"A" True Test (Are 'A' levels still the educational gold standard?)

Member Name: leeroy

Product:	Are 'A' levels still the educational gold standard?
Date:	18/08/00 (32 review reads)
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A Levels really are a true test of a students ability. I am compelled to write on this subject as someone who has this year completed a course in English, Maths and Physics A Levels.

A Level subjects are by definition (Advanced Level) more difficult than anything students have attempted and learnt before, and I am angered when I hear people say that they are easy. I don't know a single person that wasn't challenged by the subjects that they took, regardless of whether they achieved excellent grades or not. For example, I know lots of friends who achieved two or more A's and were still very much challenged and stretched by the difficulty of the course.

In my own experience, I found GCSE's to be relatively easy, I believe that most of it could be done with common sense, lateral thinking and a bit of luck. I achieved six A's, six B's and one D at GCSE level, and today I was astounded to discover that I received only a C, a D and an E for English, Physics and Maths respectively. My English course was challenging because we had to learn new techniques for essay writing, criticism as well as learning lots of texts off by heart (I took 5 books into one exam!). My Maths course was extremely intense with a whole host of terrifically difficult (at times, mind numbing) techniques to learn. Similarly, Physics was mainly a memory test, with lots to be learnt and regurgitated. None of these courses was easy and they all tested me. I didn't, for a number of reasons perform to the level which was expected of me or I was capable of. This is unfortunate, but almost entirely my own fault. Not a fault of the system.

A Level subjects are a true test of a students ability to work to a high standard with difficult problems, using new techniques at a high work load. Again, anyone now, who says that A Levels are getting easy is talking absolute rubbish because most of them are saying it without any knowledge of what goes
on in the exams. One lady said to me today that Maths is easy because your answer can only be right or wrong! I believe that students these days, tend to drop out before failing, and that the ones that stick with their courses also work harder than in previous years. I'd also like to stress that teaching standards are rising at all times, and so, it would be a sensible assumption that so would results.

I must apologise for the increasing length of this opinion, but I still have one last frustration to vent. I really dislike the way in which the media tries to knock what thousands of students have achieved over the past two years of their lives. Most students have worked very hard indeed and should be given a pat on the back for attempting to better themselves not a slap in the face, telling them that their exams were easy and they really haven't actually achieved anything.

They really are a true test of whether a student can deliver, but they are only a relative mark of one students academic ability to do a subject, and also an indicator of that person's ability to work hard. The letters we are presented with at the end of our courses is not the magic way of stating our determind intelligence. Please give us all a break for a while, we've worked hard.

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