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more variety of A Levels taken should be forced
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4155454.stm
no matter how much id liek to see people taking a variety it cant be forced as its an optional thing going to do them in the 1st place, id like to see it encoraged though
i would fail an A Level english course due to my crap teaching at secondary school and its cock ups in years 8 and 9. However my english is reasonably astute even if i don't know the technicalities of it all (despite what you read on here
) - does this mean i shouldnt have got into my university who almost certainly wouldnt have accepted me for an interview, let alone a place? even if i'm managing to hold my own in my university nowadays?
i'd like to see langauges and double science forced again in schools at GCSE level, and not teach the crap i got taught for GCSE double science, which was completly irrelevant, but there to appease those who want it more english based instead of mathematical based.
no matter how much id liek to see people taking a variety it cant be forced as its an optional thing going to do them in the 1st place, id like to see it encoraged though
i would fail an A Level english course due to my crap teaching at secondary school and its cock ups in years 8 and 9. However my english is reasonably astute even if i don't know the technicalities of it all (despite what you read on here
) - does this mean i shouldnt have got into my university who almost certainly wouldnt have accepted me for an interview, let alone a place? even if i'm managing to hold my own in my university nowadays?i'd like to see langauges and double science forced again in schools at GCSE level, and not teach the crap i got taught for GCSE double science, which was completly irrelevant, but there to appease those who want it more english based instead of mathematical based.
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A lot of people I know were already forced to do subjects they didn't want to to get the number of subjects to the required level. My girlfriend hated MAths but had to do it because there were only two subjects she actually wanted to do.
Given that the next step is to go to uni and noly study one topic it seems ridiculous to be studying 5 or 6 subjects at a shallower level at A-levle.......
We have that, but we're not forced to do any languages at GCSE. (Apart from English and there were some people who did their first language for GCSE)
People study more than one subject at university. I started off doing three and a friend was doing about five or six at one point.
In Scotland doing 5 highers then possibly an additional 3 is the norm and there isn't a problem...especially since they introduced courses to procede Highers for people wanting in-depth study before uni (i.e. masochists).
studying in depth before uni means less years of uni ie 3 years in england instead of standard 4 years
I'm sure the universities are allowed to see the breakdown of the A Level marks, which can help them determine who is the most successful. So they really don't need A+ and A++ grades.
(A++ sounds a bit silly anyway)
exam results arent the only measure of how good you are, if so only privateschoolkids would only be in uni
You're right. Admission tutors don't just look at grades / predicted grades. They take into account everything you've said in your personal statement. I'm in the process of applying for 2006 entry and because I'll be 23 when I start my course I've been in touch with a number of admission tutors and they've all said that I undoubtedly have the grades to get in, but they'd like to see my personal statement to ascertain my suitability to study with them.
Universities prefer well rounded individuals. It's all well and good having 4 A grade a-levels but if you don't have anything else in your life (extra curricular activities etc) it usually indicates you've been closeted away studying your whole life and won't gain much from the university experience.
well said
i know of people who get into oxbridge with some Bs because in the interview stage which lasts 3days they thoughht the student was really worth accepting unlike the person who has no outside interests and 5As
the more people care about marks in an exam the more training will happen
what will that achieve?
i say give financial incentives to universities to interview more people
Some modules could take the form of playing a sport, community service etc. you could take as many or as few as you realistically want, you can mix and match......
For example in my degree it became very maths heavy early on, and I only had a C at intermediate GCSE, as a result I failed those modules at the first attempt. If I could've done some kind of "scientific mathematics" module at A-Level it would've helped enormously.
It should be purely about what you learn and how you apply yourself not your "grade".
And the people who suck at the scientiofic subjects don't pick a package which contains them - yet there are some subjects which are similar to all.
mind if i ask what degree you done?
my dept has course which gets everyone up to scratch in the maths required to do a chemisty degree
i like your idea in principle however it will result in less depth in 16-18 education which if taken carefully at the moment can result in a well rounded education as it is, its just badly informed students not getting depth. Like the fact it's better not doing law a level if you want to do a law degree, in fact its better doing history - off topic, key skills and general studies are a joke as its boring and doesnt arouse interest in anything part from indoctrinate psuedo-liberal ideas
Thanks to arguing with the likes of you on P&D so much I got a B in general studies, because it was basically about politics and issues etc. :razz:. Off topic, but you know.
I treasure greatly non 'core' subjects, but hate 'creative' subjects (personal preference I guess). But things that develop other kinds of intelligence, especially social intelligence, I think are important. I love doing these little basic language courses in any language you like at my school, because it gives you an interest in other cultures too. General studies may be too general though :chin:
We have a big brain though. Why not use as much of it as we can? How many of us know students who've picked subjects which all require the same kind of skills? Maybe they are specialising but they're sacrificing too. There should be more people in the world that when they see a problem, they see all angles of it, rather than just how they've been trained.
Anatomical Sciences. Sadly we didn't have any kind of "catch up" course and as there was a common first year we had people with a multitude of different, mainly "third/fourth choice" A-Levels. The wiser ones had Maths.
I feel people specialise too quicky myself. I wanted to do Medicine so I knew I had to do sciences but I would've liked to have a broader base than just another "fourth subject" at AS Level, I could've taken 4 or five modules in different subjects. Of course even if you had a module system you could still specialise in four subjects if you want, but at least you could have control on how far that goes.
most science dgrees only want the core subject and maths
most old universities prefer you to have a mix of subjects otherwise
ie medicine most want chemistry and biology, or law wants history and maybe a language or english
in my a levels i done maths chemistry physics and psychology as then dropped the pysc for 2nd year, i only picked them cause they seemed interesting, and i only decided upon chemistry when i looked at the ucas listings
Spliffie i would say that in England the vast majority of people basically do one subject for at least 3/4 of their modules......
seriously, having a 3year batchelors degree in a general science is better for doing medicine, simply cause you know how different university is, yioure older and hopefully more wiser in knowing what you want as a career
i saw the girl in newspaper who got turned down from all medicine depts. without even getting an interview despite having 4As and a bit of work experience - nothing to do with the A Level system, its the fact she applied to the best medical schools in the country and they prefer graduates
im all for having a variety, the best option would be to weight the AS level as 35 or 40% of the overall grade, and the A2s as 60 or 65 percent, so in the first year, people are more inclined to try things out, and more colleges should offer basic language and maths courses or even have debates etc so people dont do it for the qualification as such but to actually learn and get their points across
most of the improvements in education need to be made in primary and early secondary education, thats where arithmetic and spelling should should be taught, i was taught most my arithmetic in year 4 of primary school by my class teacher who was an enthusiastic mathematician, and by my year 5 and 6 teachers who liked doing silly word games like what they do in countdown every morning - most people got a bit bored but took part - and i believe since then my old primary school has gone for teacing the SATs etc
formal national examination should be scrapped up to the ages of 14 - so teachers can educate, and then in final 2 years they teach the exams
bit of a mouthful but im quite erm enthusiastic :shocking:
:eek2: Erm, not for the undergraduate medical courses, surely?
You can do graduate medicine conversion courses, but they're separate beasts (although, saying that, my unit tutor at Bristol started on the undergrad medicine course...despite having a masters in music, but I suspect she's one of a tiny minority)
If someone really wants to be a medic, I wouldn't go recommending the conversion courses unless they're extremely enthusiastic about getting a lot of bredth in their education - it means spending something like 7 years studying before you can even start as a junior doctor or whatever (don't really know how it works, only know a bit because a friend of mine - German and Italian graduate - was considering doing the conversion course for a while)
no its called doing a second degree i believe, and its not a conversion course, its doing a full first degree, and then going through ucas or your university to join their medicine dept the following year - it's what is preferred which si why theres more people who already have degrees in medicine 4 and 5 year courses. Someone with a degree is more likely to know what they want to do with their lives, and understand the dedication, and they dont need a freshers year
its not unfair at all, to do medicine in america for example you're at university for 7 years. Also helps prevent some kids who do a degree for their parents, and you see them at university struggling, when they should have gone into work, or done a different 'subject' if you can call medicine that, when its more job training than anything.
i could comfortably get into my medical dept at university college london after my chemistry degree if i got a 2:1, done some work experience and expressed a serious desire, but most people in my course want to go into finance (which i am highly adverse to)
Oh yes it is! (cue panto mode)
Source: http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/Content/BecomingDoctor
As I said, my friend considered doing that, so I knew I wasn't completely talking out of the wrong bit of my anatomy :P If you're seriously considering doing medicine after you finish your BSc, go and investigate those courses. As I said, you save yourself a couple of years doing graduate entry, which is important with a long course like that - especially when looking at your finances... (btw, I'm not adverse to long years of studying myself - I'm currently deciding whether or not to accept a PhD studentship, but the money aspect deserves some consideration. As it will do with me: studentship of £10k vs. I dunno....starting on £15k or whatever in a proper job :crazyeyes: )
ooh thanks for official names i just knew of people doing these things and saw a bit of a talk given by my medicine dept to 3rd years of my degree last year
and on an off note, do what you think will be more interesting - being a Dr is part of itevenif its a non-medicine one
Hmm, if only it was as simple as that! I'd seriously love to do the PhD and I am well aware of how damn difficult it's meant to be to get grants in the humanities and how good they must have thought my thesis proposal was in order to offer it....
It's a bit of a funny story really, I originally saw an ad in the paper for studentships for Sheffield Uni's MA in Historical Research, I've been doing a masters in Public Policy this year, but really miss History, so I thought it would be good fun for a year & applied. I got invited to interview & basicly they said that doing another masters would be a waste of time and suggested I applied for the MPhil/PhD. They held a PhD studentship competition during the summer and I got through! But it's all kind of escalated..before the studentship thing I've been all set for going into politics - applying for jobs with MPs, policy research, public sector admin jobs etc. but now I don't know WHAT to do....
Thing is I can't say 100% for certain that I want a career in academia and not in politics, but if I do the PhD as a mild - if intellectual - diversion for 3 years, I'd be worried it would harm my career prospects if I did want out - the dangers of being over-qualified and all that.
And, at the mo I'm living with my boyfriend at his mum's house and me only having £10k a year could seriously damage any prospects we have of getting somewhere of our own in the next couple of years or whatever. It's not just me I have to think about.....Agghh
what extra A levels would they be introducing?
the whole diploma thing really won't work. kids seriously struggle trying to pass the spanish bacalorate, and lots seem to drop out.
It one of the things that i really regret about my time at school, my school didnt push languages so i didnt bother with them plus the schools teaching of languages was quite poor. The thing is that most schools dont offer a wide variety of languages to study, at mine it wa french just french. Most of teh school my friends went to it was french or german. if they offered more languages to study then pupils will be more interested because they have a choice of what to study.
I also think that what they learn in lanague lessons shoudl be more practical. The stuff i learnt for my GCSE french was pretty much useless. I learnt some rubbish about what would happen if i got lost in france with nothing in the middle of nowhere, how many people is this going to happen to? not many. Then something else about buying a vest for my friend but its too small and i want a refund but they only do exchanges. No offence but to me this doesnt seem pratical, we should learn things that we'll need like being delayed in an airport, hospitals, asking for directions
Don't most people study about 3 subjects then as they progress narrow it down to 1 or 2?
no you normally start doing 4 subjects in 1st year, then in the 2nd year most students drop 1 of those subjects and so do 3A levels and an AS level
most of the problems in our education system stem from having national formalised exams under the age of 14 which stops real learning imo
Ah right I was on about university courses...
#sorry
from my experience at univeristy, theres things you have to do in 1st year depending on what subjects you done at A Level and the title of your degree - for example in my chemistry degree there were people witohut A level maths so had to do a maths catch up course, and i done chemistry with maths, so i had to do extra maths classes taught in maths dept and some people had to do languages in the langauge centre
then theres optional stuff you can pick and choose
and later on in your degree you can specialise more in your main subject
but i do a science degree so im not sure about arts degrees
throughout my course i get a unit out of 4 free to do what i want as long as it fits in my timetable so i can do a language (according to my ability level in it) or extra maths or more chemistry etc etc