ok ive just finished my GCSE's and finished reasonably well whoop de do and all that and for people to start saying "its only coz the exams are so easy" is a little hurtfull, if i look at an older exam paper then sure it will seem harder but thats because ive been taught for this one and not for that one, for an adult to look at a childs test and say its eaisier than mine was is bull**** they're an adult and have double the life experiance i have and their exams are mere memorys snd of course they'll remember the hard bits not the easy bits "coz dats the way the mind works stoopid"
No wonder A-Levels mean and are worth squat
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Soldato
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I guess my confusion stemmed from the fact I wasn't advocating doing languages instead of another subject, I want languages to be compulsory on top of current obligation - like I said, a baccalaureat system where students take a multitiude of subjects through to university would be better in my opinion
They are getting easier. I compared O level papers from my time and GCSE papers from a couple of years back, out of curiosity.
What you did obviously wasn't easy, but taking an extra subject and getting such high grades is very far from normal.
It's been going on longer than that.
When I was 17, in 1986, I was studying A level maths. For fun, I took the maths paper than my grandfather took when he was 14 or 15. I failed it.
By your own argument, you are effectively telling older people that they are significantly less intelligent.
So your "snob-complex' comment applies just as well to yourself.
Exam results have improved dramatically over a very short period of time. This cannot be due to greatly increased intelligence and there's no indication that it's due to greatly increased effort.
Incidentally, no-one is telling students that they only passed because the exams are easier (except for pupils with borderline grades).
I wouldn't bank on that. I did both Latin and French to O level and I still find other languages extremely difficult to learn at all, let alone to any useful degree of fluency.
That might have been due to the reasons why I did those O levels - one modern and one classical language were mandatory at my school (although you could drop the classical language after 2 years).
If you have been brought up from an early age speaking 2 languages almost interchangeably, then it is apparently very easy to pick up a third. This might have been what he was implying.
Soldato
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French and Latin are important because they form the primary influences of English. Learning Latin allows you to determine the likely meaning of all the words invented over the last few hundred years as Latin was used for their base.
As for exams becoming easier, as has been said, you can only do what you're asked but in 1981 someone with three straight A's at A level was considered incredibly unusual and would be assumed to be going to Oxbridge. Today getting six A's doesn't even get a Uni place apparently.
I can't and won't comment about the exams themselves but the quality required to get an A is undeniably lower.
As for exams becoming easier, as has been said, you can only do what you're asked but in 1981 someone with three straight A's at A level was considered incredibly unusual and would be assumed to be going to Oxbridge. Today getting six A's doesn't even get a Uni place apparently.
I can't and won't comment about the exams themselves but the quality required to get an A is undeniably lower.
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I am 22, and even when I was 18 doing my A-Levels I was well aware they were substantially dumbed down compared to 10-20 years previous.
I'm not a wet blanket who will bawl if someone tells me the exams I am taking are easier than theirs.
I'm not convinced that Latin is a bigger influence on English than German is. Old English was Germanic and Old English had a big influence on modern English.
Latin did give me an appreciation of another society (and ancient Rome was really quite different to modern England, far more so than modern France is). That might have been due to my brilliant Latin master, who taught Latin as a living language in the context of early imperial Rome.
Latin did give me an appreciation of another society (and ancient Rome was really quite different to modern England, far more so than modern France is). That might have been due to my brilliant Latin master, who taught Latin as a living language in the context of early imperial Rome.
I echo this and totally agree as I'm a similar age
Soldato
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Totally agree.
I know for sure I couldn't do the A level maths papers set in the 1970s, but modern ones are a cakewalk in comparison.
It's an arse-about-face problem because everyone wants to look better results-wise, but what's the point if you're setting the bar so low? Isn't the point of education to make people employable and equipped?
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Exams may be easier now than they were two or three decades ago, but this is only one part of the problem. Education nowadays is very much targeted at getting students the highest grades possible. Schools want good grade statistics, and so learning has become a strategic affair for both students and teachers. As a result, students end up learning exactly what they need for the exams and nothing else (and usually forget most of it afterwards), which produces good grades but a rather shallow understanding of the subject material itself. Basically education as a whole has become farcical over the last few decades.
Soldato
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Theres a reason people do well in A levels, freedom and willing.
If someone actually cares about what they are doing, and are given the freedom to do it, not being told. It's more motivational to do it.
The only reason I got one really bad a level this year is because i thought my lecturer was a steaming great **** and spent most of my lessons coming up with new ways to annoy her. Which I'll add I got quite good at. But got an E on the course because I buggered up my systems documentation (Important I found out), people with **** systems that barely worked got more marks than me because they can take loads of screenshots but can't work basic programs like excel or access, hardly fair.
/Rant
If someone actually cares about what they are doing, and are given the freedom to do it, not being told. It's more motivational to do it.
The only reason I got one really bad a level this year is because i thought my lecturer was a steaming great **** and spent most of my lessons coming up with new ways to annoy her. Which I'll add I got quite good at. But got an E on the course because I buggered up my systems documentation (Important I found out), people with **** systems that barely worked got more marks than me because they can take loads of screenshots but can't work basic programs like excel or access, hardly fair.
/Rant
I've actually had a chance to see what the new system is like here after 9 years, I'll find out in a year if what I've been believing is true or not.
In fact the tutors I've spoken to only just today have all said it's much easier now than it was back when I did them, oh well, such is life. Just miffs me a bit to know people who've got better grades on much easier work, makes me sick seeing what they had to do.
In fact the tutors I've spoken to only just today have all said it's much easier now than it was back when I did them, oh well, such is life. Just miffs me a bit to know people who've got better grades on much easier work, makes me sick seeing what they had to do.
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I don't think exams as they currently stand are easier.
Instead, teaching has, unquestionably, improved, using enhanced psychology and behavioural studies to better techniques and kids naturally get smarter because there is much more information to expose them to especially with the internet as well as tv channels.
Perhaps the problem isn't that the exams are easier per se, it's that the exams aren't a sufficient test of ability as kids get better at them.
Exams may be easier for children today but not because of a dumbing down of the exam but rather just the general intellectual increase.
Instead, teaching has, unquestionably, improved, using enhanced psychology and behavioural studies to better techniques and kids naturally get smarter because there is much more information to expose them to especially with the internet as well as tv channels.
Perhaps the problem isn't that the exams are easier per se, it's that the exams aren't a sufficient test of ability as kids get better at them.
Exams may be easier for children today but not because of a dumbing down of the exam but rather just the general intellectual increase.
If pass rates went down the government would be crucified so it's no surprise that they go up each year. It's not a question of kids getting brighter or thicker just a system that is open to manipulation. As others have said the introduction of A* grades shows that the system is corrupt. In a few years time students will only be able to get various grades of A. A, A*, A**, A*** etc. Madness!!
If that was the case there would be a general upward trend but some years would drop back a bit just because of natural variation. The fact that the pass rates increase every year shows a system that is being manipulated.