Why dont people think that good A level results are the kids hard work?

Question

Why dont people think that good A level results are the kids hard work and good teaching not the A levels are getting easier...


You ask for kids to study more, you ask for better teachers... so when you get better A level results why don't you think hey it worked and give the teachers and kids the credit .

Instead of saying its too easy...

They have the knowledge so whats the problem if all do well?

A levels = america sats

Answer 1

There are many reasons but five factors would be:

1. Because most A Levels these days contain a coursework component and many people believe that there is widespread coursework cheating.

2. Because A Levels today are modular and each module can be retaken up to four times, without penalty. In the old days (pre-2000), all exams were taken in the Summer of year 13.

3. Because three out of the six units for each A Level are "AS Level" units, rather than A Level units. AS Levels are supposed to be easier than A Levels. Before 2000, all exams were the same "A Level" standard.

4. Because many A Levels taken these days are in subjects that seem much less academically rigorous than those that were available 20 years ago e.g. Leisure and Tourism, Media Studies, Psychology, ICT, and so on.

5. Because there is an obvious vested interest in teacher unions and the government in demonstrating that standards are rising to justify their educational policies.

Answer 2

There are 2 aspect to this:

1. Human beings (or English & Welsh people, as we are talking about A levels) are not getting progressively more intelligent year by year (that is an impossible evolutionary concept). Every generation is urged by parents to work their socks off, and most of us do. If the grades get better every year, it is because the students are answering the questions set in a way that is closer to what the markers want to see. This is why employers complain that straight A students appear to be less intelligent than they expected - they have been taught to answer questions on the syllabus at the expense of being able to write gramatically correct English.

2. The practical problem with everyone doing well is that it is more difficult for universities and employers to identify the really good students. 20 years ago, three A grades meant you should go to Oxbridge; now it's becoming commonplace. If the exams were "less easy", there would be a greater range of grades, showing more clearly the relative merits of the individuals.

Nobody says that the students have not worked hard to get their results, and I congratulate all those who have achieved what they deserve, but it is a fact (and nobody's fault) that 3 A grades is not as impressive now as it was in the past.

Answer 3

There are two reasons.
Firstly, the examinations used to be norm-referenced but are now criterion-referenced. In the former system a Normal Distribution was applied to the results of a year's examination which automatically restricted the number of A Grades to the top 10% (approx.). Marking schemes were much less rigid. Many people remember this time when A Grades were rare.
Secondly, criterion-referencing demands that very specific things are taught and that answers can be rigidly assessed. Consequently teaching and learning is easier though the level of difficulty remains much the same. Teachers can indeed 'teach to the test' and with a little practise get very good at it. There cannot be any restriction (as there was with norm-referencing) on the number of A Grades achieved at each sitting.
Teaching is now more straightforward - gone are the cryptic syllabus booklets which required a fair degree of skill and experience to interpret, welcome the volumes of criterion-referenced tomes which specify exactly what is to be taught. Gone are the brief questions (e.g. 'Liver. Discuss') replaced by graded questions that occupy several pages.
Teachers work very hard. Pupils work hard. Then as now.
Old A-Levels are just different to current A-Levels - there is no comparison. However it remains true that it was very much harder to get an A-Grade using the old norm-referenced system.

Answer 4

This really annoys me too! We're brought up to have future goals and told what we need to achieve them. We do everything they ask us to, use the resources that (mainly the media) provide and when that works and we get the results we worked hard for we're criticised and told that anybody could do the exam that we worked for 2 hard years to pass!
It's not only the students that they criticise but the teachers who have to teach thousands of kids every day of the week a whole load of information to pass these "easy" exams! Teachers should be praised for getting so many of us through these exams with great grades.
You know what would be really great, if the people who come out to put us all down every year went back to college day after day for 2 years and sat a total of at least 18 exams (if you're doing a modular course). Or better yet, if they then didn't try to stop us going even further in our lives by putting up university fees and putting us deeper in debt.

Answer 5

People who sat A levels years ago think that those exams were harder and not so many people passed them. Because so many are passing A levels these days and getting better and better grades, those older people think that it cant be because the teachers and students are working harder and getting cleverer. It must be that the exams are being made easier! Of course! Someone with all Bs in their A levels feel the need to justify their old results by saying that the youngsters today wouldn't have done so well if they sat the old exam papers...it makes them feel better. Congratulations to all who recieved their A level results today. May you all use them well to get the good jobs or university places you deserve.

Answer 6

When everyone gets 'A's, it's called grade inflation. The problem with everyone getting 'A's is that it doesn't tell anybody which student is doing well and which student is really struggling. If the students are learning at a level good for the average student, there should be some Cs or Ds or whatever mixed in with the 'A's. When everybody gets good grades, it tells them that the work is too easy for the students. Why do they think it's too easy? Because, if the work is slightly challenging as it's supposed to be, in order to push students boundaries and really teach them something new, the goof-offs and the slackers wouldn't do well. There are ALWAYS slackers. Also, with the advances going on so quickly anymore, there's more and more information for our children to learn, so people are trying to push to get them all the information they need in order to still grow and push the limits of human intelligence. We're trying to help you guys out, not punish you.

Answer 7

Don't get upset about it; it happens every year, regular as clockwork. As you point out, if the grades are getting better, it's down to one or a combination of three things:
1) The questions getting easier.
2) Teaching getting better.
3) Students working harder.
The older generation is never going to accept that the modern student is working harder than they did, whether it's true or not, and teachers unions are militant enough without the clamour for pay rises which would ensue if (2) were proven. So, we're left with (1), the questions must be getting easier.

Answer 8

Because, quite generally, us kids aren't being noted for actually working harder. They can tell if we're working harder or not and then they can compare that with the results. If we haven't been working hard and we do pretty damn well, then, surely the A-level exams are getting easier?

However, that's opinion, but, somehow, I don't think we're working too hard as students. I just got my A-level results, (two A grades and two B grades) and I didn't work for the whole two years, nor revise once. A lot of people say the same.

Hm.

Answer 9

I think the kids who get A levels are very hard done by. They have
worked for what they have achieved and they should not have to be put down like this just because the government cannot accept that some of the kids actually want to achieve something with their lives and not live off benefits and so be dependant on this government!!!!!

Answer 10

Maybe the people who say this are jealous. But everyone is doing well, I'd worry that it has been altered so all will do well. When the school has high test scores they get a bonus grant. Trust me on this I've been on the PTA board and spent much time in the office during my term on the board. Schools get extra money if they get high test scores, if they get the kids to come to school ect. If these kids aren't earning the scores on there own, or it's been made easier it's not going to help them at all in college or the real world.