I am very pleased for everyone who has done well in their A-levels. Those who haven't should consider that neither this, nor any other academic result, is ever the end of the world.
But if one quarter of all grades awarded are As, then how on earth are those at the very top end supposed to distinguish themselves? And how on earth are universities, which seem to have become the point of A-levels, supposed to spot them?
On the latter point, good for Imperial College, London, which announced in June that it was reintroducing an entrance exam. This is no way devalues A-levels, which were never supposed to be, and did not used to be, merely entrance exams for universities. Rather, it restores A-levels as qualifications in their own right.
After all, there is absolutely no relationship (and I really do mean absolutely none whatever) between A-level results and classes of degree. Universities have admitted on A-level grades only because they had given up setting their own entrance exams, to the detriment both of the A-level system and of universities.
Now we need to restore O-levels for the most academic pupils. And above all, we need to restore grammar schools, but on the German Gymnasium model, thereby avoiding the crudity of the 11-plus.
Alongside the grammar schools would be the technical schools, of which there were never anything like as many as there should have been; the special schools, horrendously Beechingised by that ridiculous Warnock woman; and the Secondary Modern schools, delivering exactly as much academic and technical education as most people really need and can take in, and vastly, vastly better than that which has so very often replaced them.
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"that ridiculous Warnock woman"
ReplyDeleteYou're a nasty, spiteful little man, aren't you?
Not compared to her, no.
ReplyDeleteHaving just received my A-level results today, you might be pleased to hear that featuring prominently was the 'UMS' or uniform mark scheme score (out of 600) for each subject.
ReplyDeleteNow, whilst all UMS marks over 480 equal an 'A', not all 'As' are valued the same: and this is reflected in the references written by the teachers in one's UCAS statement.
Such endorsements (Oxbridge prefer 270/300 at AS and 540/600 at A2 at the very least) are central to differentiation within the 'A' grade.
I hope this clears some things up: Not all A's are equal: some are more equal than others.
Then they shouldn't all be called As, I'm afraid. Trust that you did well.
ReplyDeleteWith reference to the A-level A* grade to come into effect in 2010, but the same principles apply, Geoffrey Alderman wrote in yesterday's Guardian:
"How will schools cope with the new target of the A*? The fear is that while schools in the selective sectors (independent fee-paying and state grammar) will take them in their stride, in the state sector (where the worst form of poverty – poverty of aspiration – is rife) they will not even be attempted. In this scenario, pupils from the selective sectors will take the lion's share of the A*s.
Universities who allocate places on this basis will find that their proportion of students from the state non-selective sectors will fall inexorably. And financial penalties and political opprobrium will surely follow.
Oxford has every reason, therefore, to be wary of the new grade. Currently, undergraduate admissions to Oxford are governed by a number of factors, including performance at subject-related aptitude tests that are set and marked by the university.
Imperial College recently announced that it would be introducing its own institution-wide entrance examination from 2010. Oxford abolished a similar university-wide entrance exam in 1995. But it may now wish to revisit this decision. We can expect other of our world-class universities to follow suit."
Indeed we can. And not before time.