Are A-levels getting easier or are students becoming smarter? Why?

Question

Yahoo! News reports today that A-level pass rates are up, see the full story here: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/itn/20070816/tuk-record-success-for-a-level-students-dba1618_2.html

Do you think we can praise students for becoming more intelligent or say that exams are getting easier every year?

Answer 1

I love this debate. Every year A level passes break records and every year we have the same arguments from academics saying that the integrity of the exam is diminishing, and the same bleats from the poor students who have been working soo hard to get their precious A's, saying that by questioning the quality of the exam we are calling into question their efforts and might risk bashing their fragile young egos. Well I for one think the answer is fairly obvious. People are not getting smarter (or working harder), teaching standards have not improved beyond recognition in the past 20 years since I sat my A levels (in fact given the likelihood that the A level bar is set at a much lower academic level than it was 20 years ago, it's quite possible that teachers themselves don't need to be as gifted to teach the subjects). Yes obviously there are gifted young people out there who work hard and deserve their success, however it's clear that the A level is no longer sorting out the cream from the rest - why else would Oxbridge need to have their own entrance exams - when I did my A levels, 3 A grades and a good interview gauranteed you a place at Oxford or Cambridge and only a handful succeeded, now 3 A's is commonplace. I would also point out to the students who complain that we are deprecating their acheivements that it is not them we are criticising, but the system - and given all their hard work over the past 2 years how will they feel in 20 years time when they are giving A levels away with tubes of Smarties?

Answer 2

Let's not take anything away from today's students who have worked hard, studied hard and succeeded in passing their exams.

I know from when I took my A-Levels in 1990 it was 2 years of hard work culminating in 3 2hr long exam papers per subject and it was all or nothing. You had a bad day and that was it. I had 2 bad days and ended up retaking 2 subjects. I got into university after a year out with an unconditional offer as I already had my results.

Today the subjects are taught and graded much like the GCSE with a lot more emphasis on modules and continuous assesment, which has to affect the distribution of results. What we are seeing is probably not so much an simplification of the exam or an increase in the knowledge of the students but the bell distribution being skewed and more teaching to pass the exam and not the subject.

It is interesting how many schools, colleges etc are now opting out of the A-Level and into the International Baccalaurette (or however you spell it) which is seen by more businesses and Universities as a more rounded, full spectrum qualification that prepares students better for life after 18.

It is also worrying when you hear Universities are having to run remedial courses or reteach basics to A-Level students in their first year because they do not know it. In Scotland where the degree is a 4 year course you used to be able to skip the first year if you had straight A's at A-level but they have stopped that option now as so few A graders could actually cope with 2nd year straight off.

Perhaps it is time the politicians listened to the academics and teachers and stopped playing around with the grades. A* is not going to help anyone and only serves to degrade the A grade. How long before we get A** or A* with Distinction? An A used to mean you have achieved the top 10% in that subject and an E (which is still a pass) meant you had correctly answered 55% of the questions. What they stand for today I don't know but the general consensus is the standards have been lowered to fudge the figures.

Perhaps there is an experiment here, anyone who has just taken A-Level Pure Mathematics want to try my 1990 paper? Which I hasten to add I got a U in!

Answer 3

It is not that A levels are getting easier but that they are being marked more leniently. Also the way that the grades are determined has been changed over the last 4 years (if the exam boards were ENRON the top bods would be in jail for juggling the figures). 4 years ago the way that the UMS was calculated was changed. Before that only the person who had the highest score on a paper was awarded the highest UMS e.g. if the highest mark gained on a paper was 57 then only people who got 57 were given a UMS of 105. However, some bright spark with too much power decided that they would change that, so that anyone over a given mark would gain the maximum UMS e,g, say anyone who gained a mark of over something like 50 (so anyone with 50 /51/52/53 etc) would be given the maximum UMS of 105. This meant that magically overnight a lot more people got A's on a paper and, if you know your statistics, it also meant that everyone elses marks were 'hiked up' and they got better grades. Now do you understand why so many Universites are demanding to see the raw scores of students to make decisions on? The grades mean nothing anymore. Personally there is no way I want to be treated by a Doctor or represented by a lawyer in a few years time who got into Uni on grade A's obtained over the last few years. Basically, there is nothing wrong with A level exams in themselves - just the way that the figures have been juggled and the instructions to the examiners and the question setters from the top people.

Answer 4

A Levels are getting easier, its a fact see past exam papers before the "new alevel" system for CORE subjects like maths, physics, biology and chemistry. You will see modules not taught anymore, questions that would seem to difficult to tackle etc.

I was in the second year of the new alevel system [with AS etc] and looking back at past exam papers "didnt help" because they were too "difficult" and even our hardcore physics teacher [who has been teaching for well over 30 years] can confirm its now a joke, but he just gets on with it.

The surge in higher grades has also come about from the variety of subjects on offer to study at A-level, which are often easier/less technical or very coursework based allowing involvement/improvement from other students.

We should be able to praise the students who do the traditional subjects since they are still taking on subjects that have some real career prospects and not doing it for the sake of better grades, or pure pleasure rather than academic success.

Nonetheless grades dont make the whole difference, its just your gateway to University. After which doing the right course at the right place, and finding employment at the right place at the right time is what will make the difference.

I didnt get any As at A-Level, I did Physics, Maths, Chemistry and Design Technology went onto doing an engineering degree at University and only came out with a 2:2. However, when applying for a job what made the difference is how to sell yourself [not just your grades] and being honest [not blagging your way through tests/interviews].

I am now a successful engineer in a major car manufacturer, and I didnt have the best grades. So I think there should be more focus on the subjects people study at both A-Levels and Degrees, rather than what the country's overall grades are. Thats all i have to say on the matter!

Answer 5

I just got my reasults for my AS Levels today, so I feel that something I've done is being attacked.

I earned my grades. Now, I know that some people are saying that the exams are easier, I think they're different.

Having had to revise and do practise papers for S1 (from edexcel) I noticed that the more modern papers were more "wordy" and had more linguistic questions rather than mathematical.

Not only that, but in physics, we were actually given model answers on particular questions that would most likely occur in out exams.

So, I doubt that the exams are easier, they're different, and in some cases require less subject knowledge. Also the teachers are teaching the students how to pass the test rather than the subject (and some not even that XD), whilst the system is very odd (sometimes you can get 100% whilst still dropping several marks, go figure)

I would say that the students aren't more intelligent, but nor are the exams easier, everything is changing, and has changed making both highly difficult to compare between generations due to practically everything being different.

Answer 6

The exams themselves are no easier - the questions today are just as difficult as the ones that cropped up years ago. However, many subjects have had large topic areas removed from the syllabus, meaning that students actually need to know less for their A-levels than they used to, so revision is easier. The new coursework element of A-levels makes it easier for students to rack up marks, and the mark schemes are now more lenient. For instance, if there is a 2-part question and the student gets the first question (such as working out the radius of a circle) wrong, but then applies their answer to the second question (work out the circumference) correctly, they still get the marks for the second question. These sort of two-part questions are very common in the sciences and maths, so this marking method can make quite a difference to your overall grade.
Overall, it is now easier to pass an A-level exam, although the actual exam is no easier. Confusing, isn't it?

Answer 7

A-levels are simply becoming broader, less involved and require less application of knowledge and initiative each year. Teaching and the support services for exam preparation are also improving. Also, its not really that the questions are easier, the course content is just less complicated as well as the questions being more helpful in guiding students to the perfect answer that enables record breaking results year after year.

The way marks are distributed through subsections of questions means that the exam guides students somewhat rather than them having to plan many steps to get to the answer

This is not to take away from the great achievement of current A-level students, indeed the same question was asked the year I sat my A-levels (2001), and I believed even then that older exams were more difficult (having sampled some papers as much as 10 years old)

Really it is not possible that people born a year later will on average be more intelligent every year. I havent observed any evidence of this other than exam results, and find the supposition suspect to the extreme.

Answer 8

It frustrates me when I hear people saying the kids today have it easier and are dumbed down - I agree that mistakes are being made in education but I also feel that the 'pressure to perform' has increased and therefore perhaps the stress is greater as there is now such a push for children to go to uni that they suffer more if they don't 'make the grade.'

And perhaps, if indeed exams are being made easier, exams used to be TOO hard and only a select few - the brightest of the brightest could ever hope to get anywhere.

This is definitely a generation issue. I don't think we should constantly belittle students by arguing that they only pass because exams are easier. I think we should adapt as necessary - for example, now that good grades are more achievable (perhaps) employer requirements are 'on the up' i.e. needing an MA rather than just good o-levels to get the same 'level' job.

Everything is beginning to adjust accordingly - human beings and society are dynamic. We need to appreciate this and support our youngsters regardless of our own opinions as to how clever or 'dumb' they are.

And might I add, to those who are now worldly-wise and so well educated, you have a LIFETIME of experience and general knowledge behind you, these kids are just starting out so how can you expect their knowledge to be the same level as your own? I know I still learn new things every day in all aspects of my life - does that make me less intelligent than you? Not necessarily, perhaps it merely means my education was different and are you really so sure that everything you know now you also knew then? Back when you were just a young whippersnapper? I highly doubt it.

Answer 9

The only people who will disagree with the A levels becoming easier is the students who have just undertaken them. Every body else knows that they are becoming steadily easier as time passes. I took my A levels about 8 years ago and even back then they were really, really easy. Much easier even than GCSEs. I've looked back over some of my dad's old school work and he had to cover much more advanced stuff than we do today. And these days you could take a set of A levels which totally exclude Maths, Science and English - the most difficult of the subjects. An A level in media studies is not hard.
And these days you opt for those subject which you will either enjoy, have an interest in, or find easy. Back in the day, kids had to do subjects that they didn't enjoy and didn't find easy.
I even did general studies as an A level. That's not worthy of any qualification.

I think if the marks in A levels were split out into their component subjects, we'd find that a lot of the excellent passes came in subjects which are just not that hard.

The increase in Excellent marks is probably directly related to the % of students taking the hard core subjects.

Students may think this is hard and that we can't possibly know what we're talking about. But we all thought that once, and then we grew up. (Aha! Dig that one!)

Answer 10

There was the same fuss when GCSE's first came out. People claimed the sudden rise in pass rates were due to the exams being easier. Well they were.

I was in the last year to take O levels. I then went to college and took 5 GCSE's. There was no comparison. They were easier than CSE's.

As Bob R. said, no one is saying that the new A levels are easy, just that they are getting easier. I mean what's the point is 40% of people get an A grade ? It just means you are a bit better than average. It also devalues the grades of previous years. How would you feel if you had gotten an A when only 10% of people achieved that grade ? No wonder universities are increasingly unwilling to accept grades as a measure of the students.