Denis McMahon:

 It would be good if we could have a look at some GCE papers of the 1960s for a side-by-side comparison with papers of these days.

More 1970s than 1960s but: it was very interesting when my children were sitting their A levels (around 5-6 years ago). Because they both took Maths and Physics I got involved with trying to help them - it was a very interesting exercise. From memory the standard of knowledge seemed very comparable, but the way the questions were asked was very different - and I would suggest it is much better now. As many students find to their cost, you cannot sit a modern A level paper having brushed up past papers the night before, the questions are very cleverly structured to require you to pull together knowledge from right across the two year course. Because of this you will often hear teachers and parents commenting that the step from GCSEs to A levels is much higher than the step from A levels to university level.


So my (totally unscientific and somewhat based on memory) view was that the technical level of the questions was very comparable, but the structure of the questions made them harder - but also more relevant. Thinking as an employer, I was really impressed with the A level questions. (My children were rather less impressed by them!) But as discussed above there's also the marking scheme to throw into the mix.


The good thing was that I now understand a lot of the maths and physics that I didn't get the first time around (and hadn't learned since, as I hadn't happened to have needed it). With the benefit of experience it was much easier to get my head around it this time - it was quite fun keeping just ahead of my children! 


Cheers,


Andy

Denis McMahon:

 It would be good if we could have a look at some GCE papers of the 1960s for a side-by-side comparison with papers of these days.

More 1970s than 1960s but: it was very interesting when my children were sitting their A levels (around 5-6 years ago). Because they both took Maths and Physics I got involved with trying to help them - it was a very interesting exercise. From memory the standard of knowledge seemed very comparable, but the way the questions were asked was very different - and I would suggest it is much better now. As many students find to their cost, you cannot sit a modern A level paper having brushed up past papers the night before, the questions are very cleverly structured to require you to pull together knowledge from right across the two year course. Because of this you will often hear teachers and parents commenting that the step from GCSEs to A levels is much higher than the step from A levels to university level.


So my (totally unscientific and somewhat based on memory) view was that the technical level of the questions was very comparable, but the structure of the questions made them harder - but also more relevant. Thinking as an employer, I was really impressed with the A level questions. (My children were rather less impressed by them!) But as discussed above there's also the marking scheme to throw into the mix.


The good thing was that I now understand a lot of the maths and physics that I didn't get the first time around (and hadn't learned since, as I hadn't happened to have needed it). With the benefit of experience it was much easier to get my head around it this time - it was quite fun keeping just ahead of my children! 


Cheers,


Andy