Grades easier but pupils are driven
I HAVE nothing but admiration for pupils who've studied to get their exams, whether it be a straight A scholar or someone for whom even getting a single E grade is a real sense of achievement.
Nevertheless, to claim as some educationalists do that students are getting brighter every year does, I think, miss the point.
If so few now fail, doesn't this lessen the value of a pass?
There is certainly more teaching to the exam than there used to be. Exam techniques are far more elaborately discussed than generations ago and more emphasis is placed on getting good grades – we were simply bothered about passing or failing.
In A-levels, at least, it used to be assumed that each year's pupils were equally bright.
A given percentage got grade A, grade B and so on. I took my A-levels in the last year this applied and since then the gap was removed with numbers getting an A rising every year since.
The world seemed less competitive in pre-Thatcher days with exams seen as merely a part of one's education.
But I fear students do generally work harder being driven to get high grades.
Tim Mickleburgh, Littlefield Lane, Grimsby.
The Telegraph says
The introduction of the A* grade was needed to identify the top students, but has the desire to gain grades blinkered learning and stifled the learning experience.
3 Comments
by A Level, devalued
Thursday, September 02 2010, 11:28AM
“Personally, I don't drive but I study bus routes. Years ago a multirider was about 50p.due to years of labour governments, the buses aren't as good but life on benefits is much better.”
by MR THICKLEBURGH, dole
Wednesday, September 01 2010, 9:25PM
“Busolgy, skivolgy?”
by Chris, Cleethorpes
Wednesday, September 01 2010, 10:44AM
“Mr Mickelborough is correct in his view that giving everyone a pass devalues the system. Originally A level was on a pass/fail basis only but in 1963, a five grade schema was introduced, with quotas for the allocation of grades: 10 per cent of candidates would receive an A grade, 15 per cent a B, 10 per cent a C, 15 per cent a D, 20 per cent an E, and a further 20 per cent would receive an O Level pass. This continued until 1987 when the more "pupil friendly" idea of mark boundaries came in that we have today. In theory this should be fairer but in practice as we have seen it lends itself easily to manipulation to lower marking standards.
Most people did just 2 or 3 A levels and that was quite sufficient in terms of the work involved in order to get a decent grade. It was in the late 1980s again that the powers that be decided it was better for sixth formers to study more subjects which of course led to less depth of knowledge and the need to adjust the marking scales from the 1990s to compensate.
Remember the Maureen Lipman BT commercial where her grandson gets an "ology"?”