A Level Results....guess what :-)

[Bing o]

Derek Smith said:

A German who taught English in Germany stayed at a neighbours and I failed to explain to her the difference between 'I believe that is right in principle' and 'I believe that is right on principle'. Whilst she accepted that the person's actions would be, probably, directly contrary to each other, she struggled with the concept of just a change of preposition, in fact just one letter, changing the whole meaning of the sentence.

Edited by Derek Smith on Sunday 21st August 23:11

Exciting times.

[cuneus]

One other factor I've noticed with the incredible increase in attainment is the march of soft subjects:

e.g. Design and Technology, Drama, Sociology, Media Film TV studies, ICT, Performing / Expressive Arts

Just to show my age I didn't even know that you could sit this crap for A level.

[Ten Ninety]

turbobloke said:

Sure you would hope not but...because if the site and its material work as intended it would mean higher grades for their students without any additional effort on their part but for which they would get credit?

One might argue that a teacher claiming credit for a student's achievement as a result of them benefiting from someone else's input is no worse than that teacher being held accountable for a student's failure as a result of circumstances that have equally little to do with their teaching. If we're all going to be the 'football managers' that Gove wants us to be then a bit of undeserved credit is surely all part of the equation?

In any case, using that material 'as intended' is of course perfectly legitimate. The use of exemplar or model answers as a learning tool to help students prepare for examinations can be immensely valuable and has nothing to do with the sort of outright malpractice we've been discussing. Back in the day, my teachers used model answers with me all the time, albeit copied on a Banda machine from last year's top student rather than taken from the internet. That's an entirely different proposition from printing an essay off a website and handing it in as coursework (which, these days, will almost certainly be picked up by the exam board AI anyway.)

cuneus said:

One other factor I've noticed with the incredible increase in attainment is the march of soft subjects:

e.g. Design and Technology, Drama, Sociology, Media Film TV studies, ICT, Performing / Expressive Arts

Just to show my age I didn't even know that you could sit this crap for A level.

Now, this is an interesting one given that we are talking about an 'incredible increase in attainment' i.e. grade inflation. You may be surprised to learn that at A-Level there is something of an 'anomaly' when you look at the statistics. In fact, a much lower percentage of entries are awarded top grades in 'soft' subjects than they are in 'proper' ones.

I can't find data for 2010 (I haven't looked too hard, but I reckon Gove is hiding it ) so here's a few random comparisons from 2009 showing the percentage of students who gained a Grade A in each subject:

ICT (7.7%) vs Mathematics (45.4%)
Media/Film/TV (13.1%) vs English (23.2%)
Business Studies (19.3%) vs Economics (38.5%)
Drama (19.3%) vs Physics (33.0%)

Clearly it would be laughable to suggest that the 'soft' subjects are more intellectually demanding than the academic ones* However, they are not the source of the grade inflation highlighted by the OP. In fact, I would suggest that their introduction over the years has played an interesting role in disguising the true extent of grade inflation across the real academic subjects - if there weren't so many kids 'sitting this crap' at A-Level then we'd be looking at an even greater rise in those subjects which we would recognise as proper A-Levels.

A quick and dirty calculation on the 2009 figures, taking out all the subjects which simply didn't exist when I did my A-Levels, kicks the percentage of Grade As from nearly 27% all the way up to nearly 33%.

* There are reasons why bright children often do worse in 'soft' subjects than 'academic' ones but that's a story for another day.

[Derek Smith]

Ten Ninety said:

ICT (7.7%) vs Mathematics (45.4%)
Media/Film/TV (13.1%) vs English (23.2%)
Business Studies (19.3%) vs Economics (38.5%)
Drama (19.3%) vs Physics (33.0%)

That was fascinating. Thanks for the post.

[turbobloke]

Ten Ninety said:

turbobloke said:

Sure you would hope not but...because if the site and its material work as intended it would mean higher grades for their students without any additional effort on their part but for which they would get credit?

One might argue that a teacher claiming credit for a student's achievement as a result of them benefiting from someone else's input is no worse than that teacher being held accountable for a student's failure as a result of circumstances that have equally little to do with their teaching.

Agreed.

A similar situation - on the positive side - exists with private tuition, of which there is a lot where parents have even the least interest in their children's education. At a guess you are already well aware

[turbobloke]

Derek Smith said:

Ten Ninety said:

ICT (7.7%) vs Mathematics (45.4%)
Media/Film/TV (13.1%) vs English (23.2%)
Business Studies (19.3%) vs Economics (38.5%)
Drama (19.3%) vs Physics (33.0%)

That was fascinating. Thanks for the post.

It sure is, as it reflects the obvious selection bias in the stats where relatively able pupils choose or are allowed to choose certain subjects, and the space fillers choose other subjects.

[Moar]

Just to point out and remind people, in the exam itself there are no mobiles, internets, laptop...just the paper and your brain.

kthxbye

[ChiChoAndy]

Moar said:

Just to point out and remind people, in the exam itself there are no mobiles, internets, laptop...just the paper and your brain.

kthxbye

Just like in real life.

[ChiChoAndy]

Yes, because most kids doing exams have all those things, don't they?

[Derek Smith]

turbobloke said:

Derek Smith said:

Ten Ninety said:

ICT (7.7%) vs Mathematics (45.4%)
Media/Film/TV (13.1%) vs English (23.2%)
Business Studies (19.3%) vs Economics (38.5%)
Drama (19.3%) vs Physics (33.0%)

That was fascinating. Thanks for the post.

It sure is, as it reflects the obvious selection bias in the stats where relatively able pupils choose or are allowed to choose certain subjects, and the space fillers choose other subjects.

This has irritated me to some extent. It has come as a complete surprise. I'm not sure what to make of it. Can the lack of a brain affect your drama results? I've heard some actors talking and it would appear to be a requirement.

My unevidenced belief is that once grading schools by results was brought it a raising of the number of As was a forgone conclusion.

[Caulkhead]

Another New Labour booby trap. Make exams easier year on year and you look good to the electorate. Tories get in and have no easy way of restoring the status quo without it looking like kids got dumber under the current govt.

[Mr POD]

My Lad got 3 A stars as HE predicted. Off to York to design drugs i think he said, (Chemistry).

Worked bloody hard too. I was in tears. Pride does strange things to a old softy, like me.

[turbobloke]

Mr POD said:

My Lad got 3 A stars as HE predicted. Off to York to design drugs i think he said, (Chemistry).

Worked bloody hard too. I was in tears. Pride does strange things to a old softy, like me.

Great news. Nice one Mr POD Jr.

[Use Psychology]

Mr POD said:

My Lad got 3 A stars as HE predicted. Off to York to design drugs i think he said, (Chemistry).

Worked bloody hard too. I was in tears. Pride does strange things to a old softy, like me.

Excellent, he will get, I think, some of the very best Chemistry tuition available. I was at york in various capacities for 10 years, i had a great time. If you/he have any questions feel free to pm me, I was there til very recently.

[Mr POD]

turbobloke said:

Mr POD said:

My Lad got 3 A stars as HE predicted. Off to York to design drugs i think he said, (Chemistry).

Worked bloody hard too. I was in tears. Pride does strange things to a old softy, like me.

Great news. Nice one Mr POD Jr.

Best surprise was my parents giving him £significant£ towards his fees, which they'd saved from my Nan's inheritance. So it's a case of finding the best 3 year fixed rate deal to pay off most of the fee loan at the end.

I knew they'd got something, but you never know until you see the cheque exactly what they mean by "a little something"

[Use Psychology]

just one word of warning - pharmaceutical chemistry is a bad place to be right now, there are not a lot of jobs and most comanies are outsourcing their synthetic chemistry to the far east... chemistry of course as a whole is still strong, nanotechnology is chemistry. new technologies, new materials and new energy generation methods will be rooted in and spring from chemistry, that is the area to be in.

[turbobloke]

Use Psychology said:

just one word of warning - pharmaceutical chemistry is a bad place to be right now, there are not a lot of jobs and most comanies are outsourcing their synthetic chemistry to the far east... chemistry of course as a whole is still strong, nanotechnology is chemistry. new technologies, new materials and new energy generation methods will be rooted in and spring from chemistry, that is the area to be in.

That, or head off to the City and earn a packet

[Petrolhead_Rich]

BrabusMog said:

When were A*'s introduced? I had to settle for 3 A's back in the day.

When everyone started getting A's because exams are getting easier!
/MediaMode

[Wacky Racer]

grumbledoak said:

Kwai Chang Caine said:

Who'd have thought it? This year's kids are cleverer and better educated than last year's!

At this rate we'll soon have a generation of 'highly qualified' Uni students who cannot use a broom the right way up.

They are not getting magically cleverer.

This.

In a few years time you will get an A+ for being able to spell cat and dog.

[fido]

Wacky Racer said:

In a few years time you will get an A+ for being able to spell cat and dog.

A+ - haven't seen one of those in ages. Take that as you wish.