A levels

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Originally Posted by Norman Bates

I see records were broken again this year! Congrats to everyone, but ...

In my time, if someone got three A's it was a big deal. We are talking the 'wow' factor. You were the creme de la creme. Apparently they were handing out a full set of A's at my local college yesterday which either tells me:

1. Teaching has improved
2. A levels have got easier

Now, why would universities be setting their own enterance exams?

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unis set their own entrance exams?

maybe people are just cleverer? plus now more and more people are taking their alevels so surely more people are going to get As than before? also all this alevels are getting easier, well even if they were, not everyone would get As anyway cos if too many people obtain As overall (ie get more than 80%) then they just higher the grade boundaries, maybe making 85% an A, therefore surely its making it harder to get As seeing as you have to get more right than previously?

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Originally Posted by di marco

unis set their own entrance exams?

maybe people are just cleverer? plus now more and more people are taking their alevels so surely more people are going to get As than before? also all this alevels are getting easier, well even if they were, not everyone would get As anyway cos if too many people obtain As overall (ie get more than 80%) then they just higher the grade boundaries, maybe making 85% an A, therefore surely its making it harder to get As seeing as you have to get more right than previously?

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...735660,00.html

What's the evidence that people are getting cleverer? The number of students passing exams cannot be used as an indicator.

Raising the grade boundries does not make one iota of difference if the exams are easier and modular (with several attempts to get a better grade). Explain how year on year we achieve records targets, yet the innovation coming out of GB is at an all time low. We can't even hold onto our call centre industry!

I don't know what the exams are like in the Uk but over here speaking from experience, exams are getting easier.. In 1989 I did my maths finals.. they were tough and when had to learn Theroms by heart, same with english, we had to learn poems by heart so we could not only discuss but quote them...

9 year later I resat some of my exam, Maths and english were 2 of the subject i noticed got easier.. Poems were included in the paper, with Maths it changed so much (I went from a D grade to A grade and I never studied maths in that 9 year period)... Plus they allow use of calculators, in 1989, not calculator and everything (including squares) were done using tables..

I think it the entire system needs looking at. It was such a big deal, even when I did my GSCS's if you managed to scrape even a B, let alone the people that got A grades (and there weren't that many because it was so hard to achieve)

I think everyone has done extremely well, from what I have seen on here, with regards to their results and congratulations to you all, but like has been said, with all of these results and something like the highest A grade results in the last 24 years (each year more A grades being achieved than the previous), its a shame that these skills aren't going to be put to use in the UK.

A levels are not getting easier. I only know one person who got an A at my college.

I am really proud of myself for getting an E in biology I pu a lots of work into it and I am more happy with teh E than the two Cs I got. And when people are constantly going on about the fact they are easy. Im sorry but I put a lot of hard work into getting the grades I did and Im fairly sure everyone else did.

exactly cornishbabe. and nb i know theres no proof that people are getting cleverer im just saying they could be

what i want to know is how these people determine how the exams are getting easier? more people getting A grades doesnt prove that, and as i used people getting cleverer as an example, there could be any number of different reasons.

siobhan used remembering quotes for english as an example. well going on to gcses, when i did gcse english literature my year was the last year that could take our annotated texts in with us, my sis took her gcse english lit exam this year and had to learn and remember all the notes she had made off by heart, yes she did get a new copy of the text in the exam, so she didnt have to remember quotes, but unlike me she couldnt just expand ideas from her notes. but they say that gcses are getting easier too, surely this cant be correct, id have thought it would be a whole lot easier to copy from notes than to remember them but i can almost guarantee that when the gcse results come out next week, all the critics will be saying how theyve been getting easier

not only when people say the alevels have been getting easier does it seem like the grades i have worked so hard to get not mean as much, but it also makes me think, and im sure it must make others think this as well, that i must be really thick if i could only manage an E in biology and my exam was easy!

"Since 2003, Oxford, Cambridge and other leading universities claim that they have been forced to set additional entrance exams for subjects such as medicine and law, history, because A levels alone no longer help them to identify the very best. Last year, Cambridge was forced to turn away 5,325 applicants who went on to achieve straight As."

this part of the article that nb posted interested me, cos it says that they have additional entrance tests for medicine and law. now it says that these have been happening since 2003, however, some people from my school applied to oxford and cambridge and out of the ones that wanted to study those subjects, only one of them had to take an additional test (for law at cambridge), one other person from my school got into oxford to do law without taking a test, and another person was turned away from cambridge to do medicine (even though he was predicted 5 As) also without taking an additional test. so surely it would seem, they claim to have been "forced" to set these exams cos of the high number of As, but in reality they arent actually setting them for all the people that apply. now this is either cos they dont set them for all applicants, or they dont have too many extra places so dont actually need the extra exams?

people who think that a levels are getting easier really wind me up.

I studied really hard for my exams, attended all my lessons and did all my homework was a perfect student... i still came out with a D and an E.

I suppose it might be to do with the fact that my college has been put into special measures...... but that's beside the point.

The exams were not easy and not many of the people who i have spoken to recieved an A. I think it is the media making something out of nothing again to create headlines.

Well Done everybody.

I got my AS results

A in Psychology
B in Law
and 2 Ds in 'Music and Geography which could have been better but i have next year yo improve on them. A little bit more hard work i think is in order.

I was really pleased with Psychology as an A is like the best you can get and i ve never had an A before.

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Originally Posted by cornetgal

Well Done everybody.

I got my AS results

A in Psychology
B in Law
and 2 Ds in 'Music and Geography which could have been better but i have next year yo improve on them. A little bit more hard work i think is in order.

I was really pleased with Psychology as an A is like the best you can get and i ve never had an A before.

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Congrats Katy - well done!! :cheer:

Could someone tell me the difference between AS Levels and A Levels - quite often I have seen them mentioned, and I haven't a clue what they are. All I knew were GCSE's and A Levels.