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A Levels and results - does anyone have an opinion relevant to The IET ?

In the news today. This is the pathway to becoming an Engineer for many and considered "equivalent" to having completed a skilled apprenticeship by the educational establishment.

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0 Amber Thomas over 4 years ago

Alasdair Anderson:

I am now getting very confused. For years we have been told that more and more pupils are passing their A levels/getting an A or A* and it has been explained that this is because the teaching is better and not to do with how easy or hard the exams are compared with yesteryear. Now they tell us that the grade boundaries are moved depending on how easy/hard the exam is to ensure that the right number of people pass. What is going on?

I agree it is confusing. And for a topic like maths, where there is a right or wrong answer, I really don't understand how it matters how well or poorly other candidates did and why grades need to be assigned with quotas. Surely the pass marks should stay the same each year, especially in a subject like maths where the answers are less subjective or open to interpretation? I think it is a disservice to any students who got 99% of the answers correct, but on paper achieved no more than a classmate who got 45% of the answers wrong. Many university level STEM courses would require a C grade (or above) in maths, but with the current boundary of just 34% needed to achieve this (ie 66% of their questions were wrong!), it could be argued that they are also receiving a disservice and perhaps these candidates might benefit from re-taking the exam or sitting some sort of top-up paper to improve their level of understanding. If not, they may be unable to keep up with university peers once the course starts which could result in these people dropping out of the course completely.
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0 Amber Thomas over 4 years ago

Alasdair Anderson:

I am now getting very confused. For years we have been told that more and more pupils are passing their A levels/getting an A or A* and it has been explained that this is because the teaching is better and not to do with how easy or hard the exams are compared with yesteryear. Now they tell us that the grade boundaries are moved depending on how easy/hard the exam is to ensure that the right number of people pass. What is going on?

I agree it is confusing. And for a topic like maths, where there is a right or wrong answer, I really don't understand how it matters how well or poorly other candidates did and why grades need to be assigned with quotas. Surely the pass marks should stay the same each year, especially in a subject like maths where the answers are less subjective or open to interpretation? I think it is a disservice to any students who got 99% of the answers correct, but on paper achieved no more than a classmate who got 45% of the answers wrong. Many university level STEM courses would require a C grade (or above) in maths, but with the current boundary of just 34% needed to achieve this (ie 66% of their questions were wrong!), it could be argued that they are also receiving a disservice and perhaps these candidates might benefit from re-taking the exam or sitting some sort of top-up paper to improve their level of understanding. If not, they may be unable to keep up with university peers once the course starts which could result in these people dropping out of the course completely.
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A Levels and results - does anyone have an opinion relevant to The IET ?

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