Saturday 29 August 2009

No Entrance

So what if there are "not enough university places for people with good A-levels"? A-level is supposed to be, and used to be, a qualification in its own right. Not a university entrance exam, as which it is not really any good. There is no correlation whatever between A-level grades and classes of degree. Absolutely none. Not even in the same subject. Why should there be?
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8 comments:

  1. Mier29 August 2009 at 19:19

    Sorry, but as with so many other statements on educaion you are factually wrong. There is a correlation. Just like there is between GCSE and A Level.

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  2. perri29 August 2009 at 19:19

    "There is no correlation whatever between A-level grades and classes of degree. Absolutely none. Not even in the same subject. Why should there be?"

    Why should there be? Er, because its the same subject, and so performance at one level is normally a good predictor of performance at that higher level

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  3. David Lindsay29 August 2009 at 19:28

    Always good to hear from the people wo know that they only got into university because there were no grammar schools to let in the children of the poor.

    Mier, there is absolutely no such correlation. Arts courses at good universities now routinely require three As. Some people still get Thirds. If they all had the same grades, then, by your reckoning, they should all get the same class of degree. Presumably, since they all had three As at A-level, the First Class of degree.

    Perri, what a charmingly simple soul you are.

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  4. T29 August 2009 at 19:33

    I don't think Mier was thinking of the places that "now routinely require three As." Do the places he is thinking of give Thirds? I bet they wouldn't dare, the way Oxbridge feel the need to award so many Firsts. Have to justify letting people in to begin with.

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  5. Frank29 August 2009 at 19:39

    Is Mier for real? GCSE and A-level! Has A-level sunk so low that it now has any relationship to GSCE? A-level used to be academic.

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  6. David Lindsay29 August 2009 at 19:43

    Frank, A-level was also a lot harder than the first, and even much of the second, year of a degree.

    I certainly hope that those years are not like that now, if Mier is right and A-level has become nothing more than a glorified GCSE. Thatcher's GCSE should be abolished forthwith.

    No wonder that people are now doing five A-levels. I had been wondering how that was possible. But now, it seems, we know.

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  7. T29 August 2009 at 19:45

    Another thing, those courses that didn't require three As but do now. Mine is like that, I looked it up. In all other respects they would presumably still take the 18-year-old version of me, so standards at A-level must have slipped.

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  8. David Lindsay29 August 2009 at 19:48

    Must have. They would expect the 18-year-old version of you to get three As. Assume it, pretty much.

    Not that that would have made any difference to your class of degree then, or would make any difference to it now. Does everyone on your old course now get a First? Does everyone on your old course now get the same class of degree at all, since they all have the same grades at A-level? Well, there we are, then.

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