| Product: |
Are 'A' levels still the educational gold standard? |
| Date: |
16/08/01 (550 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Everyone gets a go, Everyones a winner, That sexy no make up thing
Disadvantages: Dumbing down costs everyone, Universities are being dumbed down, They have the qualifications not you.
Its that day again when attractive middle class boys and girls hook their hands into their hair, throw it around and shout” OMG three As and a B”. Its annoying, its wonderful, it makes us older ones very jealous, its A-Level Thursday!.Sadly fifthteen years ago the same person would have said three Cs and an E.That’s the brutal reality of the fast food qualifications of the present day.
If you have just passed your AS or A,s then congratulations to you. You can only do well with what’s put in front of you, eeeeven though you have idiots running the show at school and education. When your minister dumps a whole exam half way through the year, it can’t be very reassuring.
The main guy who was telling the truth was sadly canned not six months ago. Chris Woodhead said that A-Levels marks are being taken over by politicians, hence modular and multiple-choice questions. He also stated that the exams would continue to get bigger so the government can justify their major expansion of the university system.
He also bellowed that Universities are now so desperate to pack student bums on to vacant academic seats that A level grades have become and an embarrassing irrelevance.
Even the dumbest advanced level students will be aware that the standards are dropping and the poorer envious teachers will take every opportunity to remind their bright-eyed students. It’s the 18th year that the passes have risen and for the 18year olds who have the coveted grades they need for Uni prepare to have some serious fun.
The change in opening up college kicked in when GCSEs were introduced in 1983.Since then polytechnics and minor institutions have been upgraded to New Universities to harvest and educate the new breed of students.
A s direct result of this move grade inflation was inevitable as more and more places become available creating a steam roller effect. The Unis get paid for every student they take on so
the temptation to introduce silly courses to make money is irresistible.
Life is about that and not your parents. Remember its mostly your mum and dads ambition when you open that envelope, the subjects you took and the course you do at UNI may bare little resemblance or relevance to the career your job you eventually end up in.
I read in the Telegraph about a month ago that people who took the same Physics multiple choice A-level paper have been awarded different rising pass marks year in, year out. So maybe the exams are not getting easier but the examiners more lenient to fill our blossoming new university sector.et your self down to the pub with your fellow passer and get seriously loud and drunk in preparation for college.
Ten years ago 76 percent passed by attaining an A-E, A-level.The same pass group has risen to 90 percent this time around and eventually will hit one hundred percent. Now that is a problem as the exam will well and truly have lost its kudos and respect.
I fear the older traditional students won’t tolerate this anymore and introduce higher fees and entrance requirements. They want to return to the hacylon days of A-Levels and university degrees of a test of excellence and character application.
In those days A-levels were the absolute elite and would streamline kids to the top at the right age. Now along with Ben from Berkshire and Charlotte of Cheshire phoning in the radio stations today to celebrate, you have Darren from Tooting.
The deans and Darrens have been invited to join in the fun and get them off the desperation of dead end jobs and wasted lives. The confidence of passing A-Levls and being nurtured is a positive thing full stop.
Hence the radical drop in unemployment with people feeling more positive about themselves.
The worrying scenario is that people are changing from the classics to easy Mickey Mouse subjects like Media and General studies. The later being the most popul
ar taken this year.
The ever-increasing new university sector close on 18,000 places a year is always in demand for new blood. A lot of these kids drop out in year one with money or intelligence worries, as they can’t cope with the course. On the social used to mean being unemployed, now it means a three-year course at Salford “university” doing music management and theology (same course) degrees.
The change occurred under the Tories when they moved the static pass mark up every year instead of giving the top ten percent an A etc. This means you will always have a fair representation of the top groups. People obviously are not getting brighter through more and more fast food and Sega every year.
A-Levels are the traditional Middle class right of passage and the olders ones who took them ten years ago are feeling intimidated and jealous of the growing stampede to their careers.If it comes down to an ender qualified 18 year old A-Level bright eyed kid and a stuck in their ways over qualified 35+,its young blood every time and they know it.
Lecturers come on the radio and say they are put under pressure to pass graduates and A-level students. Some having to set new tests over the holidays to get the less than erudite through.
If you have passed them today you are in the top seat now and don’t let anyone put you down. Your bright enough to know that the real battle lies in life itself and getting on their when you come up against all sorts of people looking to trip you up, not smooth your way.
The most important voice to listen to when you get your results are the ones in industry.the ones that employ you after the three year p**s up or study. Ruth Lea of the Institute of Directors quoted in the paper”There is little doubt that syllabuses have been diluted and the switch to modular examinations inevitably reduces any examinations challenge”.
“As universities have changed from being ins
titutions to a mass higher education system, so have A-Levels; they have been dumbed down”.
Anyhow for all those dooyooers that have done the business today and will go to uni, regardless of how good it is, well done and I hope you get laid tonight.
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If you really want to get into university pretend to be a foreigner, They get easy entrance exams to allow for their poor English skills. And the college or institutions get twice as much funding for you.
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Uberloin - 18/05/07 I think this is an incredibly narrow-minded perspective. Having read some of your other reviews I think you'd have benefitted from learning not to be so glib -an infintely more important quality than any "elite education" you claim to have. If you want to be taken seriously, I suggest you consider that there are many bright people whor ecognise the flaws in the educations ystem and are consdiering alternatives.
Furthermore, i see it as somewhat felacious to claim that A levels are easier -this is countered by the fact that most universities now have much higher entrance requirements and for some subjects new tests have been created to further compensate for the apprant "ease" of A levels.
There' s no such thing as a free lunch - if you are capable and motivated by the education system, it will provide for you.
I personally am not motivated terribly by grades or education currently. I find myself unable to be motivated by relatively superfluous, rote learnt skills too. You might argue that an intelligent person would work hard in spite of this. However, I'll tell you also that if you're very unsure and very uncomfortable in the fast-paced, largely material-wealth oriented world that we live in, who recognises the growing numbers of overqualified inexperienced graduates all vying for status and high paying jobs, then it becomes ever harder for a bright person whod doesn't want to be hurried through the sausage machine, to "go for it"
- go for WHAT? |
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