are gcse and a level exams getting easier?

[Whizzer]

There are probably two key factors behind the regular improvement in results:

 

1) There is a bigger coursework element involved in exams these days. Coursework stretches pupils in different ways to the old, cram a full two year's study into two exams method, but it is, inevitably easier not to cock up.

 

2) There is a larger base of past papers to work through and teachers are better placed to second guess likely exam questions. There is a finite number of questions that can be asked on any subject and pupils are being better prepared for the variety of topics that might be thrown up.

 

Therefore, exams are easier to pass, but this is not necessarily to the detrement of school standards. The top achievers in our generation are probably less intellectual than their predecessors, but perhaps better placed to progress in a modern world.

[stryker]

pretty much every year there seems to be an outcry in the press that exams are getting easier to pass.

 

i find it difficult to believe that children from one decade can possess a higher iq than children from another decade. there is a proportion of the population that is intelligent and a proportion that are less intelligent and i would imagine that the percentage numbers in these arbitary groups would remain fairly constant over time.

 

so in order for pass rates to increase year in year out the exams must surely get a little easier.

 

1. if pass rates increase it's assumed that exams are easier and there seems to be an inference that those that are sitting them are more stupid than the writers of said articles were when they were the same age.

 

this irritates me for, as i've already said, the proportion of intelligent people must remain the same.

 

2. if pass rates don't increase then the press tends not to imply that the exams are getting harder, merely that they are easier nowadays and if the pass rate hasn't gone up then it shows how stupid the kids are.

 

i say hats off to anyone that has got good marks in their exams. whether they are getting easier or not, if you've done well then you've done well.

 

sx

[Shenlong]

bit late on this, but i'm new so

as said before, coursework probably has had a significant impact on the pass rates, as you can make up for talent with more effort, asking for help from friends/family or whatever. whereas in a purely exam situatution you're on your own.

 

Also, overall i'm sure the standard of teaching has gone up, doesn't matter if you have the ability, if you're not taught properly, you're not gong to do well. And as for the very recent 5% jump in pass grades for a-levels, the new system meant that a lot of the people who did [censored] at as-levels, dropped out from completeing them and did another as-level instead. roughly the same numbers of people are passing the subjects, but the overall number of people taking full a-klevels has dropped.

And there's also the effect of people chosing more and more often of not choosing the pure academic subjects such as science, maths, english etc. btu choosing, for example, textiles.

 

anyways, that's my 2 pennie's worth.

[Wub Wub]

Without meaning to sound like a c^nt (That'll be a first Wub - voice of Clubtheworld regulars), when I see the f^cking retards that are getting into my University in the past two years, compared to the guys that came in with my intake, A-levels must be getting easier.

 

Sorry to anyone who studied their arse off and worked really hard solidly for two years to get their A-levels, but I know plenty of people (myself included) who used college as an excuse to drink and smoke themselves silly for two years, and still managed to blag their way through.

[Dogz]

Exams are well getting easier. Has anyone looked at an old O' Level paper. I looked at the maths ones and they contained differenciation & Intergration which is stuff only taught at A' Level now. Exams also seem to be more course [censored] related now, which I'm not sure if its a good thing or a bad thing ? I sat my A' Levels in 97, christ thats going back !!!