think that by telling everyone they are getting easier, it is not going to make hard working students who do their best and say dont get what they wanted feel bad? Erm...discuss?
To be honest I have not found my A Levels 'easy' I have worked for them. I am hoping to get B's in all my subjects (Politics, History, Geographygeneral studies ) and I will be disappointed if I dont because i cant go to my first choice uni.
Anyway all this media bashing A Levels, surely they must at least think that by telling everyone they are getting easier, it is not going to make hard working students who do their best and say dont get what they wanted feel bad? Erm...discuss?
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Probably that 'the education system is failing our bright youth'.
i done maths, physics and chemistry for A2- i got 3 B's
and in As i done psychology, and got an E hehe
but i think more students are doing their a levels and instead of learning it for the sake of learning and understanding it, they concentrate mainly on just getting high grades, like at uni theres plenty of fellow chemistry students who got A's and whom dont know a single thing, or seem to have forgot it in between college and uni
and dont get me started on bashing media studies as i think some things arent meant for being learnt in a academic environment
all you can do is your best and know what answers please the exam boards
i feel sorry for those who done fundation maths as best they can get is a D which is useless for someone who wants to go uni, it should be increased to C
More passes indicates that the norm-referencing aspect of examination marking has been relaxed.
It doesn't mean that the examinations are easier, or easier to pass, but it does make the conditions more favourable towards passing.
In every otehr course there are only two tiers, I can'tn understand why that isn't the case for GCSE Maths.
I do disagree with tiering, full styop, however. The "confidence of weaker students" is a crap reason.
As levels are a step down from A levels, they're supposed to be easier, and aren't 'worth' the same as a-levels.
this new AS/A2 thing is easier than the A levels we did. i know people don't like to hear that, but it's the truth. nowadays there's all these modules, and if you fail a module you can resit it. when i did A levels, there were 2 three hour exams at the end, and if you failed them, you were buggered. you just had to stay an extra year.
the exams themselves are not easier, but the way they are set is, and the grade boundaries have been shifted down.
my mum says she read somewhere that 500% more students got As at A level this year than 5 years ago. and i KNOW kids have not got 500% brighter in the last 5 years.
The AS-A2 system is easier. It is more forgiving of mistakes, it is more accomodating.
It doesn't mean it's easier to pass per se, but the conditions are more suited to passing. It is easier to pass a modular examination that it is a final examination; there's always a second attempt.
Kaffrin has hit the nail on the head.
Indeed, I mean if I wasn't allowed to retake my AS Levels even I would have just had a BBD
A levels are supposed to be a bit harsh. they're supposed to catch you out. that's why they're 'advanced' levels, and not 'only slightly harder than GCSE' levels.
Well quite. I never heard any sentance repeated more often than the following
I have to say it was a much larger gap between AS Levels and A Levels than GCSE and AS Level. Mind you most of my exams I did well on first time round, I just wanted to push for that little bit more.
It makes it easier to be able to get a second chance.
That said, I got AAA in my three final examinations.
It is harsh, but as kaff said, they're supposed to be. My degree exams were all final exams, three hours, it's just the way life is.
I don't think the new system is very good, though- in final exams you can afford to take year 12 easy and have a laugh along the way.
I sure didn't
I sure did :yes:
yes because you had AS levels to worry about.
Kermit is talking about before the AS levels were introduced.
I actually quite liked the idea of the option. Replacement maybe isn't appropriate, just the opputunity to choose.
The old GCSE and A'Level system was perfectly adequate.
Adequate, but not perfect, there's always room for improvement.
Screw them
GCSEs may be easier than o-levels were, but they've been getting steadily harder since they were introduced.
I refuse to believe that- kids haven't got brighter, and whilst teaching has increasingly become geared to passing exams, that doesn't account for all of it.
The norm referencing of grade boundaries has been relaxed- it is easier to get a high grade than it used to be. The paper is similar, or harder, but you don't need so many marks.
that's exactly it.
when A*s were first introduced, you had to be exceptional to get one. we're talking at least 95% marks on papers.
nowadays they give them to every tom, dick and harry. the A/A* boundary is more like 85%.
the papers are the same. they have always been the same. when i was at school we did A level past papers right back into the 70s, and GCSEs back as far as GCSEs went, and they were all roughly the same level. the only difference was that if these days you do a 1997 GCSE maths paper and get 85%, you'll get an A*. when we did the same paper and got 90%, we only got As.
from that point they then worked out the grade boundries for the lower grades
now they just set a boundry and anyone who passes it gets an A grade
it's not quite 500%. she likes to exaggerate. but it's still worrying.
I know.
Under the old O'Level system x% got an A, y% a B and so on. If you were in a bright year you were unlucky, tough luck; if you were ion a poor year it was bully for you.
The new system is fairer, but it has led to a drop in standards. There is still a norm-referencing aspect- if the paper is easy, and everyone gets high marks, then the boundaries get shifted upwards- but generally it is easier to get high grades now than it was when I took GCSEs five years ago, and it was easier for me to get higher grades that it was for someone ten years ago.
The new A'Level system of AS and A2 makes it even easier again, and there has been a fudging of exam boundaries to make them easier. To illustrate how easy it is to fudge exam boundaries, look at the examination results scandal in 2002.
its not the students fault, its the schools. league tables really should be abolished. anyway the point remains the same. in 20-30 years time, this country is going to implode cos we're going to have a generation of qualified idiots. dont say i didnt tell you.
To be honest I thought they still used the old system, maybe they changed it between my GCSEs and As-levels. They're still tweaking though aren't they?
I'll prefere the new system once it's got the standard right. I think it should be a given that an A grade one year, requires the same standard as an A grade 6 years later.
Although if grades went down every kid would be a dumbo.
*shrug*
The exams are still norm-referenced if a paper is obviously easy, but the standard has moved away from being x% or y%.