The Education System

[gilgamesj]

Ok simple

I hear that the gov. are planning to stop this A Level malarky and introduce some kind of diploma method as in france and so on, if this happened wouldnt university entrances methods all have to change etc?

I hear they want to remove all the exams.. which would bug me cos i just screwed mine up.

also what about scandals? do u think that the govt. have actually set pass fail quota's? i wonder if i been tapped cos i had bad AS results... i felt i done well in my actual finals.

[DaBeeeenster]

Originally posted by gilgamesj
i felt i done well in my actual finals.

I hope you weren't taking English

This is the sort of story that gets blown up by the media because they have nothing else to write about and it sells copy. I have no doubt that the exam boards do a good job. If you look at a Maths exam paper from the 60's and one from this year, they are pretty similar (well, they were when I did my A levels in 1993 ). It's just one of those self-inflating stories. The british system is fine IMHO...

[headbrace]

Hmm, im not sure, but Im about to do my A levels, and from most people it seems like there will be a lot of work.
My headteacher is one of the ones on the board of people who want A levels removed and replaced with the international Baccalereat. I must admit i havent looked into this matter much, to busy enjoying my shortlived holiday

[Agent]

The International Baccalereat is somthing i strongly disagree with, and im also not happy with A levels.. ill expand more on why when i come back from my shower.

[Ravens Nest]

Originally posted by Agent
The International Baccalereat is somthing i strongly disagree with, and im also not happy with A levels.. ill expand more on why when i come back from my shower.

I think agent has slipped in the shower..

also what about scandals? do u think that the govt. have actually set pass fail quota's? i wonder if i been tapped cos i had bad AS results... i felt i done well in my actual finals.
Could be, i do feel they want us to get dumbed down or think we are so we accept our position in society and dont try to get out of our situation and into a better one. but thats my cynical side talking

[Agent]

OI

The main reason i am against the BA is because i get less choice in what i want to do in further education, part of it has already been decided for me. At that age people are turning (well in some cases) into young adults. Telling them what they have to do, will probably go against there principles.

The A level saga :
There are a few reasons why i think these are currently a balls up.
The first is the way exams are handled for retakes. The first time i was supposed to take the exams i had bronchitis, meaning i had to miss them. This wasn't a huge loss as i could do them next time around. I didn't realise the "next time around" would be when i had my other exams. I was doing 3 subjects, like most A level students. This meant i had to do 3 papers on each subject, or 3 complete AS levels worth of exams in under 2 weeks. It causes a _lot_ of pressure, and is also a stupid amount to learn for the end of the year. Further more, if i want to retake them (you get 2 chances at each exam) then they would spill over into my second year of the A level, meaning more exams are built up.
So in my case, where i missed the first lot of exams due to illness, when i want to have a 2nd attempt at them in my 2nd year i have 12 exams to do in around 2 weeks (3 exams for each subject in the first year, and 1 exam for each of the subjects in the second year). No one can do 12 exams in around 2 weeks and expect to get good marks.

The second is the way the points system for university's work.
It was made so that you could have say, 2 AS levels, and the points from each one would go forward to your total points for when applying to university. The amount of university's that will not accept this is astonishing. Many are saying you require a certain amount of full A levels, and only so many points can come from AS levels and General studies or key skills. This is partially defeating the point of the A levels in the respect of being able to change your course/s after the first year and still retain the points for what you have already worked hard for. A lot of universities will only accept one AS level, meaning if you want to change more than one of your subjects for the 2nd year, you will loose an entire AS level when it comes to putting those points toward university.

edit - typos

[spikegifted]

Just a quick comment...

A couple of years ago, I got into a conversation with a kid who was doing summer internship with the bank I was with. He and I got into a conversation regarding the quality of public exams - GCSEs and A Levels. He mentioned that in his upper sixth year (late 1990s, I think it was 1998), his maths teacher gave the class a sample question to do. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't too hard for him either. Anyway, they finished the one question and about 1/3 of the class got the correct solution. The teacher revealed the question was taken from an O Level paper from the mid-1980s and the same question, with the exception of wording, was repeated in an A Level paper 15 years later...

So what does it say about school exam standards and our education system? Is there any wonder why high quality universities are going to re-introduce entrance exams?

P.S.: I'm not suggesting that you guys who've just got your exam results haven't worked hard enough. However, I feel that you guys have been let down by the system...