Monday, July 17, 2006

Creating a new A* grade

Yesterday Alan Johnson said in an interview on Sunday AM that he thought there might be an argument for a new grade at A-Level called A* in order to distunguish the very best pupils.

Why create a new grade though when you could just up the standard required for A? I realise that that would mean a number of pupils would get given Bs and that would upset educationalists who think it will destroy their self-esteem, but frankly, in the working world you have to get used to that kind of thing. A boss will not care about your feelings if you don't achieve what was required.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Having just finished my A levels it annoys me to hear people rubbishing the qualifications I have spent 2 years working for.

Whilst i accept that the A level system is not perfect, I had no choice in the system i used, i.e. the IB was not an option and is only available to a tiny minority at some private schools who can opt out.

Introducing an A* grade wont help, I agree they just need to up the mark required for the top grades.

Contrary to popular myth not all exams take the form of the often quoted "media studies".

Anonymous said...

I was pseaking to a Physics teacher recently-head of year and he said they had definitely dumbed the syllabus and the exam down.He was only 33.Sign o the times

you're both right.we can't all have grade A's

Anonymous said...

meant head of dept

Ellee Seymour said...

I find my son's GCSE homework hard enough to cope with, the maths and science is just another language. What's annoying with this is they have different tiers of GCSEs you can sit - foundation and higher - which is what I guess they are using as a basis for the A star A levels.

Dizzy, btw, did you know you have an enemy? Just read the blogroll on this site. I think I'm the enemy too, now.
http://snowflake5.blogspot.com/

dizzy said...

ah yes snowflake, obsessesive economics lefty who thinks the world is the greatest place under Labour. They bought their own spin.

dizzy said...

"students do seem to spend a lot longer revising than I ever did."

===========================

Have you ever considered the possibility that you might've just been lazy? :)

Croydonian said...

Whether exams are getting easier is almost irrelevant, as for me the real issue, to quote Gore Vidal, is: "It is not enough to succeed, others must fail".

If exams are structured in such a way that everyone, near as damn it, passes, students are being set up for a huge disappointment when they enter the world of work, as there not everyone will win prizes and the boss will not care whether your self esteem is effected by telling you that you are not good enough and you do not make the, erm, grade.

Anonymous said...

I agree with many commenters on here that there is a problem with grade inflation. But it would be difficult to suddenly rescale the whole thing to make grades a lot harder, especially when all university courses and jobs for school leavers depend upon your qualifications. Consider - an A-Level student passing an exam with (say) 70% in 2006 would get an A; a similarly intelligent student in 2007 might get a B. Both equally intelligent -but only the elder student with the qualification to get a job / degree course. That's not fair on the newer students, or on employers / universities (who have to weigh up As from 2006 vs Bs from 2007 etc) - a bureaucratic nightmare.