Are A Levels getting easier?

[flip_flop]

Once again, we have reached that time of year when people who have the temerity to suggest A-Levels are easier than they once were are treated with derision.

I took three A-Levels 18 years ago, and achieved the grades required to enter my university of choice: only exceptional students attampted a fourth subject.

Now, we read of students taking as many as six A-Levels and achieving high (often A) grades in each subject. To me this is proof enough that the exams must be getting easier.

It is obvious that children cannot be intrinsically more intelligent than those who took their exams 15 to 20 years ago.

So are they getting easier?

[Gromit]

flip_flop,

Maybe the teaching is better. The cr@p teachers have been Ofsteded out, t'internet helps, and more structured teaching plans.

My observation of the young people taking A levels now is that they work a damn sight longer and harder than I ever did.

[netibiza]

Not at my age!

[WaldoMcFroog]

Regardless of whether they've got easier, one of the major issues is that back when I were a lad, you didn't get an A grade for achieving a certain mark, but for being in the top 10% of all marks. The next 15% were Bs, the next 10% Cs and so on.

That way, you knew that anyone who had received an A grade was in the top 10% of their year, regardless of what year it was.

This changed after 1987, such that now 80% or above gets you an A.

Both systems have their positives and negatives, but clearly there is a basic reason why more people can achieve As than when us old farts were at school.

[Reverandfunk]

Haven't I read many times that old "o level" papers have now become "A levels"?

Or was I dreaming again lol

[Haggisdj]

I went to university, via the Access route, from 96 - 98 as a mature student. I did notice that A-Level students, no matter what grade, did not have the level of maths and English expected of them. They had to work a lot harder to catch up because degree courses, quite rightly i my opinion, do not wait for anyone.

[tubeway]

I passed 3 A levels in 1980 (Biology, Physics and Maths) all at grade B. Having seen exam papers for these subjects from recent A levels - I would say the questions look similar to questions that I would have answered from O levels taken in 1978. While I can not comment on the standard expected by the people who mark the papers. I cannot believe that over the last 25 years or so, people have become brighter and more hard working and that teaching standards have rocketed.
I do not want to belittle the effort that people taking A level have reached - but I do not think that the efforts that I made all those years ago should be devalued either.
Exams are easier - standards are lower - why cant people just admit it.

[Oneeyedvic]

I took London Board O levels whilst abroad and then came back and took my A levels here (Maths, Physics Chemistry). All my fellow students had taken GCSEs - I had to do absolutely no work for my first 6 months (of two year course) - they were just playing catch up with O Levels.

Yes, I do believe that exams are getting easier. - the most sensible option is to do what used to be done (as Waldo mentioned) - a certain number of people get an A grade, a certain percentage a B grade etc.

[netibiza]

What's the Access Route??

[alix69]

I took A levels 30+ years ago, which were examined by one, 2/3 paper exam at the end of the two year course. Now they are examined in 4 - 6 section (modules) over the two years and the modules can be resat several times to increase grades. This in itself spreads the workload. Also I believe there is less testing of content/facts now , instead the pupils have to apply their knowledge in answering questions. I'm sure that the students still have to work hard today but I dont think they are any more intelligent/cleverer than A level students of my generation. The exams are just different.

[jno]

if exams were getting easier you'd expect everyone's marks to go up in much the same way. But they released statistics this time round showing the improvement was almost all from selective school pupils, not comprehensives.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/ 0,,2150082,00.html

That suggests an educational problem, but it's not that A-level standards are falling.

[kwicky]

People forget, the internet is a wonderful research medium for solving problems.

[SarCaustic]

I've just finished my A-levels so I think my opinion here is valid. I achieved 6 A grades in:
Biology
Chemistry
Maths
Spanish
English Language
General Studies
Did I get these results because the A-levels are easy? No, I got them because I worked hard, I have a fantastic memory and I studied one of the A-levels independently.

In answer to the original question - no the A-levels are NOT getting easier at all. Are they easier than they were 20 years ago? Not really. In recent years as the number of subjects that students take has increased, the content of each A-level has accordingly decreased. However, it is worthing noting that overall workload, the number of exams and the pressure on students today is far greater than it ever has been.

As for the comments regarding the number of people getting A grades, it has to be understood that we are the most examined generation this country has seen so it stands to reasong that we're getting good at it!

In regard to comments old O-level papers being used as A level papers now, I have no idea whether this is true but when comparing the depth and difficulty of modern GCSE's and O-levels it has to be taken into account that students today are studying many more subjects within the same school timetables as those from years ago, with some taking as more than 14 subjects. Naturally they have to be studied at a less advanced level, so instead of the in-depth knowledge of a few subjects, successful modern students have a more well-rounded knowledge and skill set.

Finally, I think it is an insult to both students and to teachers to say that A-levels are getting easier. It devalues the achievement of young people and is insulting to the teachers who prepared them for the exams. A-levels are not easier than they were before, they're just different.

[jake-the-peg]

Unfortunately there's not an easy answer to this one.

SirCaustic's opinion is no more or less valid than flipflops because neither sat each other's paper.

There is something called the Flynn effect which shows that in general people are getting cleverer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect

However it seems unlikely that that on its own is enough to explain the trend.

Whilst Waldo's point about the Bell curve this has gone when flip-flop sat his in 89.

I'm unconvinced by the private schools argument because I don't think the rise in children in private schools has gone up that highly (but I could be wrong)

It would be very interesting to compare a maths paper from 20 years ago with one from today

Anybody know where to find one?

[sandyg2244]

Personally I beleive you think this this simply because there is a new generation who are cleverer than you? on a more realistic basis I have a nephew and neice who have gone on to higher education because they are clever and even with working class parents they could afford to go to uni.thats without middle class parents dictating to them as well, they decided this for themselves.Forgive me for mistaking this as a case of sour grapes, but you're not the best person to give advice on this ;conspiracy theory'.its as old as the people who have underacheived in their highers/A-levels.

[flip_flop]

Eh?

[flip_flop]

That's a pretty amazing theory Sandy considering you don't know what I took at A Level, what results I got, which university I went to, what degree subject I took and what level of degree I received.

[patsyquinn]

I don't know whether the exams are easier but I do know that it's not fair to give so many children false hopes of further academic success. I understand that many who've turned up at university with 'A' level passes have to spend some time being brought up to an acceptable level before they can even start their degree course.
Of all those achieving 'A' grades how many will be able, or inclined, to stay at university long enough to get a degree? What are the figures for drop-outs? How much of this is social engineering so that the government doesn't have young unemployed claiming benefits?
What about the universities being given money to sign up as many students as possible?
I took my exams in the 1960s when only a few high achievers in my grammar school were expected to do well. Most of them came from homes where at least one parent was a professional who had already attended university.
My husband, on the other hand, went to secondary modern and then on to a trade. He now earns much more than most of the kids with 'A' levels could ever hope to earn.

This is the real failing of current education - it doesn't allow for non-academic children to feel the thrill of success.
The boss of my husband's firm is a multi-millionaire and just did an apprenticeship - he wouldn't recognise an 'A' level if it bit him in the bum!

More resources should be put into the training of those who slip through the net. In other words - lets go back to grammar schools, secondary moderns and technical colleges. That way we can train future hairdressers, office workers, car mechanics, carpenters, bricklayers etc. etc.

[jno]

one of the trends is recent years has been for people to have a broader education. In the old days you typically did only three subjects at A-level and one at university. This made for specialists whose knowledge was deep but not broad. Nowadays people study more subjects in less depth. So yes, the exams are easier but you sit more of them. This doesn't mean anyone's education is devalued. Your kids will know more than you do.

[Le Chat]

Here's one for you! I work in a Beauty Salon as a therapist and a teacher of Beauty Therapy. We have a late night opening and we have girls who are studying A levels in to 'man' the sunbeds and to be on the reception. Over the years ( all 20 of them!) I have noticed a gradual decline in the general intelligence of the girls and an even bigger decline in the level of common sense, despite the fact that they are seemingly taking more A levels than previously now. The latest big shocker for me was when I noticed that the 'record cards' ( we keep the names and addresses of all customers) were out of alphabetical order. I asked our A level lovely to make sure that they were filed correctly and alphabetically. (I assumed she hadn't realised) The next day, I found in the front of the record card box a piece of paper with the alphabet written on it, in both capital and small letters. You will be pleased to know that our girl took and passed with a grade B, her English A level! Oh joy!

[mike1222]

I recently looked at a Physics "practice" A Level exam paper and it seemed a lot easier to me than my O Level paper of over 40 years ago. That, coupled with the general decline in literacy and numeracy that seems to get worse every year, just about says it all for me.