Speckled Frost Posted August 19, 2004 Share Posted August 19, 2004 Regardless of whether A levels are getting easier or not and whether the grades are deserved, the fact there is now a 96 per cent pass rate with a fifth being As, surely the grades are devalued? How does a university determine a true talent from someone who just works very hard and is intellectually competetent? Employers are just going to be faced with a whole batch of A graders. Unis are now considering asking for dissertations to seperate the wheat from the chaff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speckled Frost Posted August 19, 2004 Author Share Posted August 19, 2004 By the way, I have this vague recollection Ean may have done his A levels this year. I maybe totally wrong but if he did, good luck with your results mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly Posted August 19, 2004 Share Posted August 19, 2004 everyone seems to stay on and do a levels these days and then uni. used to be that having a degree meant you were bright, not so these days! mind you we need them all to stay at uni because otherwise we would have that many more fighting for the jobs available, keeps a big proportion of working age people out of the job market anyway, so its good for something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilDDog Posted August 19, 2004 Share Posted August 19, 2004 Kelly Wrote everyone seems to stay on and do a levels these days and then uni. used to be that having a degree meant you were bright, not so these days! How do you come to that conclusion, are you one of those people that's saying A levels and exams are easier. You have already said having a degree doesn't mean a person is bright. Hmm, when did you last do an A level or a degree for that matter. I take it you have a degree in your chosen field which would qualify you as one of the bright ones but if anyone passes a degree these days they can't possibly be as bright as you eh, so that means their degree isn't as good as yours eh. Exams are just as hard as they were years ago, it's just that revision and learning are the key factors to passing them and more students have realized this. Degrees are worth having and aren't easy to pass. If a person has bothered to study for a degree and passed, or is studying for a degree, whether after just leaving school or later on in life means they are bright, far brighter than someone who hasn't or couldn't be bothered to study for one. If someone has passed their A levels or a degree they deserve respect for passing, putting the hours in and getting the results they've got. Still, they do say ignorance is bliss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speckled Frost Posted August 19, 2004 Author Share Posted August 19, 2004 I wanted to avoid branding the exams easier because what Wilddog says is perfectly valid. But it does still raise the question of how you really identify the talented ones from the mere hard working ones? There are only so many places at university. I heard this morning that Oxbridge had to turn down 5,000 straight A students last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minnie Posted August 19, 2004 Share Posted August 19, 2004 If someone has passed their A levels or a degree they deserve respect for passing, putting the hours in and getting the results they've got. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I agree, Wilddog. Can't it just be that more students nowadays realise the importance of putting in the hours with study if they want to follow their chosen career path? It must be very disheartening for students, who have worked their butts off to get good grades, when people are saying that exams are getting easier and it's no big deal if you pass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rallybug Posted August 19, 2004 Share Posted August 19, 2004 Did people see the news on the BBC the other day, talking about this? A professor from Imperial College, London was saying that they have to give remedial maths lessons to some of the intake now - students are going there with A grade passes that, based on the universities testing, would have got a C pass a few years ago. Also, York university has been testing the frosher intake since 1979, and the general trend has been downwards on grades in the exam. Apparently, and I've never done an A level in my life and probably couldn't now as it's been so long since revising , maths exams are showing more diagrams and stepping students through the questions much more than they used to - anyone able to comment on whether this is correct that there is a fair bit of guidance within the exam? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ans Posted August 19, 2004 Share Posted August 19, 2004 Wild, I'm surprised at you, I really am. I can only assume that one of your kids is doing GCSEs/ALevels right now and you've been blinded by that. Exams have been getting easier and easier every year. Sure, access to revision material is easier with the Internet age, but anyone that has compared an A-Level maths exam from 15 years ago to an A-Level maths exam today and can't see that there is a significant difference in the requirements and marking criteria to obtain a high level pass is seriously deluded. Anyone that's seen the quality of the language coursework, from the grammar, spelling and punctuation to the composition and structure of the text can see the massive differences between the two. Children are leaving school unable to spell properly, do simple arithmetic and with a very poor general knowledge and they're being told that is OK! Their lack of education is validated by these worthless qualifications they're given. These children are the ones you're going to be working with in 10 years time, who can't tell the difference between 'their, there and they're', who don't know more than two Prime Minister by name, who can't do long division or mental arithmetic. And they're going to think it's ok. And what makes it worse, is that for those that took their exams 15 years ago, slogged their guts out to achieve a B in maths, will be competing in the job marketplace with A grade students who can't tell you the square root of 1024. Without a uniform approach to exam results over time, this sliding standard of ability devalues those that have gone before. In 10 years time, these same children that were A grade today, will be complaining about the class of 2014 who achieved a 99% A*** grade pass rate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Rox Posted August 19, 2004 Share Posted August 19, 2004 I used to be asthmatic myself. But I grew out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posters Posted August 19, 2004 Share Posted August 19, 2004 who can't do long division Sad to say, never my strong point. I seem to enjoy and understand maths more as I grow older. Apart from long division. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkey_magic Posted August 19, 2004 Share Posted August 19, 2004 I was pretty good at long division when I was at primary school. But after that it all went downhill. It's calculators that are to blame... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puddy Posted August 19, 2004 Share Posted August 19, 2004 I did my GCSE's in 1994 and I remember back then people were saying how easy they had become compared with previous years. Last year my brother did his GCSE's. I can remember seeing an example exam paper he had for "Science" (were we ever shown example papers? I can't even remember). Anyway, I nearly p*ssed myself laughing when I read some of the questions, I couldn't believe these were exams for 15/16 year olds. I thought a ten year old could manage most of them. I don't remember GCSE's ever being like that, maybe they were and I just wasn't very bright back then. It would be interesting to compare an exam paper from say ten years ago with one of today. Anyway, that's GCSE talk. I have no idea if A-levels are getting easier, they were always much more difficult. One of my friends did cr@p but they had to laugh at the letters N, U, D, E written on their results slip. The best of luck to everyone getting their results today or next week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posters Posted August 19, 2004 Share Posted August 19, 2004 There was an 'expert' on Sky news comparing one of todays A level papers with another over a decade old. His 'opinion' was that they weren't getting any easier. The UK government line seems to be 'teaching is getting better'. Another 'expert' said he thought exams were to test the students NOT the teachers. Even if they are easier, I'm glad I'm not doing them now. Good luck to all getting results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minnie Posted August 19, 2004 Share Posted August 19, 2004 These children are the ones you're going to be working with in 10 years time, who can't tell the difference between 'their, there and they're'......... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> That seems to be a problem for our generation as well though, if you read through some of the posts on here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Observer Posted August 19, 2004 Share Posted August 19, 2004 Every day their is sum class stuff posted on hear! Show me were your looking too substanciate you're claim. You need too get over youreself and stop been so pickie! *Edited to add that this is a stab at humour and not an attack in any way shape or form :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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