The examinations system was embroiled in a fresh row over “dumbing down” today following claims that A-levels are easier than they were 20 years ago.

 

Academics said that pupils capable of getting a C in exams two decades ago can now expect an A grade.

Researchers found that on average A-levels for pupils of the same ability improved by two grades between 1988 and 2006.

In maths – one of the core subjects – scores increased by more than three grades, it is claimed.

 

The findings, in a report written for the Office for National Statistics, come as thousands of students prepare to receive their examination results next week.

 

Papers are expected to show another year-on-year rise, with experts predicting the number of A grades will top 25 per cent for the first time.

 

Last year, 24.1 per cent of all tests taken received the top grade – double the number in 1990.

In the mid-80s just nine per cent achieved A grades.

 

 

Read full article in the Sunday Telegraph here:

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml.../nalevel105.xml

I find this disgusting, having taken a-levels recently I'll tell you they were very hard and I'd look down on any old fart of an adult sat they saying 'theyre easy' blah blah -_-

well if them vaccuous twins got to uni with a levels then the standard MUST be low!

I find this disgusting, having taken a-levels recently I'll tell you they were very hard and I'd look down on any old fart of an adult sat they saying 'theyre easy' blah blah -_-

 

Then how come Mensa is saying that the average IQ of school leavers are falling?

 

And how come major Employers in the UK are saying that School, Colleague & University graduates are applying for jobs with a reduced grasp of basic English (spelling & writing abilities) & a poorer grasp of basic Mathematics (adding, subtracting, multiplication, division, conversions of fractions to percentages) than 20 years ago? ....

I took A Levels only two years ago and I found them very hard and I think I earned my four C grades (even though I wanted better) THANK YOU VERY MUCH <_<

If all these people saying exams are easyer why don't they do them. I am sure they didn't need to do 6 exams for just one subject

If all these people saying exams are easyer why don't they do them. I am sure they didn't need to do 6 exams for just one subject

Well the thing is doing at the age of 17 and 18 is different for a 40 year old doing it and so they're likely to do a lot better.

the annual sign of disrespect to the thousands of teenagers who slog their guts out on A Levels. It really disgusts me year in year out when this all starts up

 

Another reason for better grades is the fact that there's coursework elements which weight upon the grade, meaning you get more time to work for a higher grade rather than a set of 3 hour exams.

Exactly. I just find it awful that these people who left school longer ago than us are there saying they are easy; if they could know how hard we find them and how hard we work towards them! Its just rude.

the accusation that a levels are easier now has been around for ages.... ok, i respect the fact that some here have just done 'a' levels and found them hard... but i wonder what the comparison would be from an a level paper from 30 years ago?.... in my day 'a' levels were not an automatic qualification upon completion of the course with many failing them.

 

i just get theimpression that the lower end of 'pass' has been reduced making them easier to get.

Every year this story comes up and it makes me feel sorry for the students - they should feel that they deserve their qualifications!

I live in a county which still adores the age-old 11+ grammar school system.

I went to school at a secondary modern (as I failed my 11+) where I sat my GCSEs - we were very much milk-maided through our GCSEs and students were taught to pass not to excel. I got fairly good grades - a couple of A's, but mostly B's and C's. The school did not have the time or resources to help children who might have been A/A* candidates as that is not what they expected.

I then went to a grammar school to sit my A Levels, and although the requirements for English were 2 B's and I had got 2 A's I was so far behind the other students. WHereas they had been taught so much at GCSE that was effectively all that was needed for AS levels; I had to catch up big time - they knew the technical terminology for everything whilst I was struggling with the difference between assonance and consonance! I worked bloody hard and came out with 3 B's at A Level and am now at a good uni finishing my English degree and planning on converting to teaching.

What my very long winded point is, is that A Levels aren't necessarily easier, but the schools are teaching the kids exactly what they need to pass and they are being prepared for A Levels at GCSE. Another thing is that in my area it is very common knowledge that all the grammar schools do not let students sit the exams if they don't think they'll pass!!

I don't for a moment think that people have got more intelligent than say 20 years ago or whatever but I would say that there is an access to information today that was not around 20 years ago so revision is a lot easier to do now because of the whole wealth of information that is available on the net whereas my generation (me, mushy, scott etc) did not have the net in our school days so while I would not say for one second that people are more intelligent now there is an access to information for research and study to get good grades that us oldies never had

I seem to remember exactly the same argument when i took my A levels 'several' years ago.

 

Universities were complaining that the standard of students was falling then too!!!

 

Is hard to say whether the exams have got easier, the standards for marking or passing have changed or universities just need to protect their "value added" tables.

 

Schools have league tables and targets to meet - based on "value added"

 

So an A grade maths GCSE should produce A grade A level ...... if not then the college has not achieved :mellow:

 

...but then pressure is on universities when faced with 25% A level grade at grade A .... they then have to show improvement - so they complain that the students aren't actually as good as their exam resuts.

 

Just as high school complain when children get level 5s in year 6 - oh noooo they say they aren't that good - because a child at level 5 in Y6 is expected to get high 6/ low 7 at Y9 ....... or the school isn't adding value.

 

It is all politics and paperwork - league tables and Value added tables mean nothing - and yet cause nation wide chaos.

 

 

i just get theimpression that the lower end of 'pass' has been reduced making them easier to get.

 

I am tempted to agree with Rob ..... schools need kids to pass - nothing to do with the kids / schools ablilities!!!

Edited August 6, 200717 yr by ICR

May I just add if this was a test for 40 years old they'd be congratulated on having such a high pass rate :lol:

I find this disgusting, having taken a-levels recently I'll tell you they were very hard and I'd look down on any old fart of an adult sat they saying 'theyre easy' blah blah -_-

I'd like to add before anyone else points it out, that I took GCSE's and not a-levels :wacko: Must have been having a blonde moment there lol, but the basic argument still stands the same, as people think GCSEs too are easier these days. The fact is to claim they are easier now is a silly argument that can't really be proved because even if an adult were to take them they have grown in intelligence as they matured into an adult.

To be honest, I do believe that exams are easier now... And I can back that up pretty easily tbh... When I went to Uni, EVERY person who dropped out of the course I did was a school-leaver, simple as... All of us mature students got by far the highest marks, the common complaint that lecturers made was the poor standard of basic English Grammer in the coursework (really is a stunning indictment that Japanese, Indian and Chinese students were getting higher marks for English Grammar, spelling and punctuation than many of the British born and bred students..) .. I have several friends in the teaching profession and they honestly laugh when they see some of the exam papers that are being set.. There is no question that Educational standards are being dumbed down, standards of English grammar are absolutely p***-poor, and Rob is absolutely correct - Schools NEED kids to get high passes in order for the school to maintain its "League Table" status...

 

Sorry guys, but you are getting an easy ride....

Well I'm not inclined to accept that papers are easy. Without being big-headed, im an intelligent student, predicted A*s, As and Bs, (even if i did waste lots of my potential on mindless chatter) but I found papers like the English in particular, which is my best subject, extremely hard! The pressure of having to sit there for 2 hours and not put your pen down at any one time, instead writing 5, 6, 7 straight pages of A4, is really difficult! Anyway I obviously find it hard to appreciate comments about poor grammar and the like because I went to a school in an upmarket-ish area of Cheshire where we were extremely well educated in comparison with others in say 'rougher' areas of the country.

Grades have changed now though since our day

 

Now you can get an A for getting 65% in an exam and an A* for I think it is 75% whereas 65% in my day would have got a C at best and to get an A* you needed around 85-90% so undoubtedly the thresholds have changed so that more people get A's and A*. That is not minimising the efforts of those that have worked hard to get grades but this years A is 20 years ago's C

I don't think the exams are getting that much easier, more the courses are getting stupider. At some colleges near me they offer film studies and all this other lark. That's not too hard if you ask me!

 

None of my a-level subjects were like that and they've been hard but I have to say GCSEs were a doddle. I'm not stupid but they were really quite easy. Higher level maths I got 40 marks on coursework I think it was and therefore to get an A for the subject I think I had to get 40 or 50 percentage on each paper. I mean that is quite silly.

Well I'm not inclined to accept that papers are easy. Without being big-headed, im an intelligent student, predicted A*s, As and Bs, (even if i did waste lots of my potential on mindless chatter) but I found papers like the English in particular, which is my best subject, extremely hard! The pressure of having to sit there for 2 hours and not put your pen down at any one time, instead writing 5, 6, 7 straight pages of A4, is really difficult! Anyway I obviously find it hard to appreciate comments about poor grammar and the like because I went to a school in an upmarket-ish area of Cheshire where we were extremely well educated in comparison with others in say 'rougher' areas of the country.

 

Then explain to me just how the Foreign students were turning in better papers IN ENGLISH than the actual BRITISH kids then mate... Because, really, it speaks absolute VOLUMES to me about our p***-poor education system... And it didn't matter about backgrounds either, you got bad students dropping out from the "posher" schools as well as the "rough" ones, so that doesn't even enter into the equation if you ask me.... I was educated in a Secondary Modern in the 80s, no silver spoons in MY mouth dude, I got a bloody FIRST....

 

And just to let you know, I would sit at my computer for SIX hours drafting just one 6-page essay for Uni.... ;)