I don't wish to take anything away from the people who received their A-levels today, but I've just been having a look on the BBC website and came across the results by subject.
This immediately stood out to me
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/education/07/exam_results/a_level/html/mathematics_further.stm
56.8% of people acheived an A grade in further maths?
What's the point of having this exam if getting an A tells you that you may not even be in the top half of people who sat it?
Regardless of the fact that people may be getting cleverer (I would like to keep that out of this discussion) surely the exams should be graded on a percentile basis.
What happens in a few years when 90% of the people sitting exams acheive the top grade? They will become absolutely meaningless.
IMO an A grade should be reserved for the top x percentage of people sitting the exam. Even if no-one gets above half marks in actual terms, it should be graded so as to give the top few an A and then lower grades at fixed percentiles.
This immediately stood out to me
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/education/07/exam_results/a_level/html/mathematics_further.stm
56.8% of people acheived an A grade in further maths?
What's the point of having this exam if getting an A tells you that you may not even be in the top half of people who sat it?
Regardless of the fact that people may be getting cleverer (I would like to keep that out of this discussion) surely the exams should be graded on a percentile basis.
What happens in a few years when 90% of the people sitting exams acheive the top grade? They will become absolutely meaningless.
IMO an A grade should be reserved for the top x percentage of people sitting the exam. Even if no-one gets above half marks in actual terms, it should be graded so as to give the top few an A and then lower grades at fixed percentiles.
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