Bad A-level grades, can bite you in the rear end, 6 years in the future

Beenom · 13 Jun 2006 at 10:57

PinkFloyd said:
Yeh I'm not looking forward to that date....
I've got 8 exams remaining, I have four on thursday :s
2 physics and 2 maths.

If you still havent decided on a course your not necessarily too late, just choose something you enjoy. Thats what I have done, 3d games design, even If I don't end up with a job in it I know I will enjoy it.

Physics was hard

but I found maths quite easy, with more revision I think I could have done better at Physics.

I did chemistry and biology too and found chemistry easier than biology... I am doing three sciences and maths, I just can't wait for A2 where i'll only be doing three subjects.

Good luck on thursday mate

wsurfa · 13 Jun 2006 at 10:58

sinister_stu said:
That's unfortunate and very shortsighted of the company doing the recruiting. If they use A-level points as a first stage decision they are potentially missing out on someone who may be a better candidate than they eventually get. There are many people who don't do so well with A-levels but go on to be succesful at uni, especially males (according to my uni careers advisor), and there isn't any evidence to suggest that A-levels are a good indicator of career performance.

Many companies can have more than 1000 apps per position and will screen in a very broad way initially.

An old joke about the selection process is the manager sat with a huge pile of cvs, he drops half of them into the bin without looking at them. When asked why, he responds 'well we dont want anyone unlucky working here'.

Some of the processes run by many companies are little better, but as I said it is often the outcome of poor outsourcing or poorly understood 'quality'

Dave · 13 Jun 2006 at 11:01

Mulder said:
First thing that strikes me about those subjects is that they are the hardest of all the A-Levels out there. I'm doing Economics, Politics and Biology and feel sick when I see some of the grades Geography/Psychology students get compared to the AAB I should get and the amount of work I've done to get that.

Geography is NOT an easy subject. In fact, in the IB it's meant to be one of the subjects with the smallest % of people getting the top mark, 7/7. I'd say that about 50% of my revision time was spent on Geography, even though I had 6 subjects to revise.

Having said that, IB Geo and AS/A2 Geo is a different kettle of fish based on what my stepbrother is learning. AS/A2 seems to be more theory based, whereas for IB I had to learn pages and pages of case studies

Beenom · 13 Jun 2006 at 11:04

I did Geography at GCSEs (No comparison I know) But I found the theory to be much much easier than the case studies. I got all mixed up with the dates and places of the earthquakes and volcanoes. Made a few up in the end in the exam :confused:

Came out with an A

RandomTom · 13 Jun 2006 at 11:04

Spunj99 said:
They were all fairly difficult A-levels too, none of this media studies crap that people can get an A in without engaging brain.

The system is b0rked.

Oi. I do maths, physics, ICT and media studies and I wouldn't call that an easy way out, in media you do need to know quite a lot - granted it's no way near comparable with maths which I find crazily hard but still, yeh it's a light subject in a sense but not because you don't have to put the work in. you're entitled to your opinion though so that's fair - and my original choice for it was because i thought that french would have been too demanding for me to do.

I'm thinking of dropping maths so I'll be left with; Physics, ICT and Media - yet I don't know where that will take me, currently I'm looking at a Business and Advertising course at university but how do my current AS levels help towards that? ah well, lol.

Nitefly · 13 Jun 2006 at 11:16

Mulder said:
First thing that strikes me about those subjects is that they are the hardest of all the A-Levels out there. I'm doing Economics, Politics and Biology and feel sick when I see some of the grades Geography/Psychology students get compared to the AAB I should get and the amount of work I've done to get that.

Woah, hold on. You are talking out of your backside sir!

The jump between AS level geography and GCSE isn't huge, but the jump from AS to A2 is enourmous. I did the worst in all my A levels in geography and you even implying it isn't difficult I find a joke when you then claim politics is harder? Like... what?! I only make that statement because everyone I speak to at uni claims that politics was just an 'easy A', so I guess I have no real comparrison to make. I also appologise if that sounds patronising, but I find that you saying Geography is an 'Easy' A level VERY patronising.

Whilst I wouldn't say Geography was as hard as maths or biology, is certaintly isn't far off.

Dave said:
Having said that, IB Geo and AS/A2 Geo is a different kettle of fish based on what my stepbrother is learning. AS/A2 seems to be more theory based, whereas for IB I had to learn pages and pages of case studies

You are not alone, I revised a huge amount of case studies for A2 level. As I said before, AS level isn't that harder than GCSE.

p4radox · 13 Jun 2006 at 11:17

To all those saying that considering A Levels in the applications is an easy way of narrowing the field for the employer - consider it from the point of view of the employer. More and more people get degrees. More and more people get good degrees. Take an engineering job for example - someone could get a 2:1 or whatever in their degree, but if the employer looks at the A levels and that applicant only got a D at maths then they've got good reason to ignore that application.

I'm not saying this is the case for all jobs and all employers, but it's not a bad way at all of gauging ability in certain fields.

da_mic_1530 · 13 Jun 2006 at 11:19

oh dear i was hoping to scrape into uni and then use the degree to get a job , with carp a level grades i might get screwed

sinister_stu · 13 Jun 2006 at 11:22

p4radox said:
To all those saying that considering A Levels in the applications is an easy way of narrowing the field for the employer - consider it from the point of view of the employer. More and more people get degrees. More and more people get good degrees. Take an engineering job for example - someone could get a 2:1 or whatever in their degree, but if the employer looks at the A levels and that applicant only got a D at maths then they've got good reason to ignore that application.

I'm not saying this is the case for all jobs and all employers, but it's not a bad way at all of gauging ability in certain fields.

What if the candidate you speak of went on to get 84% in the highest level maths module in their degree?

This isn't shown in the final grade of the degree. It does however show that the employer (in your example) was wrong to use A-levels as an indicator of maths ability.

g0th2000 · 13 Jun 2006 at 11:24

Having great A-levels (AAAB) and a rubbish degree (Pass!) is much worse I assure you

Good luck with the next job mate

big_white_dog84 · 13 Jun 2006 at 11:30

I think the A-level criteria is to make sure that your 2.1 is not from a carp Uni. In my opinion a first from a bottom 33% uni is worth less than a third from a top 10.
By asking for your A-lavels they are kind of asking 'did you go to / could you have gone to a decent uni?'

Nitefly · 13 Jun 2006 at 11:33

big_white_dog84 said:
I think the A-level criteria is to make sure that your 2.1 is not from a carp Uni. In my opinion a first from a bottom 33% uni is worth less than a third from a top 10.
By asking for your A-lavels they are kind of asking 'did you go to / could you have gone to a decent uni?'

Hammer, Nail and Head.

PaulStat · 13 Jun 2006 at 11:34

big_white_dog84 said:
I think the A-level criteria is to make sure that your 2.1 is not from a carp Uni. In my opinion a first from a bottom 33% uni is worth less than a third from a top 10.
By asking for your A-lavels they are kind of asking 'did you go to / could you have gone to a decent uni?'

Yeah but surely with things like Comp Sci, the degree taught is the same sort of thing in all Uni's?

The necessary knowledge isn't going to change to be good at it? :confused:

sinister_stu · 13 Jun 2006 at 11:37

big_white_dog84 said:
I think the A-level criteria is to make sure that your 2.1 is not from a carp Uni. In my opinion a first from a bottom 33% uni is worth less than a third from a top 10.
By asking for your A-lavels they are kind of asking 'did you go to / could you have gone to a decent uni?'

Not sure that's always the case. Surely you should have both the uni you attendend and the degree result on your CV?

I agree with you though on one point though, a low degree from a top uni is better than a good degree from a bottom uni.

Nitefly · 13 Jun 2006 at 11:37

PaulStat said:
Yeah but surely with things like Comp Sci, the degree taught is the same sort of thing in all Uni's?

The necessary knowledge isn't going to change to be good at it?

Not sure about that subject, but I know someone who is doing (almost) the same degree as me at a 'lesser' university who got 'lesser' A levels than me.

Whilst he claims that his degree is easier than A levels, I claim mine is infinately harder. So who knows.

the_brainaic · 13 Jun 2006 at 11:41

This is heading to the problem with the current government pushing to get as many people through Further Education as possible, meaning that degrees are becoming more plentiful and so are therefore worth less, at which point the differences between the same degree at seperate universities comes into account. I would much prefer to get a 2:2 from Oxbridge than a 1st from, say, East Anglia, and I'm sure employers would rather hire people from better universities with what may appear at first glance to be a poorer degree.

big_white_dog84 · 13 Jun 2006 at 11:44

The content of the course will be similar across universities, but (having attended a 2nd quartile uni but top 5 department) I would suggest that the assessment standards are much higher at 'better' universities and therefore a first does not mean the same at every uni.

Mulder · 13 Jun 2006 at 11:45

I'm going to go against the flow and disagree that most employers would prefer a poor quality degree from a good quality univeristy. It's all about balance, a good degree from a good uni is obviously best, and a poor degree from poor uni is obviously worst. I think many employers appreciate that people who gained a 1st from a "lesser" uni have worked considerably harder than a private schoolboy who got lazy at uni and obtained a desmond.

/Off topic - How do people in here rate the University of York?

Nitefly · 13 Jun 2006 at 11:48

Mulder said:
/Off topic - How do people in here rate the University of York?

Highly, it has an amazing biology department. Best in the UK, except we are getting a new one. After I leave gah.

Its a highly respected Uni. Well worth a look if you could stand the night life!

Mulder · 13 Jun 2006 at 11:49

Nitefly said:
Highly, it has an amazing biology department. Best in the UK, except we are getting a new one. After I leave gah.

Its a highly respected Uni. Well worth a look if you could stand the night life!

/Mr Burns - Exceeeeeeeelllent.