I expect this post is not going to be popular with young people who have just had their A Level results, but do stay with me for the rest of this blog because I need to say something about the examination system in England, which I have had some past experience of, having worked in the examinations department of a college.
On my BBC News app, it says A Levels in England have been moving away from coursework and instead are graded on final exams. This is how it used to be when I was at school, but wait a minute… I also read that this year A Level students have been awarded the highest proportion of As and A* grades since 2012 (97.6% was the overall pass rate for all grades), and that the exams’ regulator had promised grade boundaries could be lowered once papers were marked if it transpired that the new exams were tougher than expected.
I don’t have an ‘ology’ so correct me if I’ve missed something here, but I assume the students had been studying the proper course content for 2 years, they knew they’d be tested at the end, and they’d had the chance to take a few mock exams beforehand? What is the point of making the exams tougher if the grade boundaries then get lowered because not enough students achieve top grades? Surely it’s how the subjects are taught and the teachers’ control of the class that should be checked? It’s pointless lowering grades, as very soon you’re back to square one where everybody passes and university clearing houses and prospective employers cannot then root out the wheat from the chaff.
I failed my Biology A Level back in 1976, and so did all my classmates. In modern times this doesn’t seem to happen. School league tables nowadays have a lot to answer for. Parents want to send their child to a school that has good exam results, and so surprise, surprise, no school wants to publish low grades. What’s the solution? It’s obvious! Have another look at the end of paragraph 2…
When I worked at a college for 16 – 19 year olds back in 1999, one of my jobs was to give out exam papers to the students and gather up the completed scripts and send them off in the post for marking. I saw questions on some of those papers that a 5 year old could have answered (‘What do you keep in your kitchen cupboards?‘ was one question as I recall – can’t remember what the exam subject was though). I remember mentioning the kitchen cupboard question to the exams manager, who told me in a roundabout way to keep my mouth shut.
No wonder the pass rate was so high and the principal beamed as the press took his photo! When my sons took their GCSE exams back in the late 1990s and came home to tell me about it, even they had to laugh at how easy some of the questions were.
When I left the college I complained to several national newspapers in a whistleblowing letter about education standards. I received replies in the post from a couple of editors saying that they understood my concerns, but they could not print my letter. Others never replied at all. What a bloody joke it all was!
It’s time exams were toughened and grades not lowered to reflect the actual pass rate.
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Thanks Sally, for featuring my blog and music.
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Thanks for the feature, Sally! x
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Definitely not acceptable Stevie. As someone who looked to take a fair number of school leavers in each year and also graduates, I was appalled at the number who found it almost impossible to complete an application form. I see that between 17%-20% of 16 – 19 year old students are leaving school functionally illiterate. Which is pretty damning. They should have at least basic writing, reading and arithmetic skills. I do blame the move of the technical colleges (which I attended) for moving their status to universities, leaving a large number of students without the options to train for a trade. Apprenticeships are beginning to appear again but their demise also created a gap in the job market. And one of the results of this is the number of teenagers who seem to have the time on their hands to learn to ride a moped with criminal intent.
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Many young people cannot seem to spell or punctuate properly. Social media encourages slang/abbreviations, and so the problem is compounded.
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I am not perfect that is for certain, but long term how are they going to help their children if they are unable to function themselves?
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Too true.
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I’m with you of course – even if I did excel in biology LOL 🙂
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Our teacher used to give us handouts and let us get on with it. Not much teaching went on because she was more often than not absent. Oh well, it’s all water under the bridge now…
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Yes it is, but for the younger generation, I hope they repair the system.
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Me too.
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❤
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They say we are turning into a ‘nanny state’ where every standard is turned on its head. No wonder the children of today think all they have to do is whine, to get anything they want!
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It makes a mockery of the whole exam system, doesn’t it?
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Worse than that even, everything is being made into a farce. Don’t get me started on Amazon!
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The education system needs an overhaul methinks…
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Reblogged this on anita dawes and jaye marie.
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Thanks for the re-blog!
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certainly back in the 1970s the pass mark ‘floated’. The idea was that nationally the population remained pretty much the same intelligence, but papers might accidentally be harder or easier from year to year.
So we were told that whilst 42% was the magic number to just pass an A level, in reality a set proportion would always fail. So the pass mark would be raised or lowered until that number had failed. That meant that if this year’s paper was somewhat easier than it should have been, employers and universities could still have confidence in the grades because they knew that those with As were in the top 5% (or whatever)
It was when they decided for ideological reasons that everybody had to pass and started watering down the exams that they obviously had to drop this system and you get the silly situation of grade inflation and introducing A* and all the rest of it.
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It is a silly situation, and it’s doing the young people no good at all.
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too true 😦
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